FELDA has defended its controversial replanting agreement with settlers, with its chairman Shahrir Samad saying the government agency needed to protect its investment.

Shahrir told The Malaysian Insight the state plantation operator would  go to court to defend the agreement, which settlers said was lopsided and keep them in debt for a long time.

He said if the agreement seemed biased, it was because Felda was providing the funds for the replanting.

The Felda chairman was responding to allegations by settlers, politicians and lawyers who claimed the agreement was biased and had burdened the settlers with large debts.

Pakatan Harapan (PH) politicians hope to take advantage of the issue that can swing the Felda vote, which has an impact on 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.

Anger at the agency has seen first- and second-generation settlers turn out in large numbers for ceramah by opposition heavyweights such as Pakatan Harapan chairman Dr Mahathir Mohamad.

Shahrir said the Mahathir administration would not have managed Felda like the Najib administration.

He said the the former prime minister would have privatised Felda if he was in power.

“However, we are not like that. we want to do our job which is to protect the settlers’ interests,” he said.

He said Felda’s success as a land reform scheme had caught the attention of world leaders who wanted to implement it in their own  countries.

“However they failed in their countries because they lacked the political will that we have,” said Shahrir.

Shahrir said Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte and three ministers from Indonesia had asked him about Felda.

Shahrir acknowledged that Felda had a few flaws but said the agency was improving itself to gain the confidence of financial institutions.

He admitted that Felda had debts and that was why it had sold off its property in Bayswater in London.

Shahrir said he was positive the sale would benefit the statutory body which managed more than 110,000 settler families in the country.

“We had a hotel in London, we sold it off. Why do we need a hotel in London? 

“We sold it off because we do have debt issues. When we have the funds, we’ll buy assets. However, when we don’t, we’ll sell it off.

“If we have a Ferrari, why don’t we sell it first before taking a loan from the bank?” – November 25, 2017.