THE Barisan Nasional (BN) government cannot afford to appear to be taking the current Felda land controversy lightly as its mandate to govern ends with the coming 14th general election, say analysts.

Director of the Asia Institute at the University of Tasmania, James Chin, said the controversy surrounding a plot of Felda land which had dubiously changed ownership had appeared at “the worst time possible” for Umno.

Last Thursday, pro-government daily Berita Harian reported that 66,000m2 of Felda land on Jalan Semarak, Kuala Lumpur, worth RM270 million was transferred under dubious circumstances, as the board of directors at Felda claimed to be in the dark regarding the transaction.

Chin said that if Umno, which is heavily reliant on Felda settlers’ votes, does not appear to be serious in pursuing the parties behind the scandal, the beneficiary of the controversy would be Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s party Bersatu.

“Bersatu’s main job now is to target their efforts at parliamentary seats at Felda areas, which form around 120 majority-Malay seats in the country,” Chin told The Malaysian Insight.

Felda schemes cut across 54 out of the 222 parliamentary seats in the country, while Felda voters form 5% of the total number of voters nationwide.

Chin said he believed it was possible for Pakatan Harapan (PH) to deny the ruling BN from a two-thirds majority in parliament, adding that Prime Minister Najib Razak should no longer view Felda seats as “safe seats”.

Geostrategist Azmi Hassan agreed that the government must be seen to be handling the Felda scandal seriously, because “votes from Felda are aplenty for BN “.

“So far, if you want to call this a scandal, the people are still viewing it with an open mind and have yet to draw a conclusion because the guilty party has yet to be determined.

“When the guilty party is identified, then we will be able to tell if this will bring a negative or positive effect to BN for the election.

“What’s important now is to prove that the responsible parties did this without the knowledge of Umno’s top leadership,” said Azmi.

Last week, Felda chairman Shahrir Samad confirmed that there was an element of fraud in the transfer of the lands ownership, and that Felda has applied for a caveat on the property in order to reclaim it.

The entire transfer, which involved four separate sales-and-purchase agreements, was carried out by Synergy Promenade Sdn Bhd, a company authorised by Felda.

Synergy Promenade Sdn Bhd was appointed by Felda Investment Corporation (FIC) in June 2014, and given full power of attorney to develop the Kuala Lumpur Vertical City (KLVC) project, which also involved plans to develop the iconic Felda Tower.

Felda dan FIC were both under the leadership of veteran Umno leader Isa Samad, who has said he is willing to assist police in investigations into the case. – December 28, 2017.