‘Robbing’ from hard working productive Malaysians to give it to the ‘lazy’

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Multiracial national unity and harmony and fair play are “myths” in Malaysia.

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‘Robbing’ from hard working productive Malaysians to give it to the ‘lazy’

KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 18, 2024: Umno president and deputy prime minister Ahmad Zahid’s proposal of setting up a Bumiputra Land Corporation is nothing short of racial discrimination.

Malaysia’s 10^th Prime Minister (PMX) Anwar Ibrahim’s support for Zahid’s proposal makes a mockery of the so-called Madani Unity Government (UG).

It is okay to set up such a corporation to help the Malays but to take away from others or to deprive others to give it to the Malays is just unacceptable.

Help should not discriminate or “rob” from others for the Malays.

Anwar’s often political battle cry that all Malaysians are his “children” or “We are one family” are truly fake.

It is uttered just to win the votes of non-Malays who should put a stop to the nonsense. To quote the writer below, the matter must be nixed in the bud forthwith before it becomes a needless contentious and divisive issue.

It is time for multiracial Malaysians who cherish national unity and harmony to seize the opportunity to teach the bigoted racial and religious Umno a lesson in the Sept 28 Mahkota by-election in Johor by rejecting Umno wholeheartedly:

No News Is Bad News reproduces below what is being shared in social media on the issue:

Anwar Approved Zahid's Proposal of setting up Bumiputra Land Corporation at Bumiputra Economic Convention that all leasehold non Bumi land owners nationwide upon renewal or lease extension will have to surrender 20% of land to Bumiputra Land Corporation before approval . Applicable to all agricultural land of 50 acres and above and industrial / commercial land of  20 acres and above. Will hit major China men companies which own huge tracts of land banks.. 

Anwar quietly approved this proposal to rob off the wealth of the hard working citizen especially the Chinese to be given freely to Bumi*

Zahid's land corporation proposal is insidious, unfeasible.

P Gunasegaram in Malaysiakini - Mar 7, 2024

COMMENT | One proposal announced by no less than Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi went relatively unnoticed at the recently concluded Bumiputera Economic Congress (BEC), where a slew of proposals for helping well-off bumiputera was unveiled.

It could be the most insidious and the one that is most patently unfair to other Malaysian citizens from whom part of their land would be taken away upon the renewal or even extension of leases.

According to Zahid, who is also the rural and regional development minister, the government plans to set up a Bumiputera Land Corporation (Perbadanan Tanah Bumiputera) to preserve land ownership, as part of an effort to strengthen the community by boosting its land ownership.

According to a report quoting Zahid, if the lease size exceeds 50 acres (20.23ha) for agricultural land or 20 acres for industrial use, the proposal calls for 20 percent of the land to be handed back to the government upon lease renewal or extension.

“The creation of a Bumiputera Land Corporation would signify a proactive measure aimed at ensuring a balanced racial demographic, sustaining bumiputera businesses in agriculture, industry, and new settlements, and preserving bumiputera ownership,” he said.

Zahid envisaged that the returned portion of land would be then overseen by the corporation.

“I am confident that this initiative holds the potential to yield substantial returns and significant opportunities for bumiputera to possess a stake in the nation's land assets,” he added.

Tremendous implications

One hopes that this badly conceived scheme is still at the proposal stage and will not see the light of day. The implications are tremendous. Note that all agricultural land above 50 acres will come under this and 20 acres for industrial land.

If you had a small plantation of 50 acres growing oil palm for instance, and if you were non-bumiputera (I’m assuming this stipulation does not apply to bumiputera companies) you have to give up 10 acres upon lease renewal or even a mere extension.

That means you will lose too the yearly output that you get because the area planted will be reduced by 10 acres. The amount of fresh fruit bunches decreases by 20 percent and so will your revenue. Profit may decrease even more than that because of loss of economies of scale.

Let’s say down the road you have an oil palm mill, logistics centre and office premises amounting to 20 acres, you suddenly have to carve out four acres for allocation to the Bumiputera Land Corporation.

Presumably, the corporation will hand it over to a privileged bumiputera who can then sell it back to the original lessor for a huge premium. What a quick and easy way to make money and for the government to hand out patronage to its own people.

It beats even approved permits and rivals that infamous 30 percent bumiputera equity stipulation.

Something like this could only have been conceived by an Umno minister who will have the necessary audacity, the sense of entitlement and the complete lack of ethical behaviour to suggest such a one-sided deal.

Imagine the kind of havoc it will cause - factories, offices, plantations, food production etc. Right now, almost all leases are automatically renewed on the payment of a premium and business continuity is assured.

Let’s take Malaysia’s largest plantation - Sime Darby - which has an estimated planted acreage of 730,000 acres in Malaysia. Sime Darby may not be considered a bumiputera company because of its diverse shareholders.

That would mean that it will eventually have to give up 20 percent of its plantations in Malaysia or 146,000 acres. Using a very conservative estimate of RM10,000 per acre, that alone is worth RM1.46 billion. Potentially, billions of ringgit of properties are involved across all businesses.

The result of this ill-considered move to surrender 20 percent of larger tracts of land upon lease renewal or extension is a huge business disruption and the abuse of allocation of land to privileged bumiputera, two things we really don’t need.

Unless strictly necessary, leases are not normally terminated or withdrawn. This practice ensures fairness to all landowners and assurance that businesses of all kinds have reasonable certainty that they can operate in a system which is fair, equitable and reasonable.

Why, the move could be even against the Federal Constitution that stipulates that everyone is treated equally under the law. It implies that people cannot have their property taken away through any process and then redistributed to others.

Zahid’s proposal should be nixed in the bud forthwith before it becomes a needless contentious and divisive issue. 

P GUNASEGARAM says proposals should be vetted for fairness and feasibility before they are made public.