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GLOBAL human rights movement in protection of tribal minorities may have dealt a huge blow to gigantum economic forces in Malaysia. The latest to come down under the pressure of human rights advocates is the palm oil industry. According to an update on the website of Survial International yesterday, it was reported that the advertising regulator in the United Kingdom had banned an advertisement placed by the Malaysian Palm Oil Council (MPOC). The magazine advertisement claimed that Malaysian palm oil was ‘sustainable’ and contributed to ‘the alleviation of poverty, especially amongst rural populations'. However, The UK’s Advertising Standards Agency banned the advertisement, ruling that those claims, and many others, were misleading and could not be substantiated. Incidentally, the tribal minority highlighted as the victims of the palm oil industry profiteering is the Penan community in the Malaysian state of Sarawak, or a part of the forlorn Borneo remembered in its colonial history. Over decades, the Penans had been fighting a losing battle to stop the massive chopping down of forests, their natural habitat, to benefit the timber-logging companies and to make way for oil palm plantations. Advocates of the Penans' human rights have been calling on the Malaysia government to halt deforestation activities and logging on the Penans' land without their consent. But to no avail. Meanwhile, palm oil has grown to make Malaysia the most dominant vegetable oil producer in the global market. On the flip of the coin, it has also become target of anti-tropical oil lobbyists, notably in the developed economies in the US and Euro Community, where inherent players in the edible oil market faced apparent threats. Manufacturing of consent In the face of such competitive environment, the palm oil industry and the Malaysian government employed a phenomenon well-described by Noam Chomsky in the 1980s: The manafacturing of consent using the media. Numerous reactive measures were taken to counter the lobbyists' manoeuvres, which included the hiring of public relations specialists in the US to address the issues of negative perception and allegations over the nutritional characteristics of palm oil produced in Malaysia. Subsequently, MPOC was set up as a state-sponsored entity to take the lobbyists head on in their territories. Its regional offices are now present in California in the US, Brussels in the EU, Shanghai in People's Republic of China, South Africa, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Turkey and Egypt. Homafwever, the ban of the advertisement in the UK market may have taken a new nuance, in that manufactured consent to favour palm oil is now linked to violation of human rughts of a tribal minority. In a statement issued yesterday, Survival International director Stephen Corry said: "Claims that Malaysian palm oil is green and people-friendly will not wash, especially with the Penan. The industry’s expansion onto their land is a disaster." "Oil palm plantations and logging are destroying the forests the Penan hunt and gather in, and polluting the rivers they fish in," Survival International said. "Without their forests they have difficulty finding enough food." In what looks like a public relations exercise by the human rights advocate, the statement carried a reaction on behalf of the Penans:
Of late, the Penans had faced serious threats besides destruction of their natural habitat. There were cases of Penan young girls sexually assaulted without any justice given. As a legislator, I have submitted a motion in the current sitting of the House of Representative in the Malaysian Parliament. The motion was cued under Motion No. 64 [Ref: PR-1223-U34075] which says:
Thus far, the Home Affairs Minister,who is entrusted to uphold public safety, had taken no action on the issue.
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Oil Palm plantation violate the human right much WORST than one can imagine. The oil palm affect and voilate more people life than one can imagine. 1. Penan , for losing their ancestor land. They voice up, and support by international group. 2. Other tribes still hallucinate they live better than Penan, no realise the toxic(herbicide and pesticide) from oil palm plantation sip into underground and contaminate the water. 3. Plantation worker : most of these people expose to toxic herbicide,pesticide with little to NONE protection. 4. Lost of forest diversity and even disappearance of flora and fauna. And some lead to cure of outbreak. 5. Destruction of nature irrigation. Oil palm can't stand high moisture. So plantation build water channel purge excess water. And this waste tons of soils to the river. 6. Cause flood to place never flood before. 7. Impact to river fishery. 8. Heavy subsidiaries from tax payer coffer, from fertilizer, pesticide, insecticide, 9. Labor intensive and cheap labor exploitation to support the industry. Little to none worker welfare. When the worker sicks, the cost is transfer back to Malaysian. It is even more costly to cure worker that get sick from oil palm plantation poison spraying 10. Compete with food growing farm for land. 11. Destruction of rain forest and emit/release carbon directly into the air. In fact, palm oil plantation are heavily depends on EXTREME exploitation and ROBBING the society by transferring hundred millions or even billions of cost to the people. It is NOT as profitable if enforcement and monitoring are put upon those huge plantation company. Palm oil plantation are indeed yet another Malaysia resources curse.
This is a hard issue, the environment on one side and development on the other. I wonder if you heard about the Cadbury palm oil scandal? It was a big thing in New Zealand a few mths ago. Cadbury started using palm oil asa substitute for cocoa butter, but had to switch back cos of the public outcry. All I was thinking was that the Msia gov must've been screaming at the lost income.. See: http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/2758975/Cadbury-stops-using-palm-oil-in-chocolate
cardbury switch back to cocoa coz palm oil is not sustainable, how about cocoa tree, are they sustainable? which is also come from tropical forest, and need to use much more size of land in order to produce the same amount butter produced by palm oil. Is that the right solution or only a politic in a global economic???
And to jeff ooi, have you been experience to be as a PENAN community, living in a jungle looking for your daily supply, face the daily unexpected dangerous, no utilities and stay in the same condition forever till to your next generation. Do you wish to be like that?
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At least they're not still making drinks out of it! http://asiabeat.wordpress.com/2010/06/20/malaysia-we-invented-the-singapore-sling/
Hi, I am not sure whether this is the right place to post but I hope you can help to bring this to light. http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=115366075175927 This is a video posted on facebook. In the view, it shows three teenagers acting as they are riding their bike directed by the police. The teenagers might be caught for speeding or racing even so the police should not do this do them. This is a gross misconduct, they police are abusing their power and have violated the teenagers human rights. Please do something, if you can't do anything, could you advise me on what I can do to let the authority aware of this? Thanks, Anonymous |
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