The cabinet, who will be meeting next Wednesday, should set up a billion-ringgit stabilisation fund to help the 200,000 Malaysians, comprising oil palm smallholders, who are hard hit by the palm oil price crisis, an opposition leader suggested today.

DAP chairman Lim Kit Siang said that the fund will help to bring immediate relief and financial assistance to the victims of the unprecedented collapse in palm oil prices.

"(Either they do this) or the Ministers must be deplored as only having time for tycoons like Tajudin Ramli and Halim Saad," he said in a statement.

Malaysia Airlines former chief Tajudin Ramli and Renong Bhd chairman Halim are two businessmen who reportedly received aid in the form of multi-million ringgit 'bailouts' by the government.

Recently, the government bought back Tajuddin's 29.09 percent stake in MAS through Naluri Bhd for RM1.79 billion, a move highly criticised by many quarters.

The government had also bailed out two Light-Rail Transit (LRT) companies, Star and Putra, for RM6 billion, similarly attracting a lot of allegations of cronyism.

Can't pay exam fees

"Why are ministers so insensitive to the poverty and hardships faced by nearly a quarter of a million oil palm smallholders, especially in the Felda and Felcra schemes?" queried Lim.

"The plight of these people had been going on for the past year with the plunge of palm oil prices, to the extent that 600 pupils in Gua Musang were unable to pay for their examination fees," he added.

Lim said the price of palm oil has crashed to below RM700 per tonne as compared with the average of RM2,377.50 per tonne in 1998.

This has badly affected nearly a quarter of a million oil palm smallholders, 72 percent of whom are Felda settlers, 13 percent Felcra, with the balance comprising traditional smallholders, he added.

Lim said that the cabinet had been most irresponsible and remiss in failing to place this urgent matter as an important item on its agenda when it met last Wednesday.

"Umno ministers in particular should publicly apologise to the oil palm smallholders for not giving them the proper priority and concern for their hardship in the past year," said Lim.

"Instead they show greater bias in favour of mega-bailouts like MAS, LRT companies and Time dotCom," he added.