The Star Online (07/07/2019) - Usually this phrase is helpful because it reminds us that a situation can be so complex that we fail to grasp the main issue because of over-attention to detail.

Put another way, when we cannot see the wood for the trees, we are so lost in the detail of a thing that we forget the big picture.

So what is the big picture?

According to many environment and related scientists, we now live in the Age of the Anthropocene: when mankind has the power to alter the planet in an irreversible way. If we’re not careful, so the logic goes, then this will be the last Age of mankind. So wood or trees must be renewable and sustainable. Otherwise life on this planet ends. Us included.

Can there even be a bigger picture?

For sure, it’s a bit depressing and alarmist. Some find it difficult to understand. Things get simplistic, not just simple. Maybe in the face of the Anthropocene, mankind imagines itself so powerful, there is no need for God. After all, if we do our duty to recycle and renew in a sustainable way, then the planet will be fine. It won’t be altered in ways that we cannot turn back. Others believe the opposite: God is right here. Pray that the planet, and life as we know it, will not end. No need then to worry about the melting ice, heated temperatures, failure of crops.

It’s all a bit complex.

Which is presumably why, when Teresa Kok, one of the most hard working and principled politicians who has been Primary Industries Minister for a year, was given a short video clip that was apparently focused on deforestation due to oil palm plantations that destroy the habitat of the orang utan, she took it very seriously.

The Minister defended the primary industry that provides such high revenue and employment for the country (second only to oil and gas), it is known as the “golden crop”.

Interestingly, she also made an accusation against the clip, whoever, of “sowing seeds” of hatred against the palm oil industry. When we remember that this is the same politician who regularly got into hot water for her satirical Chinese New Year videos – always poking fun with puns and parodies about disgraced former Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak and (Datin Seri) Rosmah Mansor – we can expect some word play, perhaps. Was the Minister trying to mock environmentalists?

Maybe this is to get lost in detail.

Before we knew it, the “sowing seeds” of hatred against palm oil seemed to conjure up evil foreigners in our educational midst who are leading innocent Malaysian lambs astray. Yes, it is hard to see an eight year old as anything but a lamb. But really, was this just about innocence versus propaganda?

Perhaps this too is to get lost in the detail.

There were no facts or stories given about the Malaysian palm oil industry’s efforts to apply sustainable development. It would have been a perfect opportunity for the Minister to reveal her knowledge and the kinds of political fights that go on. (I once worked on a public information campaign for the Malaysian Timber Council to update the European Union and consumers about sustainable development efforts during a period when Malaysian hardwoods were banned.)

Then suddenly, as if it had to defend itself, the Education Ministry announced, with all gravitas, that it would “launch a probe” into the international school, as if to announce a new task force into the kidnap and disappearance of Malaysian citizens by the Special Branch.

Yet, there has been a deafening silence from Yeo Bee Yin, the Energy, Science, Technology, Environment and Climate Change Minister.

Finally, ReformARTsi, the new coalition of artists and arts organisations that is “building consensus for reform and policy change in arts education, funding and freedom of expression” weighed in to defend freedom of expression (see below).

“Engage not threaten”, they said, adding their “alarm” at the heavy-handedness of the respective ministries. Why must whack with such a big stick? In the age of Malaysia Baharu, we should have the right to express a point of view in creative ways. It doesn’t have to toe the line of the government.

But again, maybe this is too much detail.

Hannah Yeoh, former Speaker of the Selangor Assembly, now Deputy Minister for Women, Community and Family Development, then defended the international school in her constituency. She made the valuable point that the “clip” was just one part of a much longer performance, and surely the point is to look at the bigger picture.

But again, what is the bigger picture here? (How refreshing, by the way, to have referenced three Ministers who are also female.)

For sure, not all environmentalists are lone “tree huggers”. Greenpeace has many branches all over the world. It operates like a multinational, funded by the German government among other European sources. It doesn’t just have a heart of gold.

So which argument is correct? The Malaysian palm oil or pro-environmental and wildlife?

It’s more complex than this simplistic either/or question. Clearly, there is truth from many angles.

So let us not jump to conclusions! Democracy takes work. We have to exercise elasticity or difference of opinion, like going for walks.

We cannot just say that Malaysian palm oil is being attacked by foreign environmentalists who cannot see the wood for the trees.

Read more at https://www.thestar.com.my/news/nation/2019/07/07/when-we-cannot-seethe-wood-for-the-trees/#8tsp6AZyOWDrAk71.99