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Govt must re-establish 'war room' to battle palm oil smear campaign
Govt must re-establish 'war room' to battle palm oil smear campaign
11.11.2021 (www.nst.com.my) - KUALA LUMPUR: The government has been urged to re-establish a 'war room' to fight against global anti-palm oil campaigns.
Seputeh member of parliament Teresa Kok said the 'war room' must include the relevant ministries and formulate key strategies.
"We must also join forces with Indonesia through the Council of Palm Oil Producing Countries and come out with strategies to counter anti-palm oil campaigns among the international community," she told Dewan Rakyat when debating the Supply Bill 2022.
Kok also called on the government to provide sufficient allocation to conduct joint studies on the health benefits of palm oil by Malaysian and foreign scientists.
She said many western countries which import commodity products from Malaysia, especially palm oil, have become increasingly focused on environmental protection and forest coverage in the country, in addition to the quality and health aspects of palm oil.
Citing a Nov 7 article by The Washington Post titled 'Countries' climate pledges built on flawed data, Post investigation finds', Kok said Malaysia was accused of under-reporting its greenhouse gas emissions to the United Nations.
"In addition, on October 21, the Hong Kong Consumer Council stated that its study of 60 types of biscuits in the Hong Kong market, specifically biscuits made with palm oil, contain elements of carcinogens that can cause cancer.
"Yesterday, The Guardian newspaper published an article titled "Fatty acid found in palm oil linked to spread of cancer". This article quoted a professor from the Institute for Research in Biomedicine Barcelona saying that a study on mice found palmitic acid promoted metastasis in mouth and skin cancers.
"Although the Environment and Water Ministry have responded to allegations from the Washington Post, and the Health Ministry have also denied allegations that biscuits produced in Malaysia that use palm oil will cause cancer, it was clear that statements from both ministries were certainly not enough.
"All these attacks seem to agree on environmental protection, as well as on the quality and health aspects of palm oil.
"This was a concerted attack from the non-governmental organisations, media, and even academic institutes in foreign countries on our palm oil and Malaysia's environmental protection issues."