PETALING JAYA: Hannah Yeoh has come to the defence of the international school pupils who put on a performance on the negative effects of the palm oil industry.

"I am the MP for the area where this international school is located.

"The uproar over the video and presentation by children related to orangutans and the sustainable palm oil industry is unfortunate," the Segambut MP said in a Facebook post on Thursday (July 4).

The Deputy Women, Family and Community Development Minister was referring to the one-minute, 10-second viral video clip of the performance, which was uploaded on YouTube, showing children dressed in environmentally-themed costumes giving a presentation about issues surrounding unsustainable oil palm plantations.

The students said orangutans in Malaysia were disappearing at an alarming rate due to the production of unsustainable palm oil.

"The video in circulation is only a small cut of a 24-minute performance by Year 3 students (aged seven to eight years old). The students performed this at their weekly assembly.

"The performance covered a wide range of issues concerning the environment from climate change, global warming, solar energy, protection of oceans, plastic use, recycling to preservation of orangutans and the forest," Yeoh said.

Yeoh added that she watched the full video of the performance and was convinced that "there was no agenda to undermine the Government's efforts to promote palm oil."

Yeoh sang a different tune from fellow DAP leader, Primary Industries Minister Teresa Kok, who had described the performance as sowing hatred towards oil palm plantations among the students.

"I urge the school concerned to stop all actions sowing anti-palm oil sentiments among Malaysian students, just like what Europe is doing against the country.

"I also urge the school's headmaster and the teachers involved to come to my ministry and the Malaysian Palm Oil Council (MPOC) to understand all efforts to improve the industry and also all efforts to preserve the environment by industry players," Kok said during a press conference in Parliament on Tuesday (July 2).

Yeoh, in her statement, however, welcomed Kok's initiative to engage in a dialogue with the school and students.

"After all, this is the essence of education – to equip the next generation with information and opportunity to make an assessment of the situation on their own without coercion," Yeoh said.

Yeoh also urged the public to stop sharing the video of the performance which showed the faces of the students involved.

"Children have rights too and it is about time Malaysians learn to respect that," Yeoh said.