Mother: Wow, everyone must surely like a garden full of green leaves like this. It refreshes the eyes.

Father: Everyone likes it? If we plant it ourselves and sell it, it could move fast.

Mother: If you see leaves that can be sold, you’re eyes are green.

Father: Umm, the smell of money...

Barely a week after the massive hydrological disaster that hit several regions in Sumatra, which has been widely blamed on mining and palm oil concessions, President Prabowo Subianto has again touted the importance of planting palm oil for bio-fuel saying Indonesia must achieve energy and fuel self-sufficiency.

“But we are blessed by the Almighty, we have palm oil, which can be used for fuel, for diesel, and gasoline. We have the technology”, said Prabowo while attending a Golkar Party anniversary event in Jakarta on December 5.

His remarks were preceded by comments about the war in the Ukraine that has affected Indonesia’s energy imports as well as the crisis in the Straits of Hormuz and Yemen, which halted fuel supplies.

Prabowo claimed that Indonesia would only be affected by the energy crisis if it lacked the technology and the processing plants. “Now, with the disaster in Sumatra alone, look how difficult for us to deliver fuel to the affected areas. Bridges are broken, and we have to transport fuel by plane and partly by ship”, he said.

His palm oil remark was made against the backdrop of the massive floods and landslides in Aceh, North Sumatra and West Sumatra last week which have so far killed over 850 people that have been blamed on deforestation caused by mining concessions and palm oil plantations.

Video footage of Prabowo defending palm oil also resurfaced on social media in which he claimed that palm oil plantations do not cause deforestation because they also have leaves.

“I think that in the future, we must increase palm oil plantations. There’s no need to be afraid of what’s said to be harmful or deforestation. Palm oil is a tree, right?”, Prabowo said at a National Development Planning Conference in Jakarta on December 30

“It’s true isn’t it? Oil palms are trees, they have leaves right? They absorb carbon dioxide, where do they get it from these people accusing us of not understanding”, he added.

[Abridged from an article by Tempo titled “Prabowo hails Indonesia’s palm oil after Sumatra floods kill hundreds”.]