osama
28-08-2003, 07:53 AM
Tuesday, 26-Aug-2003 9:45 AM
Pagar makan padi: The Bernas story
Padiberas Nasional Berhad, better known as Bernas, wants to retrench a couple of thousand of its staff because, according to the company, it is losing money. And the reason it is losing money, laments the company, is due to the rampant rice smuggling.
Actually there is more than meets the eye and it is not as straightforward as they try to make it appear. In the latest issue of Seruan Keadilan out today, the official newspaper of the National Justice Party reveals what is really going on.
Last year, Bernas made a pre-tax profit of RM60 million on a turnover of RM1.76 billion. No doubt the company could argue that this is a drop of 54% from the figure of RM128 million the year before that. Nevertheless, the ‘suffering’ Bernas still saw fit to pay its Directors RM4 million in salaries and its shareholders RM21 million in dividends. That’s RM25 million in all.
If an austerity drive is necessary, should it not be the Directors and shareholders that suffer the cuts first rather than retrench more than 2,000 staff just because the company is not happy with the lower profit it made? And take note, it did still make a profit, though lower, and not a loss as they claim.
Bernas’ profits have been yo-yoing from one year to another. Three years ago it made a mere RM18 million while the year before that it made RM111 million. Its turnover too fluctuates between RM1.7 billion and RM1.9 billion a year, still an impressive enough figure and not one of a company about to go under. In fact, on average, it made RM80 million in profits a year over the last four years, 1999 to 2002.
Bernas is far from floundering if this is the impression the company is trying to give. Bernas, which was given the rice import monopoly for Malaysia, is actually doing great guns acquiring various companies in the food industry. The truth is, Bernas wants to reduce its dependence on the rice industry to 60% by diversifying into other food related businesses. Bernas, to quote what the company says, wants to become another Nestle.
Bernas has set aside RM300 million for these acquisitions. It paid RM55 million to buy a 30% stake in Gardenia and RM14 million for Burger King. It also acquired an interest in Rasa Sayang Food Industries and is said to be making a backdoor entry into Kentucky Fried Chicken for RM110 million. It has also entered into ‘strategic alliances’ with other food conglomerates like QAF Ltd of Singapore and Dewina, a company linked to the Deputy Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi’s family.
(Is Bernas’ ‘strategic alliance’ with Dewina a business move or is it ‘investing’ in the next Prime Minister of Malaysia?)
But is this what Bernas was set up for? Certainly not. Bernas is supposed to ensure that Malaysia’s dependence on rice imports is reduced to 35% or less. This is to ensure that, in the event of a war or a major catastrophe in any of the rice exporting countries like Thailand, Vietnam, China, etc., Malaysia will not be starved of rice – reminiscent of WWII when Malayans then had to eat Tapioca.
Malaysia is the only rice producing country in South-East Asia that is highly dependent on rice imports. Malaysia is at a great security risk and all our neighbours have to do is stop selling us rice and we will be brought to our knees.
And Bernas’ role is to reduce this dependence, but this is not happening. Instead, Bernas wants to transform itself into another Nestle rather than safeguard the needs of Malaysia’s rice consumers and padi farmers. If we want another Nestle there are many other trading giants that can play that role. Why must Bernas dabble in affairs it was not set up to involve in?
By the way, out of curiosity, who are these people who are enjoying this RM25 million per year in Directors’ fees and dividends? The Perlis Chief Minister, Shahidan Kassim, and his immediate family. Incidentally, they are attempting to sell off their stake in the company and may be hundreds of millions of Ringgit richer soon. (More on the Shahidan story tomorrow).
Bernas says that rice smuggling is crippling it. If making RM80 million per year is being crippled then I don’t mind being crippled anytime. Better being crippled with RM80 million in my pocket every year than walking upright but broke to boot.
But who are these smugglers that Bernas is complaining about? According to the rice millers association that has about 300 members, it is the rice importers who are doing all the smuggling. And isn’t the sole importer of rice Bernas itself. Hmm…maybe Bernas is right about the rice smuggling. The question is, who is the one doing it?
The Deputy Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi wants to arrest the rice smugglers under the Internal Security Act. Do I take it there will be a vacancy for the position of Perlis Chief Minister soon?
