Palm Oil Misunderstanding Resolved After Meeting Between Minister School

---

Primary Industries Minister Teresa Kok hands over red palm oil to Andrew Dalton, education director of The International School @Parkcity, principal Jonathan Turner and Parkcity director of township management Sukhdev Singh. On the left is Malaysian Palm Oil Council CEO Kalyana Sundram.PETALING JAYA: The “unfortunate incident” concerning an international school allegedly spreading an anti-palm oil message to its students has been resolved following a meeting between Primary Industries Minister Teresa Kok and administrators of the school
Kok said the administrators explained the students were merely repeating the roles depicted in an anti-palm oil video produced by an NGO
“Yesterday, I was paid a visit by the senior administrators of The International School @Parkcity: Education director Andrew Dalton, principal Jonathan Turner and director of Parkcity Sukhdev Singh
“This was after I raised the issue of the school spreading an anti-palm oil message to their students, which resulted in prominent coverage in the media
“They shared a video clip with me which was actually shown at the students’ assembly. The clip included an excerpt of an anti-palm oil video titled ‘Rang-Tan’ produced by the NGO GreenPeace
“The students merely repeated the roles as depicted in the anti-palm oil video clip, which was shown at the assembly,” she said in a Facebook posting this morning
She said the school administrators apologised for the “unfortunate incident” and told her that on hindsight, they could have handled the situation better
Kok said that during the meeting, she reiterated her stand that the issue was not about stifling freedom of expression in schools
“Rather, it is about them having a fuller understanding of both sides of the coin about the palm oil controversy, particularly the numerous efforts taken by the government and the palm oil industry players towards sustainability of the entire value chain of the oil palm industry.”She said the palm oil industry was governed by about 60 legislations and regulations, and the government was strongly advocating that the entire industry fully adopt the mandatory Malaysian Sustainable Palm Oil (MSPO) certification
The finance ministry, she said, had recently allocated RM100 million to help to pay the certification costs for smallholders and oil palm growers owning less than 1,000ha
“In our discussion, I explained to the administrators the health benefits of palm oil, including red palm oil and vitamin E tocotrieniols. They were very surprised to learn of this,” she said
“l also told them that oil palm became controversial because of its high productivity
“If there is no oil palm in the world, with the growth of the world population, nations would have cleared more rainforest in order to grow other forms of lower productivity oil crops to satisfy the global consumption needs.”Kok also said she explained to the school administrators the importance of palm oil to the economy of Malaysia, “that palm oil has lifted the lives of millions of Malaysians in the rural areas from abject poverty”
She said she appreciated the sincerity of the school in resolving the misunderstanding, adding that she hoped the incident would “open the doors wider to spur further engagement with other international schools”. - FMT

---