This article first appeared in The Edge Malaysia Weekly on August 21, 2017 - August 27, 2017

AROUND Christmas last year, former Federal Land Development Authority (FELDA) chairman Tan Sri Mohd Isa Abdul Samad was in Europe when he was summoned back urgently.

He had the unenviable task of signing the papers for FELDA’s acquisition of a 37% stake in Indonesian plantation company PT Eagle High Plantations Tbk from Tan Sri Peter Sondakh’s Rajawali group.

The price tag was a whopping US$505 million (RM2.26 billion) or a 95% premium to Eagle High’s last closing share price at the time. Sondakh is known to be close to top Malaysian government officials.

“What he could not do with FGV (Felda Global Ventures Holdings Bhd, in which FELDA has a 34% stake), he did with FELDA. I never expected to see him in this situation,” an aide says of Isa.

The aide was referring to FGV’s attempt to acquire Eagle High, which was thwarted because of unfavourable inputs from FGV’s advisers JP Morgan, Bank of America and KPMG as well as objections by some minority shareholders.

With most financial institutions shying away from the deal, FELDA had to get financing from the government to buy the Eagle High stake.

Nevertheless, since he helped push through the acquisition, it has all been downhill for Isa.

In early January, a few days after he signed the Eagle High deal, Isa was replaced by Johor Baru Member of Parliament Tan Sri Shahrir Abdul Samad as FELDA chairman. However, he kept his chairman’s post at FGV.

In June, a spat with FGV CEO Datuk Zakaria Arshad saw the CEO being suspended and Isa taken out of the company. Tan Sri Sulaiman Mahbob was appointed acting chairman.  Surprisingly, despite  all the controversy, Isa was made acting Land Public Transport Commission (SPAD) chairman. Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak even said the SPAD appointment was reward for his work at FELDA. And now, barely two months later, Isa has been arrested by the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) over FELDA’s wholly owned Felda Investment Corp Sdn Bhd’s (FIC) payments for the acquisitions of two hotels — Park City Grand Plaza in Kensington, London, and Merdeka Palace Hotel & Suites in Kuching, Sarawak .

FIC is reported to have paid some RM330 million for the London asset, overpaying by at least RM110 million, and forked out RM160 million for the Kuching hotel, supposedly overpaying by RM50 million in 2014.

So, how does it work? Was Isa alone responsible for the hotel acquisitions? Was there no due diligence done? Were there no advisers or anyone else involved in the decision-making?

MACC should clarify all this and explain if Isa is solely responsible when all acquisitions have to be approved by the board.

Apart from Isa, two other individuals — a chief corporate adviser and a director of a real estate agency — have been detained for allegedly manipulating the purchase price of one of the hotels.

All a sandiwara?

Reactions have been mixed, with certain quarters suggesting that Isa’s future is bleak while others see it as a mere election ploy by the government.

Many questions have also cropped up, such as why such a huge misdemeanour was missed by the auditor general?

In one of the few mentions of FELDA, the auditor general’s report in 2013 indicated that the agency made 160 procurements worth RM3.6 million between 2010 and 2012 without the approval of its tender committee.

This seems like a pittance compared with what Isa is being investigated for.

One corporate personality says, “This is all a sandiwara. It’s all part of an election ploy to show that the government is doing something, coming down hard on corruption.”

He adds that once the election is over, Isa will walk free.

Others liken Isa’s case to that of former land and cooperative development minister Tan Sri Kasitah Gaddam. He was acquitted in 2009 of corruption and cheating. Kasitah was charged when former prime minister Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi first came to power and vowed to clean things up.

Others, however, says Isa’s name is now tarnished and he seems to have taken a beating worse than when he was suspended from Umno for six years in 2005 when the party accused him of indulging in money politics.  

“The pictures of him in the orange MACC garb are damaging,” says one Umno watcher.

There is a likelihood that Isa may have made enemies of some powerful Umno-linked personalities. The way Isa’s pictures has been played up in certain blogs and news portals indicates that the knives are out for him.

Although Isa does have  grassroots support in Negeri Sembilan, some believe the battle-hardened politician may find it tough to make a second comeback given the current public mood against corruption and abuse of power.

But then again, one can never rule out anything in the rough and tumble world of politics where horse-trading and, yes, sandiwara are the norm.

Save by subscribing to us for your print and/or digital copy.

P/S: The Edge is also available on Apple's AppStore and Androids' Google Play.