Felmil was 40 years ago.

 Wed 12.11.2025.

Ridzuan whatsapped sometime last month about yesterday's lunch with about 100 former Felda Mills Corporation staff. I confirmed on line immediately.  I made sure I won't be late for the stated 10.30 am rendezvous at the Seri Kunyit Restaurant in the compound of our old Felda HQ.  So I left the house at 7.30 and walked into the restaurant at 9.30, inspite of following "waze" on a totally foreign route for me, and running smack into the morning traffic snarl somewhere in Jalan Tun Razak.

In fact I was the first one to arrive, and promptly called, in quick succession, Ridzuan and Aziz Zakaria. "The lunch is on ?" I teased Ridzuan. " Of course. Have a breakfast, I'll be there shortly" was his response. Aziz was quick to take my call. I didn't identify myself although we have not spoken for a very long time. Probably I'm on his phone list. "You're early" he said. "As usual lah" was my reply. His house is close by, near Datuk Keramat, just outside the Mindef grounds, which is next to this ex Felda complex.

Actually I had two stints at Felmil.  The first one was when posted as the AGM for 11 months (14.4.1979 - 28.2.1980), then as GM for 3 years (1.7.1982 - 31.5.1985). That's more than four decades ago. How time has flown !

I told Ridzuan this was quite a feat, pulling this number of former staff. I'm a member of 2 alumni associations that are still active, but they can't pull 100 so easily. Sadly for me, though there were only a handful of the ex Felmil staff that I knew and worked with who came. Many are still around, but they couldn't come because of health issues. These are old people, really. Aziz is 84, and I'm 81. So I suppose it's to be expected. I would have loved to meet Salleh Ali and Ramli Adnan, in particular, among the absentees.

I shared a table with Halim Hamid, Aziz Zakaria and Cheang Chit Yew (we called him Cheang cheat you, which he took sportingly). There was simply too much to recollect, reminisce and share in one lunch session like this, so everybody was talking at the same time and full comprehension was jeopardized, but it didn't stop us from going on and on. I enjoyed it, anyway.

Halim and I shared our update on the national politics, and gave our separate resound verdicts. Incidently, I sold some of the book that I had printed last year, about Malaysian politics. "At cost price" I declared.

The sad journey that has been Felda's currently, had not missed our criticisms, among all topics shared. In simple conclusion, I told Halim, all the good work put, and the good money made, while Felda was led by  technocrats, have now been destroyed by the politicians who, gleefully, took over. I believe that the Chairman during our time should have been more generous to us in terms of pay and benefits. After all we were like the other large private and public plantations doing exactly what we were doing. But the managers were paid way above our pay, and the perks were princely, but justified. That was not the case with Felda. Every effort to economize was made. In the end the politicians that replaced our CEO's  squandered all the money saved, and then some. The Chairman could have distributed the profits legally and fairly by adjusting the salaries and improving the perks and bonuses. The staff put in all the work. The politicians later took care of the lot.

Anyway, to me the lunch yesterday was enjoyable. As I left, I congratulated Ridzuan, and suggested he continues this as an annual affair. And not wait another 40 years.

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