KUALA LUMPUR: For over a century, the plantation industry has remained a crucial component of Malaysia’s economy with a sustained dominance in the global market for palm oil production and exports after Indonesia.
Besides that, it is the rice bowl of about half a million local smallholders of which most are from the B40 category – further cementing the need to have continuity and stability for the sector to grow, expand and battle out the constant discrimination it faces.
The sudden decision by Datuk Zuraida Kamaruddin to resign as the Plantation Industries and Commodities Minister after about nine months of administrating the ministry has created somewhat mixed reaction from industrial players.
In replying to her decision, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob said Zuraida is still the plantation minister and she would still carry out her duties as usual until he made a decision on the matter.
“I did not sack her, she is still a Cabinet minister,” he told journalists in Tokyo on Saturday at the end of his official working visit to Japan.
Palm Oil Analytics’ owner and co-founder Sathia Varqa tweeted in his Twitter account that should Zuraida resign, it would pave the way for a fourth minister in three years to helm the industry.
“Major setback to domestic policies – foreign workers, biodiesel, sustainability, 3MCPD,” he said.
Previously Zuraida, together with Human Resources Minister Datuk Seri M. Saravanan, have worked towards bringing more foreign labour into the country to help improve palm oil production.
She aimed to bring in 32,000 migrant workers for oil palm plantations and projected Malaysia’s palm oil production and exports to rise by 30% by end-2022 as Malaysia reopened its international borders and transitioning to the endemic phase since April 1. — Bernama
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