FELDA settlers are hoping that Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin will move to mend ties with Malaysia’s biggest buyers of palm oil, India and China, so that they purchase more of the commodity.

In interviews with 10 settlers from Felda schemes in Selangor, Johor, Pahang and Perak, the majority blamed former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad for making things worse for the local palm oil industry.

They accused Dr Mahathir of angering India last October, leading to the South Asian nation curbing imports of palm oil products from Malaysia.

But some settlers also praised the Pakatan Harapan administration for producing a white paper outlining Felda’s problems, and expressed hope that Perikatan Nasional will act on the proposals.

“When Dr Mahathir fought with China and India, we saw the price of palm oil go down,” said Abu Bakar, a settler from Felda Sg Tengi Selantan in Hulu Selangor.

“When India restricted buying palm oil, the price went down to RM300 per tonne (for fresh fruit bunches),” said the 76-year-old.

“When PH just became the government, Dr Mahathir fought with China and did not want to continue the train (East Coast Rail Link) project. When China did not want to buy our palm oil, we smallholders suffered from the price drop.”

Under PH’s 22-month rule, the commodity peaked at RM600 per tonne, said Abu Bakar.

“The lowest recorded price was RM300 per tonne. What are we going to eat?”

Palm oil is currently trading at RM460 per tonne, lower than the RM590 recorded last December.

In early January, India imposed restrictions on refined palm oil imports from all countries, a move said to protect its own domestic seed oil refiners.

It still imports crude palm oil (CPO), but the decision will adversely affect Malaysia because the country exports more processed palm oil than CPO to the South Asian nation.

Local palm oil players criticised Dr Mahathir for straining ties with India when he slammed New Delhi’s policy on Kashmir.

Najib better than Dr Mahathir

Other Felda settlers told The Malaysian Insight they are relieved that Dr Mahathir is gone.

In comparison, they heaped praises on Najib Razak, who was ousted as prime minister in the 14th general election.

“Under Dr Mahathir’s first term as prime minister, for 22 years, we didn’t really get anything either. Plus the two years under PH, nothing. Zero. No aid whatsoever,” said Mohd Isa Man, 76.

“It was different under Najib. There were housing loans, bonuses for harvests, incentives, duit raya, so many other things. We felt special under Najib.

“We hope that it will be good under Muhyiddin.”

In the white paper tabled in Parliament, PH found that the land scheme with about one million settlers and their families had accrued massive debts mostly because of mismanagement by the Najib administration.

Felda’s debts ballooned by 1,100% from RM1.2 billion in 2007 to RM14.4 billion in 2017 under his watch.

Najib diverted RM2.7 billion from Felda earmarked for plantation upgrades to buy support for Barisan Nasional in the elections.

Mutiah Samsuddin of Felda Tersang in Pahang hopes that PN will carry through its promises to purge the agency of corruption and mismanagement.

“I hope that the court cases against Felda officials will continue.”

But for Muhammad Danial Aiman Zainuddin, PH will be remembered for ending the welfare aid to settlers that Najib had started.

“Socio-economic activities for young settlers under PH were also disappointing. Under BN, we had 10 activities in three months,” said the 26-year-old food-stall operator.

“There were activities like mahasiswa masuk Felda, foster-child programmes. Every weekend, the fields were filled with buses.

“After PH took over, it was hard to see one programme every three months.”

Muzamil Borhan of Felda Tenang in Johor echoed these sentiments.

“I hope this government is better at managing Felda. To me, after two years of PH, there has been change to Felda settlers’ lives.”

Sulong Jamil of Felda Behrang in Perak said he hopes for management of the land scheme and its agency to be moved to the Prime Minister’s Department so as to give it more importance.

Under PH, Felda was placed under the Economic Affairs Ministry.

“Felda’s cash flow needs to be fixed first before we can sort out settlers’ problems, such as their debts. The white paper was a good start, but its proposals should be tweaked,” said the 58-year-old Sulong.

For instance, instead of giving grants to settlers to start growing supplementary crops, the initiative should be handled by a body such as the Felda Settlers’ Cooperative, he said. – March 20, 2020.