PN government resolute in restoring settlers' right to Felda - Muhyiddin

MUAR: The Perikatan Nasional (PN) government deems it crucial to reinstate FELDA as a private company and rightly return it to its two million or more settlers, said Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin.

"When PN took over the government, one of its resolutions was to rectify and rehabilitate the agency.

"So this is not a small problem; that is why the government must take action to salvage and restore the settlers' right to it. If the land belongs to them, we will return it to them. If it was turned into a public company previously, we will reinstate it as a private company," he said.

He said this during a meeting with Pagoh Parliamentary Constituency community leaders at Felda Sri Jaya here, today

Muhyiddin, who is also Pagoh member of parliament said the government has drawn up various remedial measures through the FELDA Special Task Force (STF) which is chaired by Tan Sri Abdul Wahid Omar and of which FELDA Chairman Datuk Seri Idris Jusoh is also involved.

"And I told them that we cannot take too long to do it. They promised me that FELDA should be raking in profits as it used to, by 2023, Alhamdulillah," he said.

On Oct 28, the Cabinet approved the proposed issuance of sukuk worth RM9.9 billion by FELDA with government assurance to enable the agency to implement a recovery plan as presented by the STF.

Proposals put forward by the STF include debt restructuring with financial institutions, increasing core income from FELDA's farmland by terminating the Land Lease Agreement (LLA) and enhancing the settlers' self-sustenance.

-- BERNAMA