Opinion
Oil Palm Elephant and the Blind Men
Various unsubstantiated utterances have been made by some on oil palm cultivation in Sri Lanka, without looking in depth into the subject. Little knowledge is a dangerous thing! A leading politician, in the south, some months ago, prior to the elections, went to the extent of felling a few oil palm trees along a stream bank, probably growing out of seeds dispersed by birds and animals from existing plantations around. He was, of course, seeking to impress villagers in the oil palm cultivating areas ,prior to the elections! Some villagers have been vociferously demanding the banning of the crop, claiming that it is drying up their water resources, although the available scientific evidence does not support their contention. Anyhow, they have now succeeded with the President banning the crop without an in- depth analysis of the issues at stake!
Interestingly, the Government Medical Officers’ Association, some days ago, conducted a seminar on coconut oil, but the unstated objective appeared to be to promote coconut oil and concurrently degrade palm oil! However, except for a few presentations, that of a historian and several Aurvedic specialists, the others failed to articulate effectively a factual comparison of the two crops and their oils.
A lecturer of the Wayamba University ‘sang the usual song’ of oil palm cultivations excessively drying the soil and water bodies as against rubber, without supporting data. He should have conducted a comparative hydrological study of an exclusively oil palm cultivated area as against a nearby rubber only area to support his contention. The published comparative evapo-transpiration evidence of oil palm and rubber do not support his views. A biochemist (a retired professor) comparing the chemical composition of fatty acids in coconut and palm oil stated the virtues of coconut oil fats, but hardly anything about palm oil fats. It is a well known fact that coconut oil is a functional food , that means it has health benefits other than the nutritional. Its main health benefit is the high composition of the so called medium chain fatty acids, lauric, capric and caproic acids, which constitute nearly 63% of the total fatty acid content. Lauric and capric acids are reported to have anti-microbial properties. In fact lauric acid is also a component of mother’s milk and is reported to provide suckling babies immunity against harmful microbes. On the other hand, some coconut fats namely, lauric, myristic and palmetic acids comprising about 74% of the fatty acids in coconut oil are reported to elevate cholesterol. It is to be noted then that lauric acid is doing both good and bad! On the other hand, palm oil lacks the medium chain fatty acids, there being only a trace of lauric acid and accounts for about 46% cholesterol elevating saturated fats, nearly all of it being palmetic acid. Nevertheless, it has 39% oleic acid, a monounsaturated fat, and 9% lenoleic acid, an unsaturated fat both of which reduce total cholesterol. It is important to note that the monounsaturated fat, oleic acid, in palm oil, as also in avocado and cashew nuts, decrease only the (bad) LDL cholesterol but not the good (HDL) cholesterol. Palm kernel oil on the other hand, comprising less than 10% of the total oil content in the fruit, has a fatty acid composition, very comparable to coconut oil. On the whole, therefore, palm oil can be argued to be more heart friendly than coconut oil! Regrettably, the good professor should have explained all this to the participants of the meeting! However, it is now accepted that consumption of coconut oil in moderation does not elevate the risk of heart disease. The same applies to palm oil.
The professor, however, was on the whole, sceptical of oil palm and one of his hacks was on tree trunk’s use as timber, a common practice in many oil palm growing countries. He stated that the trees are harvested only about every 25 years, and, therefore, the factories will have to remain closed most of the time! Is he not aware that coconut timber is harvested only every 60-80 years, but the coconut timber mills function throughout because all timber harvesting, whether oil palm or coconut, is not done at any one time!
One of the agenda items of the GMOA Seminar is felicitation of Dr D P Athukorale, a well-known cardiologist. I should add a word on my association with him in defending coconut oil consumption in the 1990s when I was Chairman of the Coconut Research Board. However, my first interaction with him dates back to 1983 when, I consulted him for high blood lipids, having returned from Brazil, spending one year on a World Bank mission, and eating beef steak regularly and lavishly! Dr Athukorale’s advice was then, amongst other things, to cut down on my saturated fat intake including coconut oil!
