Zahid's land corporation

*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

https://www.malaysiakini.com/columns/698505

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.

评论 | 副首相艾哈迈德·扎希德·哈米迪宣布的一项提案在最近结束的土著经济大会（BEC）上相对未被注意到，会上公布了一系列帮助富裕土著的提案。

这可能是最阴险的，对其他马来西亚公民来说也是最不公平的，他们的部分土地将在续签甚至延长租约时被剥夺。

兼任乡村及区域发展部长的阿末扎希表示，政府计划成立土著土地公司（Perbadanan Tanah Bumiputera）来保护土地所有权，作为通过提高土地所有权来加强社区的努力的一部分。

根据扎希德的报道，如果农业用地的租赁面积超过50英亩（20.23公顷）或工业用地超过20英亩，该提案要求在续租或延期时将20%的土地交还给政府。

他说：“土著土地公司的成立将意味着一项积极主动的措施，旨在确保种族人口平衡，维持土著在农业、工业和新定居点的业务，并维护土著所有权。”

阿末扎希设想，归还的部分土地将由该公司监管。

他补充说：“我相信，这项举措有可能带来丰厚的回报，并为土著拥有持有国家土地资产的重要机会。”

巨大的影响

人们希望这一构思糟糕的计划仍处于提案阶段，不会出现。 其影响是巨大的。 请注意，所有 50 英亩以上的农业用地都将归入此范围，20 英亩的工业用地将归入此范围。

例如，如果您有一个占地 50 英亩的小种植园，种植油棕，并且如果您是非土著（我假设此规定不适用于土著公司），您必须在续租时放弃 10 英亩，甚至仅仅放弃 扩大。

这意味着您也将损失您获得的年产量，因为种植面积将减少 10 英亩。 新鲜果串的数量减少了 20%，您的收入也会减少。 由于规模经济的损失，利润可能会下降得更多。

假设在路上你有一个油棕加工厂、物流中心和办公场所，占地 20 英亩，你突然必须划出 4 英亩分配给土著土地公司。

据推测，该公司会将其交给享有特权的土著，然后土著可以以巨额溢价将其卖回给原始出租人。 这是一种多么快捷简单的赚钱方式，也是政府向本国人民提供资助的方式。

它甚至击败了已批准的许可证和竞争对手臭名昭著的 30% 土著股权规定。

只有巫统部长才能构想出这样的事情，他必须有必要的胆识、权利感和完全缺乏道德行为来提出这样一项单方面的协议。

想象一下它将造成什么样的破坏——工厂、办公室、种植园、食品生产等。目前，几乎所有租约都会在支付溢价后自动续签，并且业务连续性得到保证。

以马来西亚最大的种植园——森那美（Sime Darby）为例，该种植园在马来西亚的种植面积估计为 730,000 英亩。 由于股东多元化，森那美可能不被视为土著公司。

这意味着它最终将不得不放弃马来西亚 20% 的种植园，即 146,000 英亩。 以每英亩 10,000 令吉的非常保守估计，仅此一项就价值 14.6 亿令吉。 所有业务都可能涉及数十亿令吉的财产。

这种在续租或延期时交出 20% 大片土地的考虑不周的举措，其结果是造成巨大的商业混乱，并滥用土地分配给享有特权的土著，这是我们真正不需要的两件事。

除非绝对必要，否则租约通常不会终止或撤销。 这种做法确保了对所有土地所有者的公平，并保证各类企业有合理的确定性，他们可以在公平、公正和合理的体系中运营。

为什么，此举甚至可能违反联邦宪法，该宪法规定每个人在法律下受到平等对待。 这意味着人们不能通过任何程序夺走自己的财产，然后重新分配给他人。

阿末扎希的提议应该在它成为不必要的争议和分裂问题之前立即被扼杀在萌芽状态。

P GUNASEGARAM 表示，提案在公开之前应经过公平性和可行性审查。