Rural Economy

last week, my family was bombarded with death news, one after another. the closest to us was my late aunt (the husband is my dad’s cousin).

it’s a sad story: the husband was diagnosed with stage 4 brain cancer last year. he had undergone a few surgeries to remove the tumor and he is in the process of undergoing chemotherapy.

the wife, on the other hand, had a stroke some time around CNY and left her incapacitated. she had to be fed through tubes because she lost her ability to swallow.

feeding through tubes increases the chances of getting infections and that was what happened. she couldn’t fight off the infections and passed away around Wednesday noon.

the husband and wife is a Felda settlers, one of the firsts in the country. after the tahlil, dad had a talk with another cousin of his, who is also a Felda settlers about the latest issue: Felda listings.

Felda is currently trying to get enlisted in KLCI and to make that happen, Felda has to take back a few land grants from these Felda settlers because Felda has no real assets.

i don’t know how many of you knows how Felda works.

in a gist: Felda gives you a piece of land for you to develop, be it rubber or palm trees and in the course of 20-30 years, you will need to pay Felda back for this piece of land and after fulfilling this agreement, that piece of land will be yours.

Fair enough, no?

the wrong things about this KLCI thing is that Felda will need these settlers to hand-over the land title to Felda again to boost their assets.

and the settlers are pissed off because of this (at least some that i know of). they work hard for this piece of land, and now they need to let go of it?

i had some issues bugging me about this whole Felda thing – sure, they help the rural people earning some money; they give people work. i won’t take that away from them.

yet, these people who is feeding the economy of Malaysia (we used to be one of the top 5 producers of palm oil and rubbers) still lives in small houses with not a proper drainage and water systems. what gives?

the upper echelon who has never tapped a rubber tree  in their live are driving big cars, live in bungalows in the cities. the real people who should have all these luxuries did not even get a proper drainage system. pray tell, how is that fair?

when you think about it, the distribution of wealth doesn’t seem right even if you don’t really study how Felda works, right?

then, comes the issue of economy for the rural folks. my paternal grandfather originated from Kuala Pilah. when i was a child, Kuala Pilah were surrounded by scores of paddy fields all around but all these lands are now left dried out. no signs of resurrecting them to their former glories.

i was told that there was no one to work on them. yeah, all the younger generations left the town for the big cities.

we will have problems when Thailand can no longer provide agricultural produce for us. we rely too much on our imports for food. why didn’t the state government come up with a plan for a better use of these lands? do something agricultural. the town need something to keep striving. how many firemen, policemen, civil servants would you need in a small town anyway? no wonder i see loads of abandoned houses at this place. most of the younger generations must have left the area for careers in the cities.

time and time again, development plans by the government only concentrated towards the cities, especially KL. don’t you feel suffocated already, KL-ites? i know i do.

my BIL fought with his ketua kampung over something like this. the chief keeps on talking about using the money for upgrading the drainage system and yet left the younger generations without work. funding are indeed available, but they lack ideas and proper planning. there are no guidance, and those who held power are only interested to make their pockets thicker. in the end, these kids will resort to drugs and other vices.

*sigh* all my posts lately has been on an angry note. i’ll be grumpier when i reach 30 y.o. -__________-”