Facts and fiction

KUALA LUMPUR: Blogger Jebat Must Die wrote today that a vocal critic of the Felda Global Ventures Holdings (FGVH) IPO had lied about its prospectus being misleading.

The blogger said he was “quite amused” when Mazlan Aliman of the Association of Felda Settlers’ Children (ANAK) held a press conference in which he said the FGVH prospectus was misleading to the public.

Mazlan was quoted as saying FGVH “is passing off land that it does not actually own, land that will not be given to it as an asset by state governments”.

JMD said “I find it odd when he said that FGVH is passing off land that they do not own because it is clearly said in the prospectus that the lands were not FGVH’s to begin with. The lands were only tenanted by FGV from Felda. And furthermore, this IPO is about the listing of FGVH; it is not about the listing of Felda lands.”

The blogger pointed out that 300,000 hectares (out of 800,000 given to Felda by the government) had not been taken by settlers and continued to be managed by Felda.

“This is the 327,730.06 hectares mentioned in Mazlan’s press coference yesterday,” he said. “The settlers’ lands…are not touched by this IPO venture at all.”

“Thus I believe Mazlan Aliman lied to the public during his press conference yesterday,” JMD said, adding the numbers Mazlan had given with regards to land without titles in Negeri Sembilan were also overstated.

“I am not so sure as to why Mazlan Aliman wanted to make an injunction to stop the listing this Thursday when he was the one misleading the public with his twisted facts and half-truths in the first place,” the blogger said.

JMD said he believed Mazlan’s motives were purely political and have nothing to do with the well-being of the Felda settlers.

“It is to the benefit of Pakatan Rakyat that the settlers and the public in general see that this IPO falls flat on the government’s face,” he said.

“But to deny the settlers of a good deal just because of a narrow and selfish political agenda of Pakatan Rakyat? Moreover, doing it with lies and skewed propaganda? And Mazlan calls himself a leader in an Islamic party?

“I believe they have achieved the lowest of depths in political lynching,” he said.

Mazlan is not the first opposition politician to criticise the FGVH IPO. Rafizi Ramli of PKR previously called FGVH "an evil scheme" that would reduce Felda settlers to minority shareholers.

Bloggers countered Rafizi's remarks, with Datuk Ahirudin Attan writing in his blog Rocky's Bru that "Evil is the scheming going on to stop the IPO and to deny the settlers' children and their children to have a shot at a better life, for them to be able to get out of the little plots that the government opened up years ago so that they could pursue bigger and better opportunities.

Blogger Big Dog has also been a vocal defender of FGVH, which he has said will benefit not only Felda settlers but also Malay professionals and, more broadly, corporate governance.

Source: MOLE