FELDA : The smell of easy money? (Part 1)

by Dr R@28

• Until Perkasa demonstrated against Dato’ Dzulkifli Abd Wahab, I paid very little attention in issues surrounding Felda. Perkasa action forces to me to interview prominent people read and understand the issues surrounding the organization. Now I know the game plan of the politician. For certainty, the settlers will ultimately be the losers if BN is allowed to rule in the next 5 years, as it appears that they have made their mind on what they want and how they want it to be done. Clearly, the best interest of the settlers is the last thing on the mind of the politicians. To understand the whole issue, one need to understand the structure and the personalities behind Felda.

• First we have the authority that is called FELDA (Federal Land Development Authority). This is a Malaysian government agency handling the resettlement of rural poor into newly developed areas. It focuses on opening smallholder farms growing cash crops. In the early days, the various resettlements created were made in the form of cooperatives where the settlers do not own the land but own shares in the cooperative. The cooperative, Koperasi Felda (KPS) is the landowner. The scheme change at a later date when settlers insist that they are should be the owners of the land that they had toiled. The office bearers of KPS must be settlers or children of settlers. That is part of the organization charter.

• On the 6^th September 1995, Felda Holdings was incorporated and it became a public company on 3^rd October 2003. Under the incorporation arrangement, the cooperative became an investment agency for the settlers. It owns 51% of Felda Holdings. The cooperative is now known as Koperasi Permodalan Felda (KPF). The balance 49% is owned by Felda Global Ventures, a company that is owned by the FELDA, the Authority. The whole structure appears to be confusing because everything from the authority to the cooperatives and the holding is called Felda. The line separating them is very vague.

• Felda Holdings Bhd is a holding company established on 6^th September 1995. Its principal activities mainly in oil palm plantations, palm oil downstream business, manufacturing and services. It managing over 550,000 hectares of land belonging to settlers. It provides technical advisory and support services for all the Felda Group’s agricultural pursuits. In total this involves some 300 estates, 70 palm oil mills, 7 refineries, 4 kernel crushing plants, 13 rubber factories, manufacturing plants and several logistic and bulking installations situated throughout Malaysia and in various locations overseas.

• With ONE aim, Bandai move FELDA Authority and KPS under the PM department. Najib was given the responsibility to supervise the whole operations. In 2011, Isa Samad was made the chairman of FELDA Authority and Felda Holdings. Since there is a strong opposition in KPF, Isa Samad wants to control KPF by being the chairman of KPF. Once this happen, then Felda, as we know it will disappear forever. I will write more about the deceiving plan in the next post? It would be about money!