A decade later, when I took over the appointment as Chairman of the Coconut Research Board, one of the first things I came across was the above poster which had been widely distributed the world over! Coconut and palm oils were then accused as ” artery-clogging tropical oils”! Naturally, I was highly disturbed and began digging into the literature on the subject and educating myself on the impact of coconut oil on cardio-vascular diseases.
The history of it is that coconut and palm oil were the main vegetable oils used in the U.S and Europe prior to the World War 11. However, when vegetable oil shipments from SE Asia were disrupted due to the war, the west naturally looked for alternative oil sources and hit upon soya and corn oils. In fact at that time soya oil was used for making paint amongst other uses, but hardly as a dietary oil! With the war ending, and coconut oil shipments arriving again in the U.S and Europe, the soya lobby with the support of the American Heart Association, launched a massive misinformation campaign against coconut and palm oils, as depicted in the poster. The Ancel Keys diet- heart hypothesis, that was propounded by then, that saturated fats elevate cholesterol, leading to coronary vascular diseases, was widely accepted in the U.S and Europe, and people avoided consuming saturated fat. The misinformation campaign was so effective, it was said that the people were more scared of saturated fat than ghosts! The soya lobby, backed by the American Heart Association even attempted to ban import of tropical oils . As a consequence, the U.S government appointed a Senate Sub Committee to investigate into the complaint. However, the Coconut Authority of the Philippines hired a team of experts comprising cardiologists and other specialists from the Harvard Medical College to defend against the proposed ban. The team successfully argued the case pointing out that, apart from other evidence, whereas there were then 227 deaths for every 100,000 Americans due to cardiovascular diseases, there were only 22 Philippines, and the coconut oil content was less 1% in the US diet as against 6% in the Philippine’s!. In that setting it should have been natural for our doctors too to fall in line with the western thinking on saturated fats!
When we (CRI) started our campaign promoting coconut in 1994 , I approached Dr Athukorale, feeding him with new scientific information on coconut oil I had collected. We jointly had a TV programme in Rupavahini and also several seminars including ones in the Colombo and Peradeniya Medical Faculties explaining matters. Prof. Shanthi Mendis, cardiologist, then with the Medical Faculty, University of Peradeniya who had conducted controlled trials feeding coconut oil as against corn oil to subjects, was initially rather cautious with coconut oil consumption, but later came round taking up the position that, consumed in moderation, its risk was minimal!
Things have taken a U turn in the last two decades, in that coconut oil, one of the two so called “artery-clogging tropical oils”, has become the ‘ darling oil’ of the west’ and palm oil is present in nearly 50% of the processed food items in the supermarket!
In conclusion, the global demand for vegetable oils is increasing with increasing population and affluence. Oil palm’s comparative advantage is its extremely high oil productivity with a global average of 3.5 t/ha as against 1t/ha or less for coconut and all other oils. About 43% of the global vegetal oil supply is from oil palm, and it will continue to be the world’s highest oil supplier. Because of increasing demand for food but agricultural land limitations, there is a global trend of replacing less productive and profitable crops with the more profitable, and in this regard too oil palm’s vantage position as an oil crop cannot be matched. We produce only 50,000 MT of coconut oil whereas our vegetable oil demand is in excess of 200,000 MT; and even with substantial expansion of the coconut cover, the oil demand cannot be matched. There is thus a need to expand the oil palm cultivation to at least 50,000 ha to meet our oil requirement. The concurrent foreign exchange savings will be substantial. There is no evidence of environmental damage if the needed land is provided by replacing rubber. The small farmers are abandoning rubber cultivation because of low profit margins, and the net profit from oil palm is several fold that from rubber. Ideally, therefore, oil palm cultivation should be introduced to smallholders, too, as in other countries.
