I fully agree with Arbibi Ashoy ('Half a million ringgit for each Renong staff', Aug 13) that the government bailout of Renong is for the crony shareholder(s) rather than the employees. But I am astounded that he should have even thought otherwise in the first place.

When Rolls-Royce went bankrupt in Britain in the early 1970s (unfortunately, I was a shareholder), the British government bought it over for one pound sterling to protect the military secrets and, presumably, the employees. To my knowledge, none of the shareholders got anything back, but, equally, none of the employees were retrenched.

Rolls-Royce has since been rehabilitated, re-floated and gone on from strength to strength. Perhaps the Malaysian government in its concern for the employees and citizens of the country can contact the British government or even the company itself (although technically the present Rolls-Royce is not the same company as the Rolls-Royce of yore) on how Renong can be taken over for RM1.