MALAYSIA NEEDS TO PLAY ITS ROLES IN RSPO

By Wan Nor Azura Mior Abd Aziz

KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 3 (Bernama) -- Malaysia needs to play its roles correctly
in the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) and has a choice of walking
away from the RSPO process if it is going to undermine the palm oil industry.

RSPO secretary-general Dr Vengeta Rao, in stating this, said the country
could benefit from the roundtable process as it was meant to improve the
environment and to improve productivity in agriculture.

"However, if it allows itself to be bullied, of course you would be
bullied," he told Bernama on the sidelines of the 7th Roundtable Meeting on
Sustainable Palm Oil here Tuesday.

"Because Malaysia was part of the formation, to leave it, you need to give a
reason. It is not that you cannot leave the RSPO, you can leave the RSPO," he
said.

However, Malaysia could walk away from the RSPO process if it felt that its
views were ignored and the requirements set unfair to the industry, he added.

He was asked to comment on a report that western environmental
non-governmental organisations (NGOs) are like schoolyard bullies, taking
advantage of palm oil producing countries.

The report quoted Don D'Cruz, a specialist who spent a decade fighting NGO
campaigns, as saying that the RSPO process, although good-intentioned, was
likely to cause a great deal of damage to the palm oil industry in countries
like Malaysia and Indonesia.

Rao said if there were matters in RSPO unfair or unreasonable to Malaysia,
such as non-tariff barriers, the country has to make its view clear before
deciding to walk away from the roundtable.
-- BERNAMA