Former Felda Holdings Bhd deputy managing director Kasah Ahwal admitted he was upset with some of the investments that the palm oil giant made.

azlan Testifying at the trial of Felda’s RM200 million defamation suit against former land and cooperatives deputy minister Dr Tan Kee Kwong, Kasah said he could have been emotional when he met the defendant in describing his dissatisfaction.

Tan is being sued for RM200 million by Felda and its subsidiary, Felda Global Ventures Holdings Sdn Bhd, for defamation.

“Having worked with Felda for some time, I was not entirely satisfied as to where it was heading with its investments,” Kasah said.

He named Felda’s purchase of a refinery in China, and a decision on its subsidiary as some of the decisions he told the court that he was not satisfied with.

However, the witness described the words “tak puas hati” (not satisfied) as too strong, but said the exact words, which he wanted to say, was “not happy to some extent”.

Kasah, 59, who seemed to be a whistleblower in providing inside information on Felda to the former deputy minister now turned PKR disciplinary chief, agreed he also related the purchase of Menara Felda to Tan.

The witness denied a question from Tan's lawyer, Ranjit Singh, that he had said “Saya tak tahan lagi” (I cannot stand it anymore) in describing Felda's state of affairs.

However, Kasah admitted that some portions of the news published in Suara Keadilan, which quoted Tan, were inaccurate.

NONE Kasah met Tan ( right ) and had a one hour and 15 minutes discussion at Maju Junction in Kuala Lumpur sometime in June 2010, during which Tan showed him a copy of the Suara Keadilan article which was to be published the next day.

He agreed that he wanted to meet Tan, as he was not satisfied with some of its contents.

“I saw Tan noting some of the things I said at the meeting, but I was not sure whether they were for publication,” he said to questions from Ranjit.

Meting among Najib, Bakke and Nasimuddin

He also related how he got to know from one of his his ex-officers about a purported meeting among the then Deputy Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak, former Felda Holdings managing director Mohd Bakke Salleh and the late Naza Group chairperson SM Nasimuddin SM Amin, who the owner of Naza TTDI, at the DPM's office in Putrajaya on Menara Felda.

“Yes, I was not too happy with the purchase of Menara Felda,” Kasah said, adding that Felda had its own land in Jalan Semarak.

Asked by Ranjit whether he had told anyone that  he was unhappy about the matter, Kasah said he did not bring it up with the Felda board then.

After Kasah completed  his testimony, Felda sought a short adjournment, with its counsel Mahinder Singh Dulku informing the court they wanted time to locate the author of the article, as they had only applied for a subpoena yesterday.

However, Justice Zabariah Yusof disallowed the application, saying the parties knew the trial would go on and that the subpoena should have been applied earlier, before the trial commenced.

“Following this, I will not allow for any adjournment,” she said.

After a short break, Mahinder told the court they would not be calling any other witness.

Ranjit then informed the court that his client Tan would not take the stand as the defence felt he had no case to answer.

Following this, Justice Zabariah fixed next July 20 for submissions.