THE management tussle in Felda Global Ventures Holdings Bhd (FGV) may be coming to an end but many Felda settlers said their problems are far from over.

They are sceptical that the leadership change in FGV will solve the debt problems they face or the fact that Felda is doing a bad job of running their holdings.

FGV is the company that runs almost half of the 850,000ha of plantations under Felda, the land resettlement government agency overseeing 112,000 smallholders or settlers.

Although FGV is not directly linked to them, settlers said the plantation conglomerate’s many troubles have affected their lives as Felda owns a 33% stake in FGV.

Esa Atan, 71, a settler from Sg Sibol in Johor said politicians should never be allowed to helm either Felda or FGV.

“Let them be managed by corporate figures. Then only can Felda and FGV be run properly,” he told The Malaysian Insight.

In the latest scandal, FGV president and chief executive officer Zakaria Arshad was suspended and its chairman, Isa Samad, has been asked to resign after getting into an intractable boardroom fight.

Both are currently being investigated for abuse of power and impropriety by the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC).

Putrajaya, meanwhile, has appointed ex-civil servant Dr Sulaiman Mahbob as FGV acting chairman. It is speculated that former Malakoff Corp managing director Azhar Abdul Hamid might replace Zakaria as FGV chief executive officer.

Esa the settler is giving Sulaiman 100 days to see if the latter can turn FGV around.

Sulaiman needs to restore public and settler confidence in FGV, which Esa said was not run transparently and is being mismanaged.

“How can one bring back the confidence? Sulaiman can start by fixing the problems with Felda settlers’ lands that are being poorly managed.”

He also wants Sulaiman to look into the debts settlers are saddled with from the replanting schemes and whether there were hidden charges in the borrowings.

“We want them to be more transparent,” Esa told The Malaysian Insight.

Another Sg Sibol settler Zulkifli Md Top, however, is sceptical about Sulaiman’s ability to unwind FGV’s problems.

“Maybe he can do it. But the problem in FGV is not small,” he said.

In an interview recently, Felda chairman Shahrir Samad said the agency was disappointed with the returns from FGV and another firm, Felda Investment Corp (FIC).

A group representing second-generation settlers, Suara Generasi ke-2, argued that Zakaria should only be replaced by another manager who is also the child of first-generation settlers.

“We have to remember, nearly 113,000 Felda settlers are FGV shareholders. So, the person to replace Zakaria has to have the Felda spirit as well,” said the group’s chairman Zulkefli Nordin.

Zakaria was the first Felda settlers’ child to be appointed to head FGV. The son of Felda Palong 1 settlers in Negri Sembilan previously held the post of executive vice-president/palm cluster head.

Zulkefli, however, welcomed Isa’s removal from FGV and Felda.

“FGV is like a son of Felda. Felda already being led by Sharir Samad who is a politician and FGV now being led by someone who has experience in business like Sulaiman.

“Now Shahrir can focus on taking care of Felda and Sulaiman can focus on taking care of Felda’s business and that is FGV,” he said.

Mismanaging holdings

Zulkefli said one of the first order of business was for Felda to provide settlers with detailed explanations of what they owed the agency.

“There are settlers who have been paying every month to clear their debts but they have not received a financial statement in 10 years,” he said.

Zulkefli said when the group looked into this problem, it discovered that the agency was mismanaging the small holdings.

Each settler is given between 4ha and 5.6ha to plant either oil palm or rubber.

“Every month, our parents would hand the land to Felda to manage and they will be given a RM1,500 cost of living advance while the trees in their holdings are replanted.”

Settlers would then have to repay Felda for the advances and the cost to replant their holdings once their trees start bearing fruit.

“When we pressed Felda, they gave us a financial statement with all these deductions. But when went to visit our holdings, we found out that nothing was being done. The land was still a jungle.”

Worse, said Zulkefli, is that not all settlers realise they had huge debts.

“The problem with our fathers and mothers at home is that they were happy to receive the RM1,500 allowance. But they did not know about the accumulated debts.

“Who is going to pay? Because the profit was not there as Felda did not manage the land well.

“We are not trying to fight th egovernment but we are angry and are questioning why is Felda doing this to our parents?” – June 22, 2017.