Masing showing reporters the Orange Power floor cleaner with
the unfriendly label during the news conference at his residence
in Kuching yesterday. — Photo by Muhammad Rais Sanusi

13/05/2015 (Borneo Post) - Some foreign forces are found to have engaged new tactics to attack the nation’s and state’s oil palm industry in what is believed to be more of business rivalry rather than environmental issues.

An example are some Australian firms who were reported to be using oil palm free label to promote their products even though they had nothing to do with oil.

In expressing his displeasure, Land Development Minister Tan Sri Datuk Amar Dr James Masing revealed that an outlet of a Kuala Lumpur-based company here was found selling floor cleaner with the picture of an orang utan and the words ‘Buy oil palm free products to save orang utans’ on its label.

“It is very irresponsible of them to use unfriendly labelling against crude palm oil on the pretext of trying to protect the orang utan.

“They know nothing about orang utans. They have never seen live orang utans except through television but here we are doing the best we can to protect the animals, so please don’t teach ducks how to swim,” he said.

Masing called on any outlet selling products with such labels to remove them from their shelves, saying it was unethical for fellow Malaysians to sabotage one of the most profitable industries in their own country just to make a quick profit.

“To me this is not environmental in nature but economic rivalry so I want to tell those outlets please do not short sell your own country for quick profit. It is very unfair to us, especially oil palm planters,” he said.

He stressed that those selling such products should withdraw them immediately, failing which appropriate actions would be taken against them.

“Our advice to them is withdraw the products from your shelves because if not we will do something about this. It may include barring the import of such products into the country or state,” said Masing.

He also said such campaign by the product manufacturers or distributors was most unfair to Sarawak Oil Palm Plantation Owners Association (Soppoa) because as far as the state was concerned it had done its level best to protect the orang utan and other wildlife.

“What I also want to say is this. All areas where orang utans are found are left untouched but converted into wildlife sanctuaries. We have one million hectares of totally protected areas and 22 per cent of that are where orang utans are found,” he said.

He said because of the serious efforts to preserve the species the population had been able to multiply significantly, citing as example the increase in the number of orang utans in Lanjak Entimau Wildlife Sanctuary to 5,000 from about 2,500 previously.

“This had been acknowledged and confirmed by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) recently,” he said.

Earlier Masing, who is Baleh assemblyman, said products with such labels previously were only sold in supermarkets in Peninsular Malaysia but were withdrawn from the shelves following strong protests by the planters.

“Now they are trying to get into the state and this is something that we must stop. We have enough problems with foreign NGOs (non-governmental organisations) before but eventually they stopped after we managed to make them understand how we do things.

“So now we don’t want any more outsiders to come in and try to attack the industry which has benefited the various sectors in Sarawak,” he said.