The TV stations once showed clips of so-called rice smugglers walking across the Malaysian-Thai border. According to a retired Police Inspector, Mansor, these people are merely couriers. They are paid a certain amount for every sack of rice they carry across the border.
“I used to be the Inspector of Rantau Panjang,” said Mansor. “We didn’t bother about these people walking across the border. These people are not smugglers. They are just couriers earning a living. If we stop them from earning a living this way, then they may resort to other means to make a living, like crime.”
True enough, these ‘smugglers’ walk across the border with sacks of rice on their heads right under the noses of the police, immigration and customs officers. And, to the authorities, they are not committing any crime.
“Sometimes we need to take action just to show we are doing our job,” said Mansor. “So we tip off the bosses that we will be making a raid that night. We then agree that they will abandon one or two lorries for us to confiscate.”
“The driver will of course ‘escape’,” said Mansor laughing.
“Once we arrested some of those couriers and guess who came to bail them out?” asked Mansor. “Hussein Ahmad!”
Hussein Ahmad is the kingpin of Umno Rantau Panjang, one-time Minister in Malaysian Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s government who achieved ‘fame’ when he fired a shot during an Umno meeting. He was understandably never arrested nor was his pistol confiscated.
“Zaman Khan’s family is also involved in this business,” revealed Mansor. “His family in fact comes from Golok and they have many businesses there such as hotels and so on.”
“How then to take action when the top guns themselves are involved?” laments Mansor. “If I clamp down I might find myself transferred out of Rantau Panjang super-fast. So we just close our eyes and, once in awhile, stage these ‘successful’ raids and confiscations just to keep everyone quiet.”
“But these couriers are small-time. They just carry one sack across the border. And how many sacks can they carry in a day? It’s the legal importers who are the big-time smugglers. They bring rice in by the containers. And they can do so because they have import permits.”
And the question is, how much rice do they bring in? According to some sources, the ‘imports’ far exceed what their permits allow. This is how the smuggling is done.
And, again I ask, who are these permit holders? No prize for the right guess.
The Malays have a proverb for this, ‘harapkan pagar, pagar makan padi’, which means ‘you depend on the fence, but the fence eats the rice’ or those entrusted to look after the rice are actually those eating the rice.
Fwd:FAC
Pagar makan padi: The Bernas story
Padiberas Nasional Berhad, better known as Bernas, wants to retrench a couple of thousand of its staff because, according to the company, it is losing money. And the reason it is losing money, laments the company, is due to the rampant rice smuggling.
Actually there is more than meets the eye and it is not as straightforward as they try to make it appear. In the latest issue of Seruan Keadilan out today, the official newspaper of the National Justice Party reveals what is really going on.
Last year, Bernas made a pre-tax profit of RM60 million on a turnover of RM1.76 billion. No doubt the company could argue that this is a drop of 54% from the figure of RM128 million the year before that. Nevertheless, the ‘suffering’ Bernas still saw fit to pay its Directors RM4 million in salaries and its shareholders RM21 million in dividends. That’s RM25 million in all.
If an austerity drive is necessary, should it not be the Directors and shareholders that suffer the cuts first rather than retrench more than 2,000 staff just because the company is not happy with the lower profit it made? And take note, it did still make a profit, though lower, and not a loss as they claim.
Bernas’ profits have been yo-yoing from one year to another. Three years ago it made a mere RM18 million while the year before that it made RM111 million. Its turnover too fluctuates between RM1.7 billion and RM1.9 billion a year, still an impressive enough figure and not one of a company about to go under. In fact, on average, it made RM80 million in profits a year over the last four years, 1999 to 2002.
Bernas is far from floundering if this is the impression the company is trying to give. Bernas, which was given the rice import monopoly for Malaysia, is actually doing great guns acquiring various companies in the food industry. The truth is, Bernas wants to reduce its dependence on the rice industry to 60% by diversifying into other food related businesses. Bernas, to quote what the company says, wants to become another Nestle.
Bernas has set aside RM300 million for these acquisitions. It paid RM55 million to buy a 30% stake in Gardenia and RM14 million for Burger King. It also acquired an interest in Rasa Sayang Food Industries and is said to be making a backdoor entry into Kentucky Fried Chicken for RM110 million. It has also entered into ‘strategic alliances’ with other food conglomerates like QAF Ltd of Singapore and Dewina, a company linked to the Deputy Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi’s family.