Dr. Parakrama Waidyaratne
Ahamed Kathrada, friend and advisor to Nelson Mandela said of Robben Island, where Mandela was imprisoned for close to 30 years, that “While we will not forget the brutality of apartheid, we will not want Robben Island to be a monument to our hardship and suffering.”
Similarly, we do not want our beloved country to be a monument to our suffering. As Kathrada said, we want our country to be a symbol of the triumph of the human spirit against the forces of evil, a triumph of courage and determination over human frailty and weakness. Managing the painful history of this country should be focused on achieving this objective.
Emotions, such as sadness, worry, anger and in some cases, hatred, festering in our society over the past forty years appear now to be reaching boiling point.
Considering my professional background and knowledge of the mind, I am not surprised by that.
Violence is wrong no matter which side it comes from and regardless of its source. However, the bitter truth that emerges when examining the history of the past forty years, even when looking at it from the best possible angle, is that the foundation of the immoral, illegal and violent politics established took root in Sri Lanka, after 1977.
Actions and counteractions of the negative political culture including violence then established, brought nothing but destruction to Sri Lanka.
The bitter truth is that our collective conscience, sensitivities and actions as a nation, are shaped and coloured by this ongoing aggression and violence that equally affected both the South and the North.
The specific period of terror of 1987 – 1989 was focused mainly in the South. Accepting the fact that the majority of those who suffered during this period were Sinhala Buddhists is merely stating the reality; it is not approaching the problem from a narrow, racist or religious perspective.
It should also be added that I myself was a victim of that terror.
The Sinhala Buddhist culture has a distinctive tradition process for alleviating the grief due to a death by holding awake: sharing the pain of loss with those closest to you, and engaging in religious activities specifically in remembrance of the dead person, a sequence of events including offering alms, that provides time to heal.
It is this cultural heritage of managing loss and grief that was taken away from those who lost their lives and their loved ones in 1987- 89. It is only those who have faced such unfortunate experiences who know the compulsion and pain left by that void, where there was no time to process loss and grief. It is time for introspection – for genuine reflection.
With this background as our legacy over multiple generations, we need to pay greater attention to guarding ourselves against the potential response of “identification with the aggressor.” Identification with the aggressor is an involuntary or sub-conscious psychological defence mechanism and a reaction to trauma where the victim who underwent the trauma identifies with and mimics the behaviour of the person who carries out the violence, as a psychological coping mechanism.
Such responses can be seen in, for example, children undergoing abuse, or young people undergoing ragging. The usual reaction one would expect is for the victim to refrain from abuse or ragging. However, contrary to that expectation, research has revealed that the victim displays behaviour similar to that of the person who abused or ragged him/her.
A clear understanding of how is this concept likely to impact the current political climate is critical at this juncture.
Wielding immense political power, politically less experienced and matured social strata may unknowingly become prone to treating their opponents in the same way that the oppressors of the past victimised them. Therefore, the leadership should be sensitive to the potential of former victims almost unknowingly impose past sufferings on current opponents. It is the responsibility of politically enlightened social strata to identify and prevent that situation in advance. It is a moral obligation of all political parties not just the ruling party.
I would like to share a personal experience in this context. Assistant superintended Senaka de Silva was the man who brutally tortured me at the torture camp at Chitra Road, Gampaha, run alongside the Batalanda torture camp.
After my release, I was working as the Head of the Emergency Treatment Unit at the Sri Jayewardenepura Hospital, when the former ASP de Silva brought his niece there for treatment, unaware that I worked there. He was disconcerted to see me and immediately turned back and walked away. I sent the security officer to bring that child back, admitted her to the hospital and did my best to treat her. The thought process and action that I followed that day is what I adhere to date as well. At the time I was only a specialist in family medicine, today, as a professor of psychiatry, I see these events from a much broader point of view.
The force of emotions arising due to pain or injustice can be destructive to society, but it is also possible to divert it into a force for good. For example, the lack of any post-election violence at the Presidential elections of 2024 indicated a commendable positive direction in social movements. Similarly, the dialogue arising around the Batalanda torture camp, too, should be constructive and forward thinking, so that we shall never again see such an immoral political culture in Sri Lanka.
