The FELDA factor in Rompin: a message to Umno

By MT Webmaster Last updated May 10, 2015

Umno educated the Malays instead of leaving them ignorant and dependent upon the government. Education is good for the Malays but bad for Umno. So Umno has to now learn how to live up to the expectations of the educated Malays and not continue depending on the less educated Malays in the kampungs, fishing villages and FELDA settlements to stay in power.

NO HOLDS BARRED

Raja Petra Kamarudin

I have actually written about this before but with yesterday’s Rompin by-election result maybe I should revisit this issue.

First of all, it is very difficult to get voters to turn out to vote if they do not live in that constituency and live/work halfway across the country. In the January 2009 Kuala Terengganu by-election we worried about that and in the end our worry was justified.

On polling day I toured the voting centres and found that there were not many young voters. Most were older voters. This was even more visible in the Chinese areas.

You see, there are not much employment opportunities in Kuala Terengganu so many from the younger generation have to go to Kuala Lumpur, Penang, Singapore, etc., to work. And if they come home to vote they would need to take at least two days leave (and by-elections seem to be held on working days and not on holidays).

For those daily/hourly paid workers, two days leave would mean money lost. And even if they do go home to vote it is only a by-election. Anyway, whatever the outcome, one way or another, the state or federal government is not going to change.

And this was why we saw a lower voter turnout in the Kuala Terengganu by-election in January 2009, in the Rompin by-election yesterday, and in most of the by-elections in between.

It would help, of course, if employers can give paid leave to those who need two days off to go home to vote plus their bus, train or airfare is reimbursed. But that will never happen and if it does there would be screams of election bribery.

So it is not surprising that the voter turnout in Rompin yesterday dropped to 73% from 86% in 2013. And it seems the drop was mostly from amongst the younger voters who were out of town.

But we cannot assume that if the outstation voters had come home to vote and if the voter turnout had been 86% instead of 73% then Umno would have got its 15,000-vote majority like it did the last time.

No doubt PAS still won about the same number of votes yesterday as it did in 2013. And, no doubt, Umno was worried about a possible low voter turnout, which they felt would affect Umno’s majority. But we must not assume that had those outstation voters come home to vote then Umno would benefit.

Rompin has a large FELDA population. FELDA, which was started in 1956, is considered the most successful land scheme in the world. The United Nations FAO has, in fact, sent teams to study the success of FELDA so that it can be copied and implemented in other parts of the world such as Africa, etc.

When FELDA was first started it was meant for the poor landless Malays. This was a program under the Land Development Act of 1st July 1956 and it was meant for married men with families. Each family was given 10 acres to plant rubber or oil palm.

Eventually, the poor landless Malays became rich (rich for kampung Malay standards although some did actually become millionaires when they sold the land later). And when Malays have money in their pockets they, just like the non-Malays, aspire that their children no longer become plantation workers but go to university to become engineers, doctors, lawyers, architects, and so on.

FELDA was started about 60 years ago. And 60 years could be calculated as three generations. Hence we are talking about our grandfather’s generation. Many Malaysians can claim that their father or grandfather was a lowly worker and labourer but today they are professionals with a university education. (My friend, HT Low from Northampton is one such person whose father was a pork seller in the central market in Kuala Lumpur).

Anyway, after 1956 we had the New Economic Policy that started in the 1970s. And part of this policy (other than turning Malays into businessmen and tycoons) was to bring Malay children out of the kampungs, fishing villages and FELDA land settlements and give them a higher education.

I met one son of a FELDA settler who was doing his PhD here in Manchester. Back in Malaysia he is a lecturer in one of the universities. And he is not the only son of a FELDA settler who went to university or did his PhD. There are many more.

Now, his father, of course, is an Umno man — most older generation FELDA settlers are. But the son who received a university education and is now doing his PhD is hardcore opposition supporter. That was why we became friends.

And that is the problem with educating the Malays. If you leave them in the FELDA settlements to plant rubber and oil palm they would most likely continue supporting the government. But when you take them out of the FELDA settlements and educate them then they turn opposition supporter.

This is one thing Umno has to take note of. When Malays progress financially they also progress mentally. They now have a worldview of things. The older generation is grateful to the government. The younger generation says why must we be grateful to the government? It is the job of the government to give us an education. Instead, the government should be grateful to us for paying taxes and for allowing them to be in power.

One swallow does not make a summer, no doubt. But the Rompin by-election can be used as the yardstick for the changing Malay mindset. And I believe if the outstation voters had gone home to Rompin to vote Umno’s majority could actually have been slashed to just 5,000.

But I have no scientific reason for thinking this — it is just my gut feeling. And this gut feeling is based on the fact that PAS won with a majority of 2,600 in Kuala Terengganu in January 2009 and that the majority would have been 5,000 if the outstation voters had come home to vote because the outstation voters are definitely opposition-minded, as Kelantan has proven.

Raja Petra Kamarudin RPK