Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad said it was necessary for the government to bail out Renong Bhd because the welfare of the 18,000 Renong workforce was at stake. The PM criticised the so-called western notion that weak companies should be allowed to perish.

Thus the bailout of Renong is to benefit the 18,000 employees who work in Renong-owned companies. At first I thought that the PM's explanation was logical and correct. After all, the employees should be taken care of. So I took out my calculator. I divided the bailout figure of around RM10 billion (the sum total of bailouts of Renong dating back to November 1997, according to Prof KS Jomo) by the number of Renong employees.

The amount came to more than half a million ringgit. This means that the cost per employee of bailing out Renong is RM555,555. Wouldn't it better that the RM555,555 be given to each employee rather than to bail out Renong? Shouldn't the prime minister give the option to each Renong employee whether he or she would prefer half a million ringgit or to continue working at Renong?

The truth is that bailing out Renong does not benefit the employees. It only benefits the shareholders, most notably Halim Saad.