Putrajaya needs to take a more aggressive approach to tackle the European Union’s (EU) decision to phase out palm oil from transport fuel used in that trading bloc, says the Federal Land Development Authority (Felda).
Felda director-general Datuk Dr Othman Omar said this is a purely business strategy for some EU member nations.
“In the past they said the cultivation of palm oil here caused deforestation, but we have stopped planting in new areas. Next they said palm oil is not green. I think as far as the lobby is concerned, they look at oil palm as more efficient and more people are attracted to produce more, so they need to kill it before it becomes their biggest competitor.
“So we have to play a more aggressive role. I think they are winning in terms of their public relations campaign, they are using small children now. All the children have been taught that from young you don’t consume palm oil at all as it is bad and it kills the orang utan,” he told reporters today.
It seems safe to assume that Dr Othman Omar does not come from the world of commerce, where threatening customers is rarely considered a good sales tactic.
In other words, if clients think your product stinks there is no point taking a Fawlty Towers style exception to their views, by hurling back insults and accusations, because it only confirms their opinion of you and the product concerned.
Conciliation not aggression is the key – the likes of Dr Omar need to change their game and engage with these customers to alter their opinion.
It is simply factually ridiculous, for example, to claim that mass deforestation followed by mass oil palm plantations in East Malaysia and Kalimantan (largely by Malaysian companies) has not been the primary threat to the endangered Orang Utan and countless other precious forms of plant and animal life facing loss of habitat on the Island of Borneo, which scientists agree is the most biodiverse corner of the planet.
It is also ridiculous to pretend that the deforestation isn’t still going on as new areas are being bulldozed all the time.
Admit it, then do something about it and people will stop protesting and may buy your palm oil.
Remember deforestation damages Malaysia economically as well. The more of that magical biodiversity that is sacrificed to a monoculture that destroys the land and needs to be increasingly pumped with fertilisers and pesticides on industrial scales, the greater the commercial loss in terms of valuable products for the future based on that huge bank of DNA currently being destroyed.
And the greater the world condemnation will be over sacrificing Earth’s scarce remaining natural heritage for a greedy cash crop that has already glutted its markets and needs to be reined back along with all other fuel products to prevent rampant global warming
The embarrassing fact is that Europe’s school kids understand these issues well, but clearly Dr Omar still doesn’t (he has an ally in that other old fogey, Donald Trump). Our next generation knows about global waming, the dangers of deforestation and of mass extinction, not because of ‘indoctrination’ but because they study science in class.
They are worried that angry, out-of-date and defensive dinosaurs like Dr Omar are going to screw up our earth before they can take it over and rescue what is left. Temperatures are set to rise 1.5C in a decade, unless we can change our food habits, re-forest and stop burning fuels.
There is no Planet B: mankind needs to work together to rescue this one and there is not much time to do it. Don’t take it out on the kids or be aggressive, because it won’t solve a thing and will tar Malaysia’s image in the process.