Political element appears to be in favour of Zakaria

Zakaria:

PETALING JAYA: One of the factors that weighs in favour of Datuk Zakaria Arshad of Felda Global Ventures Holdings Bhd (FGV) is that he is popular among the settlers and that he is a son of a settler.

As the government rolls up its sleeves in preparation for the general election, one of the key matters that it has to resolve is with regards to the leadership in FGV because it is the plantation company that deals with settlers who are majority of the voters in no less than 50 parliamentary constituencies.

“When it comes to Felda and FGV, the decision making is not only based on commercial reasons. Political sentiments also play a big role,” said a source.
 
Towards this end, FGV has been without a president and chief executive as Zakaria has been told to go on leave since early June by the board headed by previous chairman, Tan Sri Mohd Isa Samad.
 
Apart from Zakaria, three others including FGV’s chief financial officer Ahmad Tifli Mohd Talha were told to go on leave by the board pending investigations into the dealings of one of the subsidiaries.
 
Three of the four have already been told to resume duties, leaving only Zakaria out of the picture. This is because the government as the holder of the golden share in FGV, has the sole prerogative to appoint or remove the president and CEO of FGV. 
 
“So far FGV is unable to decide pending the decision from the government. One of factors in favour of Zakaria is that he is popular with settlers as he is `Anak Felda’.
 
“Another is that the FGV board is now headed by a professional and non-politician. Zakaria is also a non-politician. It works well if the government wants to send the message that it wants to de-politicise the management of FGV,” said a source.
 
Datuk Wira Azhar Abdul Hamid was appointed as the new chairman of FGV on Sept 8 and since then the executives who were told to go on leave have resumed duties except Zakaria.
 
It is believed that the investigations on the dealings between FGV’s subsidiary, Delima Oil Products Sdn Bhd and a long-term business partner based in Afghanistan, Safitex Trading LLC were completed early last month.