alirostam

Felcra Settlers Must Prove Loyalty to UMNO

The Malacca chief minister, Dato' Wira Mohamed Ali Rustam,
warns Felcra Sri Mendapat settlers in Merlimau who have
waited 16 years for their land grants must cross another
hurdle: show their gratitude to UMNO (The Sun on Sunday, 04
February 01, p13). The 70 settlers must each also pay
RM2,500 premium first. "They should be thankful and not
forget the benefits provided by the BN (National Front)
government. The settlers should show support for us as a
mark of their appreciation, rather than support the
Opposition." He said the 16-year wait is not unusual: the
ungrateful Felcra Kampung Tun Razak settlers in the state
waited 35 years before they got theirs: it them that long
to come up with the premium.

     But settlers in the palm oil schemes cannot pay.
Many, in their late fifties, often older, must hire hire
workers to harvest the fruit. In most Felcra and Felda
schemes, only the old folk remain, the young having gone
elsewhere to earn a living. But hiring workers makes it
uneconomical. It costs RM120 to harvest RM100 worth of oil
palm fruit. But the authorities ignore the settlers'
difficulties and rule the schemes with an iron hand. The
settlers turn to others who could help them. Often it is
the opposition, especially PAS. The 38 votes in Felcra Sri
Mendapat the opposition obtained in 1995 rose to 238 in
1999. For that, Felcra Sri Mendapat must be punished. And
punished it will be.

     Twentyfive years ago, I visited Kampung LBJ, a Felda
settlers scheme in Negri Sembilan, a scheme named after the
US President who had visited it a decade earlier, but the
officials I accompanied treated them like small children
that the shift to PAS could have been predicted. When Felda
schemes are required for development, as for Putra Jaya and
its related development, and settlers stood to gain more
than a million ringgit each, they are shortchanged. Few
have received what they were promised. The government
raises their hopes, and cavalierly ignore them when they was
promised is not what they get. Even UMNO officials there
are incensed at moves like these.

     Dato' Wira Ali now tells Felcra settlers in Malacca to
be eternally grateful to UMNO for being allowed to lose
money. The Felcra and Felda settlers have always been kept
on a tight leash. When their earnings went beyond a figure,
the repayments for the land increased. When it went below
that, a minimum sum had to be paid. They were often ordered
to do what they, as farmers, would have thought unworkable.
But they had no choice.

     I know of one Felda scheme when the settlers were
ordered to grow one vegetable as a cash crop; the glut from
that scheme destroyed the price for that vegetable when it
was time to sell them. When the scheme collapses, they are
blamed. Instead of letting them choose the marketable
produce they grow in their small plots around their houses,
they are forced to what the managers think would fetch the
highest price. The glut ensures they would not. The
government turns them willy nilly into opposition
supporters. A major fault in the Felda and Felcra schemes
is little attention is paid to the settlers, who come in
when they are 40 or so, when they are 60 and older.

     Far more serious is the palm oil price. Palm oil
cannot be harvested by an individual settler by himself.
The Felcra scheme harvests it for them, and the settlers
bear the loss. It is not only the settlers who suffer.
Malaysia, a high cost producer of oil palm at about RM750 a
tonne, sells its produce on the international market at less
what it costs to produce. Indonesia, on the other hand,
with a production cost half this, does well. When India
agreed to barter its defence products to Indonesia for palm
oil, Malaysia thought it a good way too to reduce its
burgeoning stockpile. When the Indian prime minister, Mr
Atal Bihari Vajpayee, cancelled his visit to Malaysia, the
minister of primary industries and chief palm oil salesman,
Dato' Seri Lim Kheng Yaik, was not the only one
disappointed.

     Malaysia looks into creative ways to sell its
burgeoning stocks of palm oil, and even looks into research
for converting into diesel. Its impact on the government is
more serious. The Perbadanan Nasional Berhad (PNB) can
continue to high dividends, even when it seems it does not
make sense, only because of the high prices obtained for its
palm oil. It controls the country's largest oil palm
estates. When it loses on its palm oil deals, how can it
continue to bribe the Malay with higher divideds so that it
hopes they would be eternally grateful to UMNO? Especially
when the Malay is shortchanged if he went into a Felda or
Felcra scheme to survive. When was he told he ought to be
eternally grateful to UMNO for the privilege of being
shortchanged?

M.G.G. Pillai
pillai@mgg.pc.my