(Is Bernas’ ‘strategic alliance’ with Dewina a business move or is it ‘investing’ in the next Prime Minister of Malaysia?)
But is this what Bernas was set up for? Certainly not. Bernas is supposed to ensure that Malaysia’s dependence on rice imports is reduced to 35% or less. This is to ensure that, in the event of a war or a major catastrophe in any of the rice exporting countries like Thailand, Vietnam, China, etc., Malaysia will not be starved of rice – reminiscent of WWII when Malayans then had to eat Tapioca.
Malaysia is the only rice producing country in South-East Asia that is highly dependent on rice imports. Malaysia is at a great security risk and all our neighbours have to do is stop selling us rice and we will be brought to our knees.
And Bernas’ role is to reduce this dependence, but this is not happening. Instead, Bernas wants to transform itself into another Nestle rather than safeguard the needs of Malaysia’s rice consumers and padi farmers. If we want another Nestle there are many other trading giants that can play that role. Why must Bernas dabble in affairs it was not set up to involve in?
By the way, out of curiosity, who are these people who are enjoying this RM25 million per year in Directors’ fees and dividends? The Perlis Chief Minister, Shahidan Kassim, and his immediate family. Incidentally, they are attempting to sell off their stake in the company and may be hundreds of millions of Ringgit richer soon. (More on the Shahidan story tomorrow).
Bernas says that rice smuggling is crippling it. If making RM80 million per year is being crippled then I don’t mind being crippled anytime. Better being crippled with RM80 million in my pocket every year than walking upright but broke to boot.
But who are these smugglers that Bernas is complaining about? According to the rice millers association that has about 300 members, it is the rice importers who are doing all the smuggling. And isn’t the sole importer of rice Bernas itself. Hmm…maybe Bernas is right about the rice smuggling. The question is, who is the one doing it?
The Deputy Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi wants to arrest the rice smugglers under the Internal Security Act. Do I take it there will be a vacancy for the position of Perlis Chief Minister soon?
The TV stations once showed clips of so-called rice smugglers walking across the Malaysian-Thai border. According to a retired Police Inspector, Mansor, these people are merely couriers. They are paid a certain amount for every sack of rice they carry across the border.
“I used to be the Inspector of Rantau Panjang,” said Mansor. “We didn’t bother about these people walking across the border. These people are not smugglers. They are just couriers earning a living. If we stop them from earning a living this way, then they may resort to other means to make a living, like crime.”
True enough, these ‘smugglers’ walk across the border with sacks of rice on their heads right under the noses of the police, immigration and customs officers. And, to the authorities, they are not committing any crime.
“Sometimes we need to take action just to show we are doing our job,” said Mansor. “So we tip off the bosses that we will be making a raid that night. We then agree that they will abandon one or two lorries for us to confiscate.”
“The driver will of course ‘escape’,” said Mansor laughing.
“Once we arrested some of those couriers and guess who came to bail them out?” asked Mansor. “Hussein Ahmad!”
Hussein Ahmad is the kingpin of Umno Rantau Panjang, one-time Minister in Malaysian Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s government who achieved ‘fame’ when he fired a shot during an Umno meeting. He was understandably never arrested nor was his pistol confiscated.
“Zaman Khan’s family is also involved in this business,” revealed Mansor. “His family in fact comes from Golok and they have many businesses there such as hotels and so on.”
“How then to take action when the top guns themselves are involved?” laments Mansor. “If I clamp down I might find myself transferred out of Rantau Panjang super-fast. So we just close our eyes and, once in awhile, stage these ‘successful’ raids and confiscations just to keep everyone quiet.”
“But these couriers are small-time. They just carry one sack across the border. And how many sacks can they carry in a day? It’s the legal importers who are the big-time smugglers. They bring rice in by the containers. And they can do so because they have import permits.”
And the question is, how much rice do they bring in? According to some sources, the ‘imports’ far exceed what their permits allow. This is how the smuggling is done.
And, again I ask, who are these permit holders? No prize for the right guess.
The Malays have a proverb for this, ‘harapkan pagar, pagar makan padi’, which means ‘you depend on the fence, but the fence eats the rice’ or those entrusted to look after the rice are actually those eating the rice.
Fwd:FAC