AS the country prepared to celebrate 59 years of independence at the end of August, enforcement officers from the Wildlife and National Parks Department executed a series of raids that turned up over a dozen tiger parts.
Five raids in five days, with 12 suspects nabbed and the skins, bones, teeth and claws of tigers seized, is a tremendous effort which the Malaysian Conservation Alliance for Tigers applauds.
As empowering as this enforcement success is, the discovery of so many tiger parts in four of the five premises raided in Kuala Lumpur and Selangor paints a very troubling picture.
It tells us that poachers are still plundering the jungles to feed the illegal trade.
Traffickers are buying and selling parts of protected animals with little fear of the law and there is still a sizeable demand for Malaysia’s last 300 critically endangered wild tigers.
That the biggest haul of tiger parts in this series of raids has come from seven Vietnamese nationals goes to show that as wild tiger populations dwindle elsewhere, the threat to and demand for Malaysia’s cats will only grow.
There must be more that we can do to better protect our national icon. This belief, and the loss of six wild tigers — three to poachers and a fourth, pregnant with two cubs, killed on a highway — while we were barely into the first quarter of 2016, drove MYCAT to launch its petition for “No More Dead Tigers”.
The petition’s biggest demand is for the deterrent penalty for illegal tiger possession under the Wildlife Conservation Act 2010 to be put to full use and maximum penalties be handed down to criminals involved in reducing our tiger population. We have not seen this happen so far.
As the legal cases arising from this most recent series of seizures, as well as those earlier in the year, appear before the courts, we are presented with yet more opportunities to send a severe warning to all poachers, local and foreign.
What is the point of maximum fines of RM500,000 and a jail term of up to five years if they aren’t used to scare poachers and traffickers out of this shadowy business? What are we saying to poachers and traffickers with just a slap on the wrist? Look, Malaysia is the easiest place in the world to poach tigers?
Tremendous effort, time and resources, not to mention risks, have been invested in investigations, intelligence gathering and case preparation to fight wildlife trade, for the identification and to dismantle criminal networks, and to better protect this national icon and their habitats.
This effort should not be undermined, dissolving hope when minimum sentences are handed down.
Malayan Tigers could do with more hope, more justice, and being Malaysian, should enjoy freedom in its only home, freed from the tyranny of poachers, traffickers and tiger part consumers.
Tina Salleh, Communications Officer MYCAT Secretariat's Office Malaysian Conservation Alliance for Tigers (MYCAT)