KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 20 — Celebrity chef Datuk Redzuawan Ismail today lambasted Datuk Seri Najib Razak for boasting about Barisan Nasional’s (BN) contributions to Felda settlers.
Malaysiakini quoted a rather incensed Redzuawan, who is popularly known as Chef Wan, as saying he would slap the Pekan MP over the remark he reportedly made on Friday, while campaigning for BN in Sungai Koyan.
The news portal reported Friday that Najib had reminisced about how several Felda settlers had approached him to complain about their low earnings.
He reportedly claimed that the settlers now earn as little as RM74 a month, and blamed Pakatan Harapan (PH) for the low commodity prices and for allegedly failing the community.
“I tampar muka Najib tu, kurang ajar! (I would slap Najib’s face, disrespectful!)
“What do I worry? It was our tax money (that he distributed), tell him that,” the news portal quoted the celebrity chef saying.
Redzuawan also reportedly expressed anger at Najib for placing Tan Sri Mohd Isa Abdul Samad to helm Felda, despite the latter’s allegedly tainted past.
Mohd Isa was charged in November last year, after investigations by the Malaysia Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) into an overpriced purchase by Felda, of a hotel in Sarawak.
“Yes, it was a better life when you gave the Felda people all sorts of things, but the next day you stole from us until the agency went bankrupt!
“How could you let Felda be mismanaged like that? Come on!
“You put (former Felda chairperson) Mohd Isa Samad up there knowing that he is so corrupted, with all kinds of sh*t he has done before.
“If I had him here I would slap him (Isa),” Redzuawan reportedly said further.
Mohd Isa became Felda chairman in 2011 and stepped down in January 2017 after the agency suffered financial losses.
At the end of June last year, Felda’s debt stood at RM8 billion.
On November 30, FGV Holdings Berhad, a subsidiary under Felda, also sued Mohd Isa and its former chief executive Datuk Mohd Emir Mavani Abdullah over the purchase of two luxury condominium units allegedly for above market price.
In the lawsuit filed in the High Court in Kuala Lumpur, FGV blamed the duo for losses suffered as a result of their alleged failure to discharge their “fiduciary duty, duty of fidelity and/or duty to exercise reasonable care, skill and diligence”.
