Malaysia's palm oil endangers human - Nick Xelophon
KUALA LUMPUR: A Barisan Nasional lawmaker said it was bewildering for Malaysians involved in the Bersih 3.0 rally to invite Australian independent senator Nicholas Xenophon when he is bent on bringing down Malaysia's palm oil, a key industry that millions of Malaysians are dependent on.
MP for Sri Gading Datuk Mohamad Aziz said how could Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim invite Xenophon whose hostile stance towards Malaysia's palm oil industry obviously shows he has no concern about Malaysia's well-being.
Mohamed, who is Umno's deputy permanent chairman, pointed out that Xenophon has been harshly criticising Malaysia's palm oil industry when the former tabled the Food Standards Amendment (Truth In Labeling-Palm Oil) Bill 2010, saying that the palm oil endangers people's live and also kills Orang Utan habitat through deforestation.
Speaking to The Mole, Mohamed said:"He attacks our key industry, and at the same time he talks so much about our system of democracy. Is he being instigated by Anwar?."
Xenophon, in an article he wrote that appeared in the Australian-based Sydney Morning Herald last year, claimed that palm oil is high in saturated fat and low in polyunsaturated fat, claiming that the (Australian) the Heart Foundation states that consuming it increases the risk of heart disease.
He also claimed that in south-east Asia alone (including Malaysia), the equivalent of 300 soccer fields are cleared of trees every hour for palm oil production, according to environmentalists.
Xenophon have not relented on his accusations about the palm oil despite detailed explanation from chief executive officer of Malaysian Palm Oil Council Tan Sri Dr Yusof Basiron who pointed out that for every hectare of palm oil trees, four hectares of permanent forests are preserved.
Dr Yusof also described Xenophon as someone who practised double standards, on one hand discriminatorily associating palm oil with deforestation but keeping mum over Australian agricultural products which were actually causing it.
The invitation to Xenophon to the Bersih rally was also questioned by Barking Magpie who said: "Why would a leader of the Malaysian opposition like Anwar allow a foreigner like Xenophon to come to Malaysia and telling us not only palm oil is bad but we have not been conducting our democracy properly, and to now tell us how we should conduct our elections?".
Two years ago Anwar had also invited Xenophon to observe his sodomy trial.
According to news agency Bernama, Xenophon, were among the 50 Australian lawmakers who had called for the sodomy charge against Anwar to be dropped in February.
The Malaysian Insider reported that Xenophon had said that the government’s handling of the Bersih sit-in protest in Kuala Lumpur two two weeks ago showed its ‘authoritarian’ nature.
Prior to this, Xenophon, as reported in an Australian daily, had urged Australia to rethink the relationship with Malaysia.