Felda remains under PM Dept until issues resolved - Anwar

Felda will remain under the purview of the Prime Minister’s Department until the main issues faced by the agency and its settlers are resolved.

Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said he will personally monitor Felda’s progress until then, after which the agency will be handed over to another ministry.

“For now, Felda is under the Prime Minister’s Department because there are a lot of problems, and I do not want to resolve them in bits and pieces.

“I have given full responsibility to the new Felda chairperson (Ahmad Shabery Cheek) as I know he has the capability, and he is serious about resolving the issues.

“…and I have told him to strongly push ahead, and if there are problems to let me know. Insya-Allah I will bring about changes to the best of my ability,” Anwar (above) said when officiating the ‘Karnival Segalanya Felda’ in Felda Teloi Timur, Sik, Kedah, today.

The prime minister said Felda has its own history and the main problems facing the agency need to be resolved.

Therefore, he hoped the Felda fraternity, especially the first to the third generation of settlers, will show strong commitment towards this effort.

“…this is because, in this short period of time, I have been trying my best (to resolve the issues).

“No one can criticise this or can deny that in the past eight months, we have addressed, besides the RM8.3 billion waiver for (Felda settler debts), issues concerning internet access, dialysis centres, repair of dilapidated schools, and street lights.

“…decades (of these problems), and how many months have we taken to resolve them? Eight months. Now just imagine if we govern for five years,” he said.

At the end of June, Anwar signed an agreement to waive Felda settlers’ debts totalling RM8.3 billion, as well as an allocation of RM7.7 million a year for the cost of operating street lights, in addition to the construction of 12 hemodialysis centres with an allocation of RM21 million in all Felda regions.

Also present at the event were Home Minister Saifuddin Nasution Ismail and Ahmad Shabery.

- Bernama