KUALA LUMPUR – Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim today slammed the government’s proposed land-swap deal and construction of a RM220 million corporate office for the Federal Agricultural Marketing Authority (Fama).
During the committee-stage Budget 2021 debate for the Agriculture and Food Industries Ministry, the opposition leader said land swaps involving the building of such offices tend to be controversial, while the proposed allocation has strayed from the main purpose of the Budget, which is to address issues brought on by the Covid-19 pandemic.
“The minister must be more thorough. Is the priority (of Fama) to help farmers sell their products – food and livestock – or build new castles?”
He warned of a “vicious cycle of poverty caused by irregularities in the marketing infrastructure”, as pointed out in research by Prof Ungku Abdul Aziz Ungku Abdul Hamid since the early 1960s.
“So, the role of Fama that was raised by Ungku Aziz – which was welcomed by (former prime minister) Tun (Abdul) Razak (Hussein) and also (former deputy prime minister) Tun Musa Hitam at the time – was to assist farmers and smallholders in marketing.
“The current marketing problems will not be solved with the construction of new buildings.”
Although the minister assured that the building does not pose a financial burden, he said, the deal involves government land with an excess value of RM60 million.
“We know that the process of land swaps is something very controversial.”
For example, he said, former defence minister Mohamad Sabu once pointed out losses of more than RM500 million involving 16 land swaps by the ministry in various stages of implementation.
The PKR president added that the government should use such allocations to help farmers sell their produce instead.
He said farmers are among the nation’s poorest, with a majority of them earning only between RM500 and RM1,000 a month. – The Vibes, December 2, 2020
