I stepped into the oil palm industry in 1991, green as a young frond. It wasn't until the 2000s, while serving at the Malaysian Palm Oil Association (MPOA), that I first crossed paths with Academician Tan Sri Emeritus Professor Datuk Dr Augustine Ong Soon Hock - already a towering figure. Later, during my time with IJM Plantations and the Malaysian Estate Owners' Association (MEOA), our interactions grew. By then, I'd heard enough stories, read enough papers, and seen enough of his legacy to know: this was no ordinary scientist.
From a curious boy in Malacca, he rose to become the chemist who gave palm oil its scientific shield, nutritional voice, and global standing. If I were to distil him in a few strokes: the chemist who bottled 'light', the inventor who saw oil as molecular gold, the patriot who defended Malaysia's golden crop, and the mentor who reminded us that ideas matter most.
Sometimes, I meet him at Mass in St. Francis Xavier Church, PJ - a quiet figure in the pews, humility wrapped in wisdom. Other times, I see him at a MOSTA seminars or workshops.
Now close to 91, Tan Sri Ong remains who he has always been: sprightly, sharp, and still urging the industry to think beyond the frying pan - towards biomaterials, renewable energy and new frontiers of palm oil. And always with wit. I once heard it paraphrased in his spirit: "There's only so much fat a person can eat." A reminder that palm oil's future may lie more in innovation than consumption.
In every encounter, I see not just a scientist, but a man of faith, a patriot and a thinker who never stopped asking questions. That, perhaps, is his greatest legacy: showing us that science, at its best, is not a career - it is a calling.
Explaining the sn-2 Hypothesis to Laypeople
It was from Tan Sri Ong I first heard of the mysterious sn-2 hypothesis. My reaction? "sn-2 what?" It sounded more like a Star Wars droid than a nutrition insight. But as he explained, it was a simple, powerful idea: not all fats behave the same. I left intrigued.
For decades, fats have been divided into two camps: the "good" unsaturated ones (olive oil, fish oil) and the "bad" saturated ones (butter, lard, coconut oil). Nutritionists, health columns, and even supermarket labels drilled the same message into our heads: saturated fat clogs your arteries.
By that logic, palm oil, with its 50% saturated fat content, should have been marched off to the nutritional gallows. And in the 1980s, that's exactly what happened. Palm oil was branded a villain in the West - "the tropical oil time bomb."
But here's where Tan Sri Ong threw in a scientific plot twist in 2002 worthy of a Netflix drama. He proposed the sn-2 hypothesis. Not all saturated fats are created equal, and not all of them behave the same way inside your body.
The sn-2 hypothesis gave palm oil its scientific shield against decades of misunderstanding. Unfortunately, science has a way of scaring people off with its jargon. Say "stereospecific numbering" for sn at a dinner party and you'll see eyes glaze faster than butter on a hot pan.
I often wonder how best to explain this so other can truly see its value. Here's my attempt. Let's begin with the basics.
To further make sense of it, picture a bus ride. The bus (a triglyceride) has three seats. At the digestion stop, the ticket inspector (enzyme) kicks the aisle passengers (sn-1 and sn-3) off the bus. Only the middle passenger (sn-2) stays on and rides straight through to the VIP stop, your bloodstream. Or imagine a cinema. Three friends take their seats: two on the aisle, one in the middle. The usher comes along, ushers the aisle-sitters out, and leaves the middle VIP friend to enjoy the movie. That's the fat your body absorbs directly. Not a cinema fan? Think of a sandwich. Three layers of filling. The top and bottom layers get peeled away, but the middle layer is eaten whole. That middle bite is what matters most. No matter which analogy you choose, the principle is the same: the sn-2 position is the VIP seat.
Why Analogies Work? Not everyone wants to hear about "stereospecific numbering" and "glycerol backbones." But everyone understands a bus ride, a cinema usher or a sandwich. Analogies cut through complexity. They make it clear that the story of fats is not just about what you eat but how your body processes it. And in the case of palm oil, they show why this golden oil deserves more credit than it often gets.
Of course, science isn't satisfied with clever analogies alone. Tan Sri Ong and his colleagues reviewed human trials, comparing palm olein (the liquid fraction of palm oil which is widely used as cooking oil) with oils rich in monounsaturated fats, like olive oil.
The results? No significant differences in cholesterol outcomes. LDL (the so-called "bad" cholesterol) and HDL (the "good" cholesterol) behaved the same whether subjects consumed palm olein or monounsaturated oils. The reason? The middle position of the palm olein is more like olive oil compared to animal fat. The unsaturation levels of the sn-2 position in both oils were nearly identical - around 90-100%. That middle seat was filled with the same type of "good" fats. So, despite palm oil's relatively high overall saturation, its olein fraction behaves metabolically like monounsaturated oils such as olive oil.
