Greenpeace and Friends of the Earth: Schoolyard bullies against palm oil?

"An appeaser is one who feeds a crocodile hoping it will eat him last."
Sir Winston Churchill

History has taught us over and over again that appeasement of tyrants and aggressors never works, but only encourages them to continue in their aggression and even up the ante.

Defined as a policy of accepting the imposed conditions of an aggressor in lieu of resistance, usually at the sacrifice of principles, appeasement policies have been demonstrated to fail, often spectacularly, in the complete spectrum of human to human interaction, ranging from pay and labor disputes, to sports administration right up to trade and environmental policy making. Most infamously, appeasement policies were adopted by the likes of Chamberlain, Quislin and Petain towards Hitler in World War II, all with predictably disastrous consequences.

As a consequence, Don D'Cruz, an expert on non-governmental organisation (NGO) campaigns against industries who has spent a decade fighting NGO campaigns on a whole range of issues, have urged palm oil growers, buyers and food companies to walk away from the sustainable palm oil roundtable process.

Says D'Cruz,: "Although the roundtable process was "well-meaning" and "good-intentioned", it was probably going to cause a great deal of damage to the palm oil industry in countries like Malaysia and Indonesia."

"The roundtable process has provided western NGOs with an invaluable opportunity to conduct indepth research into the industry in countries like Malaysia," D'Cruz said.

"Basically they have a better idea as to how to go about destroying the industry in Malaysia because of the intelligence they have obtained," he said.

Speaking from Melbourne where he is based, D'Cruz said the roundtable had been created out a desire by western food multinationals to head off what they viewed as an inevitable campaign on palm oil but he said that it would end up "helping their self-stakeholders as the expense of their real stakeholders".

D'Cruz said processes like the roundtable were built on flawed premises because "the more you give western NGOs, the more they want".

"Western environmental NGOs are like schoolyard bullies, in that until someone stands up to them they will just keep bullying," he said.

"Another problem with this is you hand out a big load of cash to such a process you are going to attract NGOs looking for cash. In a sense, you are not making the problem go away, you are actually institutionalising your critics," he added.

D'Cruz said the money associated with the roundtable was turning the palm oil industry into a target.

He said that he thought that the Malaysian government needed to come in and talk to all parties and shut this down before it ended in tears.

"The subtext of the campaign by western environmental NGOs against the palm oil industry was racism," D'Cruz said.

"Essentially, NGOs like Greenpeace are saying that Malaysians, Indonesians and their elected representatives are too corrupt, lazy or stupid to look after their own countries," he said.

"Ultimately, it is not an argument that the palm oil industry is best equipped to tackle. It is a job for the Malaysian government and other governments which have palm oil industries."

In the view of the Palm Oil Truth Foundation, D'Cruz's views are certainly food for thought, especially when juxtaposed against the unreasonable and often baffling and incomprehensible actions of Greenpeace and Friends of the Earth towards palm oil. Considering the lessons that history has taught the world on the futility of appeasement, it would be remiss for the palm oil industry to ignore the consequences of adopting policies of appeasement towards aggressor "green NGO's" who appear determined to stop the growth of palm oil, by fair means or foul. Nothing destroys untruths as much as the truth and right always triumphs over might. These lessons still hold water and resonate, despite and perhaps in view of the passage of history.THE END.

Palm Oil Truth Foundation (TRUTH Foundation) is an international non-governmental and not-for-profit organisation, without strings to the world of commerce and power. We are a people organisation, organised for the people and founded upon the principles of integrity and responsibility as a global citizen with the sole purpose of representing TRUTH to the global community about health, environmental and economic benefits of palm oil.

The TRUTH Foundation is an international network of social conscience and cooperation among peoples in industry, government, academia and the ordinary global consuming public, strengthening the forces devoted to respect, justice and equality for a more just and sustainable world and for global peace.