FELDA settlers and their descendants are urged to check how much they owe the federal land agency for taking part in a replanting scheme, said an activist who is part of a group aiming to challenge the agreements in court.

Mazlan Aliman, who heads Felda setter group ANAK, said an accurate picture of the settlers’ debts would strengthen the court case.

“Each settler should check with Felda if they owe the agency money for the replanting scheme, and if so, how do much they owe?” Mazlan told The Malaysian Insight.

Malzan’s comments come as lawyers plan to take Felda to court over what they claim are lopsided agreements that favour the agency.

Pakatan Harapan politicians want to turn the deals into an issue that could sway the Felda vote, which impacts 56 parliamentary seats in the peninsula – most of which are held by Barisan Nasional.

There are 112,635 Felda settlers, not including their wives and children.

One of the lawyers studying the agreement, Dr Zulqarnain Luqman said, 95% of the settlers signed a contract with Felda in the 2000s so that the agency could replant the smallholdings.

He said Felda crafted an agreement where settlers would relinquish management of their estates to the agency so that it could replant the land with oil palm trees.

It took about three years to replant and for the trees to mature, during which the smallholdings did not produce yields. During this period, each settler was paid an allowance of RM1,500 per month.

At the end of the three years, when the trees started to bear fruit, Felda continued to manage the settlers’ holdings, including maintaining the trees and harvesting the fruit, said political analyst Hisomuddin Bakar, the son of a settler from Felda Chini in Pahang.

“Felda did not return their holdings to the settlers because it claimed the settlers needed to repay the cost of replanting which ran into hundreds of thousands of ringgit,” Hisomuddin said.

Mazlan of Anak said many settlers had taken back management of their holdings from Felda as they were disappointed with the agency’s poor yields.

He said those who managed the holdings themselves were producing better monthly harvests and had lower debts.

Mazlan claimed that originally, settlers would be given the titles to their holdings after 20 years in Felda.

“The replanting agreement allowed Felda to bind the settlers to the agency through new debts that can be passed on to their children and grandchildren.”

“When their debts are high, they have less take-home pay. This is because the  repayment instalments are cut from the settlers’ monthly income, which Felda pays for their harvests.”

Felda was created by second prime minister Abdul Razak Hussein in 1956 as a way to eradicate poverty by giving landless peasants in then Malaya a way to earn an income.

Academic Khor Yu Leng said overall, Felda has resettled 120,000 families throughout the peninsula into smallholdings totalling 470,000ha.

The agency also manages an additional 340,142ha in commercial oil palm plantations.

In the 1990s, Felda’s success drew international accolades for being a successful poverty eradication initiative.

But the scheme’s huge population has also been an important vote bank for Umno, the lynchpin of the ruling BN.

Felda settlers contribute significant voting blocs in 56 parliamentary seats throughout the peninsula, especially in Pahang, Johor, Negeri Sembilan, Selangor and Kelantan.

Former Umno information chief Ahmad Maslan had said that 9% of the total 13 million voters in 2010 live in Felda settlements. – November 23, 2017.