Ahamed Kathrada, friend and advisor to Nelson Mandela said of Robben Island, where Mandela was imprisoned for close to 30 years, that “While we will not forget the brutality of apartheid, we will not want Robben Island to be a monument to our hardship and suffering.”
Similarly, we do not want our beloved country to be a monument to our suffering. As Kathrada said, we want our country to be a symbol of the triumph of the human spirit against the forces of evil, a triumph of courage and determination over human frailty and weakness. Managing the painful history of this country should be focused on achieving this objective.
This does not mean that we have to essentially follow the South African model of truth commission for reconciliation but we do it in a culturally sensitive way that suits us.
As a Nation we all need to understand that situations arise neither to laugh nor to weep, but to learn from past experience.
(The author of this article became a JVP activist as a student in 1977. He was the Secretary of the Human Rights organisation of Sri Lanka in late 1970s and early 1980s. He was known as the personal physician to the late leader of the JVP Rohana Wijeweera.
He was arrested and imprisoned in 1983, but later released without any charge. He was abducted in broard daylight on the 19 July 1988, held in captivity and tortured. He was released in 1990.
An internationally renowned academic, he is an Emeritus Professor of Global Mental Health at Kings College London and Emeritus Professor Keele University. He is also the Director, Institute for Research and Development in Health and Social care and the Chairman of the National Institute of Fundamental Studies.)
by Professor Athula Sumathipala
The proposed expansion of the Kelani Valley railway line has prompted the squatters to demolish the buildings and the above photograph depicts the ad-hoc manner in which a building in the heart of Nugegoda town (No 39 Poorwarama Road) has been haphazardly demolished posing a risk to the general public. Residents say that the live electric wire has not been disconnected and the half-demolished structure is on the verge of collapse, causing inevitable fatal damages.
Over to the Railway Department, Kotte Municipality Ceylon Electricity Board and the Nugegoda Police.
Athula Ranasinghe,
Nugegoda.
On July 19, 1989, United Airlines Flight 232 departed Denver, Colorado for Chicago, Illinois. The forecast weather was fine. Unfortunately, engine no. 2 – the middle engine in the tail of the three-engined McDonnell Douglas DC 10 – suffered an explosive failure of the fan disk, resulting in all three hydraulic system lines to the aircraft’s control surfaces being severed. This rendered the DC-10 uncontrollable except by the highly unorthodox use of differential thrust on the remaining two serviceable engines mounted on the wings.
Consequently, the aircraft was forced to divert to Sioux City, Iowa to attempt an emergency crash landing. But the crew lost control at the last moment and the airplane crashed. Out of a total of 296 passengers and crew, 185 survived.
The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) declared after an investigation that besides the skill of the operating crew, one significant factor in the survival rate was that hospitals in proximity to the airport were experiencing a change of shifts and therefore able to co-opt the outgoing and incoming shift workers to take over the additional workload of attending to crash victims.
One wonders what would have happened if an overflying aircraft diverted to MRIA-Mattala, BIA-Colombo, Colombo International Airport Ratmalana (CIAR) or Palaly Airport, KKS during the doctors’ strike in the 24 hours starting March 12, 2025? Would the authorities have been able to cope? International airlines (over a hundred a day) are paying in dollars to overfly and file Sri Lankan airports as en route alternates (diversion airports).
Doctors in hospitals in the vicinity of the above-named international airports cannot be allowed to go on strike, and their services deemed essential. Even scheduled flights to those airports could be involved in an accident, with injured passengers at risk of not receiving prompt medical attention.
The civil aviation regulator in this country seems to be sitting fat, dumb, and happy, as we say in aviation.
Guwan Seeya
Ambassador of Indonesia to Sri Lanka calls on PM
Former IGP Deshabandu Tennakoon further remanded until April 03.
Local Authorities poll on 6th May
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