The UK’s decision to join a regional trade pact is expected to help Malaysia break down the stigma and negative propaganda surrounding palm oil, plantation and commodities minister Fadillah Yusof said today.
“Not only do we welcome the UK to the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), we also welcome its trade secretary Kemi Badenoch’s remarks on palm oil,” he was quoted as saying by Bernama.
“… She rightly dispelled the myth of deforestation and the negative or untrue campaigns regarding the commodity,” he said at a Ramadan event in Kuching.
Malaysians who are forced daily to survey the vast areas of monoculture, where their country once played host to the most bio-diverse and richly resourced landscape on the planet, know what the real myths are – they come under the heading of Deforestation Denial:
The myth that over 50% of the country remains unlogged.
The myth that the main beneficiaries are so called ‘smallholders”.
The myth that Malaysia has pursued a responsible policy towards the management of its forests, which have been de-gazetted and scythed down at such a rate that in Sarawak less than 5% of its virgin forest areas remain.
Mono-culture plantations are no replacement for natural forest. They destroy the landscape and consist of unnatural imported species, which rely on toxic pesticides and fertilisers and are eventually harvested causing climate altering carbon pollution on top.
Ms Badenock, a so-called Brexiteer, is already rightly under fire in the UK for her lousy CPTPP deal, which she ludicrously presented as a trade replacement for the EU, and for having to sacrifice environmental principals to achieve the minuscule trade boost thanks to Malaysia’s demand.
It is pointed out Britain already had trading partnerships with every country in the distant bloc, except Malaysia/Brunei, anyway.
Now Badenoch will be further ridiculed, thanks to Fadillah’s preposterous claim that the rampant, disgraceful assault on Malaysia’s forests – which are largely the result of corrupt deals between his government cronies and the timber tycoons – are “a myth”.
She deserves all the opprobrium she gets for this disgraceful attempt to dress up failure as success and in doing so to turn a blind eye to the most important issue that faces mankind – the survival of life on our planet in the face of unrestrained resource extraction by a handful of greedy businessmen and politicians.