PRIME Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad said only a small portion of forests are cleared in Malaysia to grow oil palm trees, said Dr Mahathir Mohamad. 

“Some European countries have been campaigning against palm oil. Even in the US, there was a very big campaign claiming that it is poisonous. When we proved it wasn’t poisonous, they claimed that we grow palm oil by cutting down forests.

“But not much of the forests are cut down because palm trees are grown in the areas cleared by our colonial masters (the British) to plant rubber.

“We have cut down the rubber trees in order to grow oil palm trees as they give much better returns,” Dr Mahathir said during a press conference on the sidelines of the 74th United Nations General Assembly in New York today.

He said the allegations that Malaysia was burning the forests to grow more palm oil was untrue and were fabricated to because palm oil is a competitor to soy bean, rapeseed and other oil seeds.

“They cannot compete against palm oil, as you plant a tree and then you can harvest it for 25 years. But if it is soy bean or rapeseed, you have to plant every year. 

“Because they cannot compete, they come up with this story that the habitat of the long-nosed monkeys has been destroyed or that the orang utan has nowhere to go.

“This is nonsense as we are looking after all these animals. We are preserving them. We know that they are species that are only found in our area and we will look after them and ensure they survive.

“The controversy over palm oil is created for commercial reasons,” he said. – September 28, 2019.