Najib panned for ‘traitor’ label on Felda critics
By Patrick Lee, Free Malaysia Today
PETALING JAYA: Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak was today panned for calling critics of the Federal Land Development Authority (Felda) traitors.
“It was Najib who ruined Malaysia’s largest rural plantation scheme,” said Tan Kee Kwong, former deputy minister of land and cooperative development.
“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.
He 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.
