Najib panned for 'traitor' label on Felda critics

By Patrick Lee

PETALING JAYA: Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak was today panned for calling critics of the Federal Land Development Authority (Felda) traitors.

Tan Kee Kwong, the former deputy minister of land and cooperative development, said that it was Najib who ruined Malaysia's largest rural plantation scheme when he was the deputy prime minister.

"You turned what was a very successful organisation into a financial nightmare. You are the traitor who has stolen the poor (Felda) settlers' money!" Tan said in an angry open letter to the premier.

According to a Bernama report, Najib, who took over the agency in 2005, charged that those who thought that Felda was bankrupt were in fact traitors to the nation.

Naib also said that if Felda were to sell its shares overnight, it would attain a revenue of over RM4.3 billion. This was not the first time Najib had referred to his detractors as 'traitors'.

At the BN convention recently, he called opposition leaders "anti-national" and said that they were "bent on destroying the country".

Interestingly, the RM4.3 revenue mentioned by Najib was the same figure used by Tan when he made his accusation against the prime minister in June.

Tan said that Felda had only RM200 million in its cash reserves this year, or a RM4.3 billion drop from its reserves in 2004.

The former deputy minister also attacked the Prime Minister's Department for announcing profits over its upcoming new headquarters, Menara Felda.

'Submit to an independent audit'

Deputy Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Ahmad Maslan said last month that the increase in real estate value over Menara Felda gave Felda a profit of RM300 million.

Menara Felda is also oddly enough, located only kilometre away from Felda's current headquarters along Jalan Perumahan Gurney, near KLCC.

Ahmad said that when Felda first bought the land, it was priced at RM930 per sq ft, and had risen to between RM1,400 to RM1,500 today, which translated to a total profit of RM300 million for Felda.

"How did he come to this conclusion when the building is not even finished or sold?" asked Tan of the RM662 million project, which he said received a deposit of RM235 million prior to its construction.

He also asked how the building was going to help Felda's poorer settlers, some of them who earned only RM500 a month each.

Tan said that Felda had much to answer for, and dared Najib to subject the agency, as well as its 43 subsidiaries to an independent audit and release the results to the public.