A Public Perception Problem
Yet the public perception lagged behind. To most consumers, "saturated" was a scarlet letter. The nuance of molecular seating arrangements never made it into diet books or newspaper headlines. Palm olein was dismissed with the same brush as animal fats, when in fact its behaviour in the body was closer to olive oil. The irony? While nutritionists lauded Mediterranean diets for their heart-friendly olive oil, palm olein which showed similar lipid responses in trials was cast as the villain.
The sn-2 hypothesis gave palm oil a scientific defense, revealing that tiny molecular details can shift global views on health, trade, and fairness. Thanks to Tan Sri Ong, palm oil was redefined from villain to a misunderstood oil with redeeming traits. His insight helped debunk myths, reshape nutrition science and give Malaysia's golden oil a fairer shot. Global studies back the sn-2 hypothesis - it's not just a local idea.
Still, health is complex - cholesterol, heart disease and diet involve many factors - so sn-2 is solid science, but only part of the picture. Still, correcting the misconception matters. Millions of farmers depend on palm oil, and consumers deserve facts: palm oil isn't the nutritional villain it was once made out to be.
The Chemist Who Bottled 'Light'
If palm oil were a person, it would be the scandal-prone celebrity of the tropical world. Headlines trail it like paparazzi: one day it's blamed for clogged arteries, the next for deforestation and more. It is scorned in supermarkets and demonised in documentaries. Yet, this oil - golden, versatile and astonishingly productive - has quietly sustained millions of livelihoods across Southeast Asia. And behind its redemption story stands one man.
Scientist, inventor, teacher, pioneer, defender of truth -Tan Sri Ong has been called many things. But if Malaysia ever had a scientific icon, a patron who married chemistry with courage, it would be him.
Born in Malacca in 1934, Ong's childhood bore no trace of the global scientist he would become. He wasn't raised with laboratories or microscopes, but with coconut trees, insects and the endless chatter of birds. Nature was his first teacher. Curiosity, his constant subject.
At St. Francis Institution, he excelled, and later at the University of Malaya in Singapore, he achieved First Class Honours in Chemistry. That alone was rare for the time, but Tan Sri Ong also carried home the University Gold Medal - proof of a mind unwilling to idle. Like many bright Malaysians of his generation, he went abroad. At King's College London, he completed a PhD in Organic Chemistry, immersing himself in the complexities of molecules. Later, as a Fulbright-Hays Fellow at MIT, he rubbed shoulders with the world's leading minds.
He might easily have stayed there, carving out a comfortable life in academia. But Ong returned home. He had a conviction that science was not just a ladder for personal advancement but a key to unlock Malaysia's future. Back in Malaysia in 1959, Ong joined the University of Malaya as a lecturer. In lecture halls, he did not merely teach; he ignited. His students left with their curiosity aflame. His chalkboard equations were not dry; they carried the cadence of philosophy. In labs, he taught not only how to mix solutions, but how to mix imagination with discipline. He gave science a heartbeat. He insisted that chemistry was not abstract - it was bread, it was soap, it was health, it was life itself.
In the 1960s and 70s, palm oil was largely unremarkable - a commodity, yes, but with no glamour. Soybean and sunflower dominated Western markets; palm oil was the underdog.
But Tan Sri Ong saw in it something extraordinary. He looked at the oil's molecular structure and saw possibilities. He called it molecular gold. In 1974, he filed a British patent for separating olein and stearin - a breakthrough that opened palm oil to multiple uses, from cooking oil to margarine. That was just one of more than 20 patents he would later register across the world.
Tan Sri Ong's mantra was simple: Malaysia should not just grow palm oil; it should own the science of palm oil. In 1981, when oil prices were volatile and environmentalists were still fringe voices, he proposed turning palm oil into biodiesel. At the time, "green fuel" sounded like science fiction. Some chuckled. Tan Sri Ong persisted. Today, palm-based biodiesel is a global billion-dollar industry. What seemed like fantasy in his lab notes now powers vehicles including aeroplanes. If oil palm had an oracle, Tan Sri Ong was it.
The Great Soybean-Palm Oil Showdown
Then came the battle that would cement his reputation as defender-in-chief of Malaysian palm oil. His commander was the late Minister, Tun Dr Lim Keng Yaik. (Read: https://www.theborneopost.com/2025/01/18/inspired-by-a-palm-oil-titan-and-his-hydrogen-bomb/ and https://theedgemalaysia.com/node/758301 )
In the 1980s, the American Soybean Association (ASA), rattled by palm's growing global market share, launched a campaign in the US branding palm oil as a "tropical oil villain" and a "time bomb for heart disease". It was a masterclass in fear-mongering, dressed in pseudo-science.
