TUMPAT TIGER APPEAL - JUNE 29

Remember the photos of the tiger butchered into four on the front page of the STAR in October last year?

Well, thanks to public outcry both locally and abroad an appeal was filed and finally going to be heard now on June 29, 2006.



Here is a part of what I wrote to the Press to jog your memory about that event:

“Sentiments were high when it was learned that Ang Chun Tan, photographed smiling beside the dead tiger was fined a mere RM7,000 without any custodial sentence being imposed although the law provides for a maximum sentence of five years imprisonment.

We thank the Deputy Public Prosecutor’s for filing the appeal and hope and pray that this time around justice will not be blind and deaf.

When these perpetrators make several times more money than the maximum fines the law permits on the markets, for the sale of exotic animals, how can we expect to stop them with these pitiful fines? Only a long jail term will stop this poaching. If the law already provides for these jail terms why don’t the courts impose them?

There are only 500 tigers left in our Malaysian jungles. A tourist to Malaysia once commented, “You do not need big theme parks to attract tourists. You have something far better – a beautiful country.”

I wonder how long we will be hearing tourists say this at the rate we are depleting our exotic animals and raping our forests.

It’s time we got off our laurels and wrote and telephoned the authorities to protest these outrages court decisions. Even a one paragraph letter will go a long way to set the precedence on public opinion.

If you have the time to send jokes by email to a friend, can you not spare a moment to preserve what’s left of our national heritage by writing just one paragraph?”

Animal rights groups need the help of the public to please fax and email the following:

Fax to:

Attorney General Tan Sri Abdul Gani Patail
Attorney General's Chambers of Malaysia
Level 1-8 Block C3, Parcel C,
Federal Government Administrative Center,
62512 Putrajaya, Malaysia
Fax: 03-8888-9362

Deputy Public Prosecution Kelantan
DPP Encik Shahidani Abdul Aziz
Pejabat Penasihat Undang-Undang Negeri Kelantan
Tingkat Pertama, Blok 4 Kota Darul Naim ,
15512 Kota Bharu, Kelantan, Malaysia
Fax: 09-7447160

Then cc emails to: ppm@pmo.gov.my, azmi.khalid@nre.gov.my, ssothinathan@nre.gov.my, sazmi@nre.gov.my, editor@thestar.com.my, mmail@nstp.com.my, letters@nst.com.my, letters@thesundaily.com, editor@malaysiakini.com, aziziothman@bharian.com.my, metro@nstp.com.my, online@utusan.com.my, editorial@mail.sinchew.com.my

Listen up, guys! Even if you don’t have a fax, just do the email. You only need to write one paragraph if that’s all the time you have. That’s all. What we need is quantity of voices not flowery letters.

Robert Kennedy said: “Few will have the greatness to bend history itself; but each of us can work to change a small portion of events, and in the total of all those acts will be written the history of this generation”.

You have a chance to make history on June 29, 2006 because no custodial sentences have been imposed for these crimes.

Just last week NST and AFP reported pangolins being shipped by the truckloads to Thailand (each lorry were carrying about 200 pangolins) and the culprits only got small fines. They can easily fetch over RM70,000 for their haul.

Leave a history your children can look back on with pride.