Palm Oil Companies In Mukomuko Asked To Respect Istiadat Customs Due To Citizens' Reports To Police

Workers harvest palm fruit in November 2011. (ANTARA-M Fauzi Fadilah).

BENGKULU - All palm oil plantation companies operating in Mukomuko, Bengkulu Province are asked to respect customs

Head of the Investment and One Stop Integrated Service Office of Mukomuko Regency, Juni Kurniadiana, said the request was to prevent conflict with the local community. "We ask all companies to respect customs in the area around their business location to prevent conflict with the community," he said in Mukomuko, Bengkulu, Tuesday, May 9, which was confiscated by Antara. He said this was related to the arrest of a resident who worked as a collector of palm oil brondolas who fell from his trunk by the security unit of an oil palm plantation company and handed it over to the police. The arrest of residents by the company security guard had provoked the anger of hundreds of other residents who did not accept the company's actions.

He said the company's action to arrest residents who collected palm oil brondola in the company's land was appropriate but incomplete. "The company should have conveyed a notification first to the residents' families before being handed over to the police so that the families do not feel lost," he said.

In addition, he said, in this area no one forbids taking fruit that has fallen from its trunk, including palm brondolan which fell from its trunk. "So far, residents who have oil palm plants have never prohibited other residents from collecting brondolan that fell from their stems," he said. For this reason, he suggested that light problems should be resolved traditionally in this area, unless these problems are related to the interests of the lives of many people. Related to local residents who work as collectors of palm oil brondolalan, he suggested that they should obey the rules by asking for permission from oil palm plantation owners. "It is better for them to obey the applicable rules. If they want to take palm oil brodolan, they should say goodbye to the person," he said.