FORMER Felda chairman Shahrir Samad was a competent leader who ultimately failed to shoulder the burden of the agency’s numerous financial controversies, said second-generation Felda settlers’ group, Anak.

Its president, Mazlan Aliman, said Shahrir, who has resigned as Felda chairman, was unfortunate as he was left with too many deep-rooted issues and problems from the previous chairman Isa Samad.

“Although he tried his best to save (the agency), the damage was too big and nothing much could be done,” he said in a statement today.

Shahrir took over Felda’s chairmanship from Isa in January 2017.

In the run-up to GE14, Felda was faced with several corruption allegations, such as the transfer of a multi-million ringgit plot of land on Jalan Semarak, Kuala Lumpur and the inflated purchase price of hotels in London.

Felda Global Ventures also saw a boardroom tussle between Isa and CEO Zakaria Arshad, which ended with Isa leaving the company and later investigated by the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission for transactions related to the London hotels.

Shahrir, meanwhile, failed to defend his Johor Baru parliamentary seat in the May 9 polls, losing to PKR’s Akmal Nasrullah Mohd Nasir.

Shahrir said yesterday he had sent his resignation letter to Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad.

“Seeing as I was elected under the previous government, it is only right for me to relinquish my role in this institution that is being governed by a new government,” he said.

Mazlan said as an “outsider”, Shahrir was burdened with the responsibility of restoring settlers’ trust.

“If we don’t have a soul or sense of understanding of the life of a settler, it will be hard for us to end their predicaments.

“I sympathise with him, I wanted to help him, wanted to have meetings but there was no response until he resigned yesterday,” he said.

More than half of the 51 federal seats in Felda settlements rejected Barisan National in the recent polls.

Of the 26 seats that fell, 19 went to Pakatan Harapan (PH) while PAS picked up seven. The remaining 25 went to BN.

The non-BN parties had more than quadrupled their share of Felda seats from six in 2013 to 26.

In 2013, then-opposition pact Pakatan Rakyat won Dungun, Kulai, Raub, Temerloh, Kuala Nerus and Sungai Siput, with BN winning the remaining 45. – May 15, 2018.