For Malaysia, whose economy and smallholders depended heavily on oil palm, this was no small skirmish. It was economic warfare. Tan Sri Ong did not blink. As Director-General of the Palm Oil Research Institute of Malaysia (PORIM), now Malaysian Palm Oil Board (MPOB), he marshalled data, rallied scientists, and went head-to-head with American lobbyists. His calm was monk-like; his arguments, dragon-like.
Within two years, the ASA's campaign quietly backed away. By 1989, nutritional studies worldwide confirmed that palm olein was as heart-friendly as olive oil. He had saved not just an industry but the dignity of a nation.
Tocotrienols: Palm Oil's Hidden Treasure
For decades, vitamin E had one star: alpha-tocopherol, the version in creams and supplements. But palm oil contained another form, long overlooked - tocotrienols. Where most saw trivia, Tan Sri Ong saw treasure.
Tocotrienols turned out to be faster, more potent antioxidants. Their flexible structure let them slip into cell membranes with ease, protecting against damage more effectively than tocopherols. If tocopherol is the mall cop of antioxidants, tocotrienols are the Navy SEALs.
Research he championed showed their promise: lowering cholesterol naturally, protecting brain cells, slowing cancer growth, reducing stroke damage, and even shielding skin from aging. By spotlighting tocotrienols, he reminded the world that palm oil wasn't just cooking oil - it was a pharmacy in a fruit.
Beyond the Lab: Founding MINDS and MOSTA
But Tan Sri Ong didn't stop at his own research. In 1986, he founded the Malaysian Invention and Design Society (MINDS). To him, science wasn't meant to be hoarded but shared. He wanted Malaysia to be a nation of inventors, not imitators.
Under his leadership, MINDS became a platform where schoolchildren with quirky gadgets and professors with breakthrough devices shared the same stage. Innovation, for him was democratic. Ideas could sprout anywhere; they simply needed nurturing.
MOSTA, founded in 1989 to advance oils and fats science, named Tan Sri Kueh as its founding leader in 1991.
Palm Oil and the Planet, Trade, Glycidyl Esters and Level Playing Field
Critics often say oil palm destroys forests. Tan Sri Ong's response? Look at the numbers. Oil palm produces around 4 tonnes of oil per hectare each year - and can be more while other annual edible oil crops such as soybean, rapeseed and sunflower produce less oil per hectare. One hectare of oil palm can replace 5 to 10 hectares of other crops. More oil, less land. Meeting global edible oil demand with oil palm is not destruction - it's salvation.
He also pointed to oil palm's environmental edge. Mill effluent, once a methane nightmare, can now be processed to zero discharge. Palm-based detergents biodegrade faster than petroleum-based ones. In his words: "Why use dirty oil when you have clean oil right here?"
In later years, Tan Sri Ong turned his sharp mind to trade politics. The European Union, while importing palm oil by the millions of tonnes, began fretting over glycidyl esters (GE) and 3-MCPD esters - processing byproducts. His take was pragmatic: "We know how they form; we know how to remove them. The challenge is making the solution affordable. And chemists, given time, will solve it." In other words: keep calm, let science work.
Like many advocators, he was equally clear on trade: Malaysia didn't want special favours - only a level playing field. "We're not asking to build submarines. Just let us sell our palm oil we grow better than anyone else."
Accolades and a Memoir: Why He Matters
By 2012, the accolades could no longer be ignored. Tan Sri Ong received the Merdeka Award for Outstanding Contribution to the People of Malaysia in Science, Technology and Innovation.
But for him, awards were milestones, not finish lines. In 2019, he published In Pursuit of Scientific Truth: Ideas Matter - not a self-congratulation, but a thoughtful reflection.
Palm oil's story is not just economic - it has a deeply human side. Millions of smallholders depend on it; millions more consume it daily, often unknowingly. As one of the world's most traded commodities, it feeds, fuels, and nourishes far more than most realise. And at the heart of its scientific defence, innovation, and survival against global smear campaigns, stands a boy from Malacca - curious, brilliant and unafraid to challenge falsehoods.
Tan Sri Augustine Ong is more than the Father of Malaysian Palm Oil. He is the chemist who bottled 'light', the inventor who reimagined fat, the patriot who stood firm against giants. If Malaysia has a scientific icon - a modern alchemist who turned humble palm oil into molecular poetry and national pride -it is him.
So the next time you fry a banana fritter, simmer a curry, or fuel a bus or a plane, remember: in that golden drop lies more than oil. It holds a story of science, courage and one brilliant chemist backed by many. A reminder that together, we can go further. The world shines brighter because Tan Sri Ong never stopped asking questions.