This article first appeared in The Edge Malaysia Weekly on December 9, 2019 - December 15, 2019

Last month, the Federal Land Development Authority (FELDA) and its subsidiary, Felda Investment Corp Sdn Bhd (FIC), filed a suit against 21 parties in an attempt to cancel land ownership transfer instruments for 24 parcels of land in Jalan Semarak, Kuala Lumpur, measuring a total of 20.66 acres.

The 21 defendants include property development company Synergy Promenade Sdn Bhd, former FELDA chairmen Tan Sri Mohd Isa Abdul Samad and Tan Sri Shahrir Abdul Samad; former FELDA director-generals Datuk Faizoull Ahmad, Datuk Hanapi Shuhada and Datuk Ab Ghani Mohd Ali; former Felda Land director Shahrizal Mohd Saleh; and the director of the Federal Territories of Lands and Mines Kuala Lumpur.

The suit also named as defendants former FIC CEO Mohd Zaid Abdul Jalil and Synergy Promenade directors Abd Rahman Soltan and Noraini Soltan.

In addition to court orders to cancel all transfer instruments, FELDA and FIC are also seeking compensation for breach of fiduciary duty.

The RM1.062 billion in damages sought represents the commercial value of the Jalan Semarak land had it been sold on the market. This does not include other damages that include commercial opportunity losses amounting to RM562 million.

The 24 land parcels were sold to Synergy Promenade in 2015. Reports in 2017 suggested that the land was worth at least four times what it had been transacted for at the time.

While the legal action is deemed necessary to hold the relevant parties to account for any wrongdoing and attempt to recover FELDA’s rights on behalf of the settlers its represents, it is noteworthy that the lawsuit did not name as defendants all the FIC board members then.

After all, in any company, the buck stops with the board of directors. In this case, shouldn’t FIC’s board members be asked hard questions on what had transpired?

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