Pakatan Rakyat is all set to lay the groundwork to prove its seriousness in fulfilling the Orange Book or Buku Jingga pledge that Felda Plantations Sdn Bhd will be dissolved within 100 days of Pakatan taking over in Putrajaya.

Pakatan had promised to dissolve Felda Plantations in order to provide land to second and third generation Felda settlers who now have no stake on the land which their parents have worked on.

Subsequently, the Association of Children of Felda Settlers (Anak) will spearhead efforts to distribute the company's 367,000 hectares of land to at least 79,000 people.

NONE Anak chairperson Mazlan Aliman said today the NGO is ready to get the ball rolling next month by calling for applications and conducting screenings to determine the qualification of applicants.

"We know the screening process may take a while, so we will begin distributing the application forms at our assembly on May 28, and begin screening applicants after that.

"We will also work with village committees (JKKK), (Pakatan component) party agencies and the Federal Land Development Authority to collect applications and conduct screening," Mazlan told a press conference.

NONE Children of settlers, Felda staff under a certain income threshold and former military personnel, who he claimed had been promised land upon retirement when they were recruited, would be given priority .

"If we give 10 acres per person, this will benefit about 79,000 people, but we're also considering allocating five acres per person so that more people can benefit," Mazlan ( right ) said.

'No more debts'

He said Anak was also proposing to Pakatan to include, in the coaliton's general election manifesto, a pledge to do away with debts incurred by settlers through Felda replanting schemes.

"A few months ago, a man in Negeri Sembilan showed me his debt, which had grown to RM95,000... this is a great burden," he said.

Mazlan ( right ) said much of the debt arose from of "subsistence loans" that are given to the settlers while they wait for the crops to bear fruit.

"They get RM1,200 to RM1,500 a month at a high interest of 6.25 percent a year for three years, and (wait) another three years more for Felda to produce their loan statements, which would then be a lump sum of everything, including insurance, roads, etc.

"If you take a loan, there will be itemised statements every month, but Felda has not produced this despite our requests," he said.

Dissolving the total loan of the settlers would cost an estimated RM500 million, he said, an amount that may seem large, but was actually "very small", considering the volume of Felda trading.

"Even a small village of 100 people can have a Felda cooperative that trades up to millions of ringgit in value. Felda as a whole deals with about 112,000 settlers," he said.

Waiting for dialogue with minister

However, Mazlan, added, the debt dissolution would take longer than 100 days to achieve as time was required to itemise the debt of each settler.

palm oil palm kelapa sawit 201107 "Some loans are personal ones to build a house or for business. We will not dissolve those loans," he said.

Mazlan also said Anak was still awaiting word from the Deputy Minister in the Prime Minister's Department in charge of Felda affairs, Ahmad Maslan, on when the dialogue between the government and 20 Anak representatives would take place.

"(Ahmad) sent us a formal letter on this matter several months ago and we have agreed on the dialogue, but we have heard nothing else after that.

"I just contacted him after the Sarawak election, and he said it will be soon. I urge him to honour this agreement, as I have been getting memorandum after memorandum from settlers wanting to raise their issues at the dialogue," he added.

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