Place: Felda Jelai

Time: 11pm

Date: ‎ March 14, 2017

FELDA settlements are called Barisan Nasional strongholds for a reason. Even during the worst times, settlers stuck with the ruling coalition, grateful to the government for opening up large tracts of land across the country for rubber and palm oil cultivation.

For example, the Tampin parliamentary and Gemas state seats have been a fixed deposit for Umno. Even in the aftermath of the sacking of Anwar Ibrahim in 1998 and the fallout of the Malay vote, Umno comfortably won the Tampin and Gemas seats in the 1999 elections, thanks to the voters in Felda Jelai.

But the opposition believe that they have a secret weapon in Dr Mahathir Mohamad. Pakatan Harapan believe that the former prime minister will be able to win the trust of older settlers and in doing so, breach the BN stronghold in Felda settlements across the peninsula.

Some 60 parliamentary seats have significant Felda settlements. ‎Hence, anyone wanting to shake Najib Razak’s hold on power must take a serious stab at the Felda vote bank.

On March 14, Dr Mahathir made one of his regular forays into the Felda heartland. For a man used to speaking at Davos in Switzerland and at the cavernous Putra World Trade Centre, this was quite a come down.

The crowd of 1,000 was gathered under two tents, the kind rented out for weddings, and a single generator powered the sound system and fluorescent tubes.

The turnout was good given that the doctor had to contend with several last-minute ceramah in the local mosque and surau. There was also a ‎ “wayang pacak” in the town area.

Knowing who his audience was, Dr Mahathir went for the jugular and explained why he had chosen to partner his “musuh ketat” in Pakatan Harapan.

“I love Umno also. Almost 60 years I have been in the party, from our struggle against the Malayan Union till now. But the rot in BN today is impossible to overcome, short of kicking them out of the government,” he told the crowd.

“We tried three times to remove the prime minister but all the efforts failed. This is our last chance to remove Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s BN,” he added.

A check with the crowd suggested that their biggest bugbear was the introduction of the goods and services tax and the plunging palm oil prices.

The GST had caused the cost of living to shoot up, many in the crowd believed.

‎Nizam, who is looking after his parents’ oil palm lot, was also sore over the listing of Felda Global Ventures. 

“When they listed the company a few years back, they told us that we would not need to repay the loans given to us. Now, they want us to repay the loans. And although it’s only RM50 a month, it leaves a bitter taste in the mouth,” said the 42-year-old. – April 3, 2017.