FORMER Pemandu chief executive officer Idris Jala has defended his recommendation that the Sarawak government has “its own Felda” in the state’s quest to transform its agriculture sector.

He said despite the graft and mismanagement controversy surrounding Felda and its units, Felda Global Ventures Holdings Bhd and Felda Investment Corporation (FIC), the model it used in its agricultural transformation drive was “very successful”.

“Felda, as an agrarian model, is very successful, and without a doubt, if has lifted many small farmers out of poverty over the years.

“Sarawak needs something like that. Large-scale plantations and contract farming.

“Don’t think small. You need to think very big. You need to move from small, self-sufficient farming, but with better management, for sure,” Idris, who is president and chief executive officer of Pemandu Associates, a private consultancy firm specialising in national- and organisational-level turnaround, said when responding to questions on why he had recommended a mismanaged and graft-riddled Felda as an exemplary model at the International Conference on Agriculture and Agro-based Industry Sarawak event in Kuching.

He described the allegations of mismanagement and graft as being “very small”.

Last week, former Felda chairman Isa Samad was detained by the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission in its investigation into FIC’s purchase of hotels in London and Kuching.

The former Pemandu chief executive officer made the recommendation to Sarawak Chief Minister Abang Johari Openg after the latter said his vision for the state’s agriculture sector was that “we become the net exporter of high-quality agricultural produce and products that meet the needs of both the domestic and global markets”.

Abang Johari said such a vision could be achieved only through the transformation of the agriculture sector.

He said for a start, his target was to increase the monthly household income of Sarawak farmers from RM2,750 to at least RM4,000 by 2020.

He said the increase could alleviate poverty in rural areas, which currently stands at 1.6%, and increase the state’s self-sufficiency in food production. – August 21, 2017.