BANGI MP Dr Ong Kian Ming has urged Malaysians to not be fooled into thinking that former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak and UMNO president Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi have the best interest of Employees’ Provident Fund (EPF) members at heart.
To illustrate his point, Ong referred to an incident that took place in June 2015 during the annual general meeting of Felda Global Ventures (FGV).
“The EPF, with a 5% stake in FGV, voiced out serious concerns against the proposed takeover of Eagle High Point (EHP), an Indonesian plantation company owned by a close friend of then prime minister Najib, at an inflated premium of 70%,
The deal was pushed through by the then FGV CEO, no doubt with the approval of Najib, at a cost of RM2.3 bil,” said Ong.
In 2019, the matter was exacerbated when Felda Director General Datuk Dr Othman Omar lodged a police report claiming that Felda was cheated in the purchase of EHP with an inflated price of more than 300%.
Fast forward to November 2021, where Najib reiterated his request for EPF contributors to be able to withdraw another RM10,000 from their accounts via the i-Citra facility “one final time.”
Ong also alleged that Najib made similar requests at the end of December 2021 and again in January 2022, citing the country’s recent floods as supporting argument.
On a similar note, Ong strongly believed that Zahid is following a similar tactic by calling for EPF withdrawals to continue.
“The fact that Najib made his call in November for more EPF withdrawals, right after EPF revealed that 3.6 million account holders have less than RM1,000 in their accounts, out of which two million are Bumiputera members (55%), is an indication that he is not thinking of the long-term interests of EPF contributors, including the Bumiputera community.
“Instead, he is resorting to increase populist and financially-irresponsible ways of appealing to the public, thinking that he can fool them into believing him and his ‘apa malu bossku’ rhetoric,” observed Ong.
“I would not be surprised if they resort to more and more populist measures to fool the rakyat into thinking that they are trying to save the people but in reality, it’s all about trying to save themselves. I sincerely hope that the rakyat won’t be fooled by the popularity stunts of Najib and Zahid.
“I hope that within the UMNO leadership, more reasonable voices can come out to share concerns about these repeated calls for the rakyat to dip into their own EPF savings which would have serious long-term personal implications.
“This is especially for those contributors in the B40 community who will have very little left in their EPF accounts when they retire,” opined Ong. – Jan 5, 2022
