Oil palm, coming to a village near you

Kelapa sawit or oil palm plantations are springing up everywhere nowadays. Soon, hundred thousands or millions of hectares will be covered in this…

 

It makes me feel very sad to see what is happening to Sarawak today. God forbid one day we may also end up looking like West Malaysia where for as far as the eye can see, one can only spot oil palm and no more natural forests. The people are supposed to be better off when their idle lands are turned into big plantations but I don’t see our economy pulling up any better than it is, even with more hectares cleared.

 

 

Who consumes this much oil?? I have a feeling that even if everyone in Malaysia stops buying oil palm based cooking oil etc, more land will continue to be cleared for this monoculture crop. This is most probably because of the increasing demand for bio-diesel in the world market. I have a feeling that’s where the bulk of it goes to, not household consumption but for making bio-fuel.

 

 

Unfortunately, the average joe, dick and harry, or in Malaysia, the average Ah Kow, Mutu and Ali don’t really care about what’s going on to their environment. It all comes down to ignorance. As long as it’s not affecting them directly, they really don’t want to know about it or do anything about it.

 

 

Only way I can think of to stop this rot is by the power of the ballot. Vote! Vote during the next election, don’t rest on your laurels, exercise your right and power!

 

 

Or this may be Sarawak’s future…