'Felda stealing from its settlers'

Felda settlers are finding themselves poorer than ever, claimed PKR.

“For many years, settlers only had to pay RM40 to Felda every month for (oil palm) replanting purposes,” said Suhaimi Said, PKR Felda bureau chairman.

“But (we heard) in July this figure had been raised to RM120.”

According to PKR, Felda settlers are required to hand over RM40 to Felda every month over a number of years.

After this timeframe, an amount (of about RM17,000) was then returned to the respective settler for them to replant oil palm trees.

PKR alleged that the settlers have only received half of the total amount (about RM8,000) for replanting purposes. The rest, Suhaimi claimed, was taken by Felda.

Suhaimi said that other compulsory monthly payments, including a RM60 village beautification fee, would further strain the budgets of Felda settlers nationwide.

He also alleged that settlers received a RM1,500 loan from Felda every month in the guise of a monthly income. As a result, he said many settlers owed Felda thousands of ringgit.

Suhaimi also told FMT that Felda's recent “duit raya” payment to its 112,635 settlers did not come from Felda's coffers, but from the pockets of the settlers.

To add insult to injury, Subang MP R Sivarasah alleged that Felda chairman Mohd Yusof Noor paid himself an annual salary of RM2 million.

Suhaimi alleged that this was one of the reasons why many settlers were giving up on Felda.

Against the law

In a related development, human rights lawyer, N Surendan, claimed that it was against the law for statutory bodies such as Felda to take legal action against its critics.

He also said he had never seen a similar example in Malaysia's legal history.

"Felda is behaving like an aggrieved individual," he said. "Can it act this way just because someone is criticising them?"

When asked about Felda's RM200 million suit against PKR and its newspaper, Suara Keadilan, Surendran said that the case had yet to be filed in court.

PKR also denied charging 766 Negri Sembilan Felda settlers RM500 each for legal advice in the latter's RM200 million suit against Felda.

Answering to accusations made by Felda chairman Yusof Noor, Sivarasah said that the correct amount was RM50 each.

Sivarasah also alleged that the 766 settlers had come to PKR party leaders before Felda's alleged bankruptcy was even raised.

Adding that the party had met with these settlers during the recent Hulu Selangor by-election, Sivarasah advised Yusof to be more careful with his accusations and not to politicise the issue.

courtesy of FMT