Obama didn't see the big picture

THE recent visit to Malaysia by US President Barack Obama drew significant interest – and rightly so. The United States is looking to expand its relations with Malaysia; yet, there was one comment by the US President that was deeply disturbing.

He said, “In Indonesia and Malaysia, what you’ve seen is huge portions of tropical forests that (are)… just being shredded because of primarily the palm oil industry. And there are large business interests behind that industry.” He then went on to ask how we can preserve those forests while using “a different approach to economic development.”