FELDA IN MALAYSIA'S RURAL DEVELOPMENT : THREE DECADES OF CHANGES AND BEYOND

Abstract

Malaysia's independence in 1957 marked a new phase of challenge, a stage of nation-building and national development. The Malaysian government set itself with a plethora of development objectives directed at developing various aspects of the nation. Numerous federal ministries, agencies and state agencies were set up to accomplish the objectives of national development. In due course, many of these agencies of development became the subject of study and were often treated separate from the broader framework of national policies and objectives.

In Malaysia, given the social, economic and political importance of agriculture, rural development, in particular agriculture development, was to play a key role in the development process. Numerous agricultural development agencies emerged, with varying functions and objectives were set up to develop the rural sector. The purpose of this study is to explore how one such agency, the Federal Land Development Authority (FELDA), in developing the rural sector through its land settlement programmes, has fitted into the broader framework of national development policies and objectives. In doing so the study is suggesting that all government agencies of development, irregardless of its own unique organisational objectives, cannot be divorced, nor its influence underestimated, in the terms of their role in national development.