KUALA LUMPUR: Primary Industries Minister Teresa Kok urged all international schools and universities to welcome government officials to conduct fact-based educational programmes to students.
In a statement today, she highlighted some international schools in the Klang Valley repeatedly rejecting the Malaysian Palm Oil Council’s (MPOC) offer to conduct palm oil awareness sessions to their students.
“It is disheartening to see Malaysians rejecting our golden crop, and school teachers who have failed to understand the whole issue.”
Time and again, Kok said, her Ministry and MPOC received complaints from some parents that some teachers in some international schools are spreading hatred towards palm oil to students in their classes.
“Even the current episode was brought to our attention by a concerned parent of a child attending the said school,” the minister admitted.
All oil palm planters pay cess to MPOC and this government agency has been supporting wildlife conservation for nearly 10 years now. In Sabah, Kok said, the MPOC has been paying for the initiatives carried out by the Sabah Wildlife Rescue Unit.
In April 2019, MPOC pledged a further RM1.5 million to Sabah Wildlife Department to survey the elephant and orang utan populations in the state.
On top of that, Kok said her ministry has launched the One Million Forestry Species Tree Planting project in a degraded permanent forest in Lower Kawag, Sabah.
Kok seeks to hold dialogues with the managements and teachers of all international schools to openly discuss so as to dispel prejudices and misunderstandings about palm oil nutrition and the sustainable cultivation of oil palms throughout Malaysia.
Only with such open dialogues, she sought to bridge the gaps in understanding the truth about oil palm cultivation, which is also the lifeline of close to a million small farmers throughout Malaysia.
“I would like to clarify that my criticism was not an attempt to stifle freedom of expression in that primary school,” the minister said.
Kok respects dissenting views, including teachers and students from international schools but not at the expense of spreading hate towards palm oil, an integral contributor to Malaysia’s economy.
She asked of critics to consider opening their mind to the facts and figures of oil palm cultivation so as to get the full picture of the real situation.
“As the minister who is entrusted with the well-being of Malaysia’s agricultural commodities, I acknowledge the criticism thrown at the palm oil industry. Also, I do not blindly defend certain mistakes made by some industry players in the past,” Kok said.
What is important, she reiterated, is to rectify mistakes and to create an improved roadmap that prescribes to greater care for our environment and wildlife throughout the palm oil supply chain.
The minister appealed for teachers and students to better understand the efforts made by the government and the oil palm planters’ in sustainable cultivation and conservation for the benefit of Malaysia’s future generations.