by RADZI RAZAK

PRIME Minister (PM) Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim announced that the Federal Land Development Authority (Felda) will receive RM1 billion per year for the next 10 years to safeguard its survival.

During the Felda Settlers Day in Serdang last Friday, Anwar said the Cabinet made the decision last month and the funds will be directly channelled to Felda itself.

The land housing scheme — which currently has more than 100,000 settlers comprising mostly Malays in 317 land schemes — also received a number of goodies on that day, as the government splashed the cash in all sorts of funding.

Firstly, the mostly elderly — comprising 70,715 first generation settlers above the age of 65 — will be given RM300 in special health incentives with an allocation of RM21.21 million.

Anwar, who is also the finance minister, said he has also approved the construction of 12 haemodialysis centres in Felda areas at a cost of RM21 million, including a centre at Yayasan Felda in Kelana Jaya, Selangor.

“This is expected to benefit around 2,000 patients in the various Felda schemes, who currently have to travel for two hours (on average) to undergo dialysis treatment,” he said last Friday.

Anwar also announced that the government will spend RM36 million a year to subsidise diesel for Felda settlers in Sabah to lower their costs for electricity generation and water treatment. This, he said, will benefit nearly 43,000 residents. The government also commits to spend over RM7 million per year to repair and maintain street lights in Felda schemes.

Meanwhile, Anwar also pledged to resolve the longstanding issue of abandoned housing projects meant for second-generation Felda settlers.

“The government will prepare the necessary funds to complete the remaining 283 units of homes as soon as possible,” he said. Around 10,000 of Felda settlers who attended the event last Friday cheerfully clapped following the announcement, voicing their approval.

Better Internet

The government had strengthened its hold on Felda after the recent appointment of the new Felda chairman Datuk Seri Ahmad Shabery Cheek last month.

On July 6, the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) committed to improving Internet services in Felda settlements to ensure digital connectivity in these areas is enhanced, said its chairman Tan Sri Mohamad Salim Fateh Din.

“We will hold a workshop in cooperation with Felda and update the old Digital Economy Centres (PEDi), in addition to bringing 5G Internet for the smart agriculture sector,” he said as reported by Bernama.

Ahmad Shabery, at the same event last Friday, said he hoped that the improvement of the Internet network access, especially 5G, would help boost the economy of settlers, especially the fifth-generation Felda settlers.

“I shared the complaints of Felda residents, who are now mostly using 4G, which shows full coverage but Internet access is less satisfactory.

“We hope that by upgrading to the faster 5G, we can help develop and market more local (Felda) products, especially through social media such as Tiktok,” he said.

On June 28, Anwar signed the government guarantee for Felda to restructure the agency’s loans to reduce the principal of Felda’s debt to financial institutions by RM7.9 billion.

The restructuring will also lower Felda’s financial cost in terms of interest rates and enable Felda to cancel 80% of the RM8.3 billion settlers’ debt implemented in 2021.

Election Goodies

The announcement of the slew of fundings to Felda and its settlers could be seen as a way for the government, especially Umno, to gain back trust after the 15th General Election (GE15) which saw areas with significant numbers of Felda settlers in Terengganu, Kelantan, Pahang, Johor and Selangor voting for Perikatan Nasional (PN).

Izani Zain, a research fellow at Universiti Malaya, reportedly attributed PN’s efforts to take care of settlers’ welfare in the short period when its chairman Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin was PM as one of the factors in the swing towards PN.

Muhyiddin had abolished a portion of Felda settlers’ loans amounting to RM8.3 billion, approved the buyback of 82% of Felda Global Ventures’ (FGV) shares as well as the issuance of government-guaranteed sukuk worth RM9.9 billion to improve Felda’s business model.

“The settlers still remember what Muhyiddin did, but more important was how he championed PN as a clean and issue-free coalition that upheld integrity.

“This made voters view PN as a safer alternative to Barisan Nasional (BN) in continuing to look after Malay and Islamic interests compared to Pakatan Harapan (PH),” he said as reported by Bernama.