‘CREATING ELITISTS NOT FELDA’S AIM’

Tun Razak wanted to take as many people as possible out of poverty, says Shahrir

THE Federal Land Development Authority (Felda), during its initial stage of establishment by second prime minister, the late Tun Abdul Razak Hussein, aimed to eradicate poverty and not create wealthy elitists, said chairman Tan Sri Shahrir Abdul Samad.

He said this in response to former prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s remark yesterday that Razak had erred in formulating the Felda land scheme by giving only 4ha to settlers and not turning them into millionaires.

“Dr Mahathir forgot that Razak’s approach to Felda was to bring as many people as possible out of poverty and not just create a small group of wealthy elitists.

“If we want to create millionaires, we have to give each settler more than 10 acres (4ha) of land, probably 100,000 acres each,” he said after attending the statelevel Negaraku Sehati Sejiwa Carnival and Aidilfitri celebration attended by Chief Minister Datuk Seri Idris Haron here yesterday.

He said if each settler was given 100,000 acres of land, they would probably be rich, but the number of those who benefited from Felda would not be as many as today.

“If Dr Mahathir thinks he has a better approach, he should have implemented it during his tenure of 22 years.”

He also questioned why Dr Mahathir had focused only on Kuala Lumpur and not on rural development and the agriculture sector when he was in power.

He said Felda was solving an issue faced by second-generation settlers and the rest of the people, which was house ownership.

“In Felda, we are intensifying efforts to solve this issue by collaborating with Syarikat Perumahan Negara Bhd to enable the second generation of settlers who can afford, but have no monthly pay slips, to take housing loans.” Bernama