PAS man got his bamboo facts wrong, says Teresa

Former primary industries minister Teresa Kok has hit out at Malacca PAS information chief Bakri Jamaluddin for an article criticising her efforts at promoting bamboo plantations, saying that the latter had gotten his facts wrong.

"I was drawn to Bakri's article ‘Apakah Buluh PAS dan DAP sama?’ which was posted on Harakahdaily.net yesterday and I want to correct some of its inaccurate claims," said Kok in a Facebook post this morning.

Bakri had leapt to the defence of his party colleague, newly installed Plantation Industries and Commodities Minister Mohd Khairuddin Aman Razali after Kok had pointed out that the latter is now happy to proceed with policies related with bamboo planting, despite having criticised the idea when she mooted it last year.

In his article, Bakri said there were a number of differences, such as that Khairuddin's plan was to make the bamboo industry a "game-changer" under the MTIB (Malaysian Timber Industry Board) and not under the MPOB (Malaysian Palm Oil Board).

Bakri claimed that Kok's plans were a source of derision amongst industry players and the general public. He went on to take aim at Kok for the 'Drink a tablespoon of palm oil a day" campaign.

In her post today, Kok, who is also MP for Seputeh, claimed that Bakri's piece contained factual errors.

"The Malaysian Bamboo Industry Development Action Plan was actually drafted by the MTIB for the period 2011-2020, and was not drafted in 2016 as Bakri mentioned."

However, she said that the plan was drafted before Pakatan Harapan formed the federal government, and was not taken seriously.

"Therefore, the export value of bamboo in 2019 was only RM9 million, while the market size for the global bamboo market was US$68 billion in 2018, as stated by the plantation industries and commodities minister himself."

Kok said during her time as primary industries minister, she was informed by MTIB officers on the Bamboo Industry Development Plan and began actively promoting bamboo cultivation as a new crop for the country, which included bringing MTIB officials to make presentations to several state governments.

"In addition, I also managed to get an allocation of RM6 million for the 2020 budget to set up a bamboo seed nursery.

"Bakri's claim that Khairuddin ‘dared to develop the bamboo-based industry as a game-changer under the MTIB’ is incorrect because the Bamboo Industry Development Action Plan had already begun in 2011.”

Kok added that she had never advised the palm oil industry to "forget the palm, plant the bamboo".

"This is the headline of a report that was deliberately circulated by the newspaper Utusan Malaysia at the time.

Kok also told Bakri that the "one tablespoon of palm oil a day" was a statement by then prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad when he launched the myPalmOil campaign on March 24, 2019.

"It was deliberately twisted by Umno and PAS supporters to insult the myPalmOil campaign and me.

Kok also said that Bakri had misattributed the "rubber tapping in the rainy season" statement to her, saying it was from the Malaysian Rubber Board (LGM) instead.

"This is because LGM has successfully produced tools that allow rubber tapping to be carried out in the rainy season. Such devices are also used by rubber tappers in Thailand and in Hainan, China."

Kok recommended that Bakri visit the LGM for a briefing on this design.

"The main reason Khairuddin is facing criticism and ridicule from the public is because he made a statement in March last year (2019) that insulted my efforts as the minister at that time to promote bamboo cultivation based on inaccurate reports in Utusan Malaysia.

"Ironically, Khairuddin is now clearly promoting bamboo cultivation," added Kok, who called on Harakahdaily.net to publish her statement so that it could be seen as a “credible media and not a slanderous portal”.

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- Mkini