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Felda settlers are finding themselves poorer than ever, claimed PKR.<\/p>\nFelda settlers are finding themselves poorer than ever, claimed PKR.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor many years, settlers only had to pay RM40 to Felda every month for (oil palm) replanting purposes,\u201d said Suhaimi Said, PKR Felda bureau chairman.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut (we heard) in July this figure had been raised to RM120.\u201d<\/p>\n
According to PKR, Felda settlers are required to hand over RM40 to Felda every month over a number of years.<\/p>\n
After this timeframe, an amount (of about RM17,000) was then returned to the respective settler for them to replant oil palm trees.<\/p>\n
PKR alleged that the settlers have only received half of the total amount (about RM8,000) for replanting purposes. The rest, Suhaimi claimed, was taken by Felda.<\/p>\n
Suhaimi said that other compulsory monthly payments, including a RM60 village beautification fee, would further strain the budgets of Felda settlers nationwide.<\/p>\n
He also alleged that settlers received a RM1,500 loan from Felda every month in the guise of a monthly income. As a result, he said many settlers owed Felda thousands of ringgit.<\/p>\n
Suhaimi also told FMT that Felda’s recent \u201cduit raya\u201d payment to its 112,635 settlers did not come from Felda’s coffers, but from the pockets of the settlers.<\/p>\n
To add insult to injury, Subang MP R Sivarasah alleged that Felda chairman Mohd Yusof Noor paid himself an annual salary of RM2 million.<\/p>\n
Suhaimi alleged that this was one of the reasons why many settlers were giving up on Felda.<\/p>\n
Against the law<\/p>\n
In a related development, human rights lawyer, N Surendan, claimed that it was against the law for statutory bodies such as Felda to take legal action against its critics.<\/p>\n
He also said he had never seen a similar example in Malaysia’s legal history.<\/p>\n
“Felda is behaving like an aggrieved individual,” he said. “Can it act this way just because someone is criticising them?”<\/p>\n
When asked about Felda’s RM200 million suit against PKR and its newspaper, Suara Keadilan, Surendran said that the case had yet to be filed in court.<\/p>\n
PKR also denied charging 766 Negri Sembilan Felda settlers RM500 each for legal advice in the latter’s RM200 million suit against Felda.<\/p>\n
Answering to accusations made by Felda chairman Yusof Noor, Sivarasah said that the correct amount was RM50 each.<\/p>\n
Sivarasah also alleged that the 766 settlers had come to PKR party leaders before Felda’s alleged bankruptcy was even raised.<\/p>\n
Adding that the party had met with these settlers during the recent Hulu Selangor by-election, Sivarasah advised Yusof to be more careful with his accusations and not to politicise the issue.-FMT<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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