THE incentives for Felda settlers announced by Prime Minister Najib Razak are not enough to resolve their debt woes, pressure group Suara Generasi Ke-2 Felda said today.

Group adviser Zulkefli Nordin said the debt forgiveness and assistance Najib promised yesterday would not help those with larger debts, while the prime minister failed to address the problem of poor management of the Felda’s palm oil plantations.

“Felda should have explained the real issues to the PM before he made that announcement,” Zulkefli said.

“The real problems are not resolved, yet what we get is a lot of ‘wow’ factor. Every year, there is a ‘wow’ factor,’ he said at a press conference in Kuala Lumpur today.

Najib announced at the closing of the National Felda Settlers Day celebration yesterday RM1.59 billion worth of cash and incentives for Felda settlers and urged them to rally behind the Barisan National government.

Among the incentives was RM5,000 cash each for 94,956 settlers, and debt forgiveness worth RM519 million for those with debts of up to RM5,000 if they had taken part in Felda’s programme to replant unproductive oil palm.

Another RM128.1 million was also allocated to dispose of outstanding Felda Global Ventures Holdings Bhd (FGV) equity loans, including assistance of RM1,820 cash per settler if they had already paid their loans.

Zulkefli said incentives promised by Najib were insufficient to help settlers with their debts because some of them owed more than RM200,000.

He took issue with the special fund of RM300 million that will be set up from this year until 2021 to help with replanting operational debts exceeding RM40,000, saying debt statements were not given to the settlers.

He said settlers had handed some 10 acres of plantation over to be managed by Felda Technoplant Sdn Bhd (FTP) but the land had been left idle, while settlers were still paying fees.

“The land is full of undergrowth. It has not been cared for. If you are going to leave land idle like that, how will the settlers be able to gain anything? How are our parents going to repay their debts to Felda?” he said.

“In the agreement between the settlers, FTP and Felda, the statement of debt is to be given to settlers every three months, but it was only last year we received our statements, and only because we had to demand it.”

“We don’t even know how much we owe,” he said

Zulkefli said the group wanted a commitment from Najib and Felda that their land would be properly managed, and their debts would be streamlined.

Otherwise, he added, Umno should not count on the settlers as a vote bank in the coming general election.

Felda settlers, who are predominantly ethnic Malays, form an important voting bloc for Umno. They live in rural constituencies, accounting for 54 parliamentary seats.

Felda is currently mired in controversy, with the most recent Felda-linked scandal allegedly involving former chairman Isa Samad being the purchase of a luxury hotel in Kensington, London, at an inflated price. – July 24, 2017.