Federal Land Development Authority - An Introduction

Federal Land Development Authority or Felda as it is popularly known now was (officially) the brainchild of Malaysia's 2nd. Prime Minister, Tun Abdul Razak. Throughout the years, many people have been involved in developing Felda until it achieved great success. There were failures along the way but overall it was a huge success. Millions have benefited from Felda and their schemes either directly or indirectly.

The early days of Felda was difficult. Fundings were from the Government as well as through borrowings from World Bank and Japan, to name a few. The pioneers of Felda presevered and by 1989, Felda succeeded in redeeming ALL their loans and became selfsustaining. Since then ALL Felda expenses were funded through internally generated funds. The last non-politician chairman of Felda was R M Alias, a very strict no-nonsense disciplinarian. Under his stewardship, Felda managed to build a reserve of approximately RM3 billion. (RM3 billion then was equivalent to approximately US$1.2 billion). Despite such successes, Felda's employees (including top brass) remained very down to earth and publicity shy bunch of people.

Some of the keys to Felda's success was their ability to avoid shout for accolades, praises and wastages. Official vehicles were used until they were no longer economical to maintain. This culture were in sharp contrast to those practised by other government agencies.

The current chairman, Yusof Noor, is a politician and with his entry marked the decline of Felda's stature as a well-organised, well-managed and well-run government agency. This has been further aggravated when the PM assigned his deputy, Najib, as the minister-in-charged.

To Be Continued...