Bryan Christy

Heartening news from Malaysia today.  The Royal Malaysian Customs Department is stepping up enforcement on illegal wildlife trade, so-called Green Baddies.  From the New Straits Times:

Datin Seri Teh Halimah Mohd Eusoff receiving the Customs Personality Award from Datuk Seri Najib Razak on behalf of her late husband, former Customs director-general Tan Sri Abdul Rahim Datuk Tak at the 27th World Customs Day yesterday.

Customs zeroes in on ‘green baddies’

By Marc Lourdes
 2009/02/08

PETALING JAYA: The Customs Department has joined a global initiative to protect the environment, by placing those who smuggle flora, fauna and toxic waste across borders on the top of their hit list. The main threat is poaching endangered and protected animals for the cooking pot, traditional medicine, amulets and decorations. (more…)

In the Thanksgiving rush, I forgot to post this letter.  It is the Malaysian Environmental Ministry’s response to letters written to the New Straits Times newspaper after the paper ran a series of stories and letters on The Lizard King.  To summarize events so far, the NST profiled me and the book; the Malaysian Wildlife Department “Perhilitan” called my book complete fiction (and other bad words); conservationists objected to Perhilitan’s defensive response to The Lizard King and called for a corruption investigation of Perhilitan.  At points along the way the Ministry overseeing Perhilitan, the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment, also wrote letters to the NST and to other newspapers.  In some cases the Ministry promised to do more, in other cases it said it was doing more than enough.  Below is the Ministry’s response to two letters criticizing the Ministry for not doing enough on corruption and wildlife crime.  I’ll let you judge the Secretary General’s letter yourself.  It is worth noting that Anson Wong admitted in U.S. court to a decade of smuggling protected wildlife to the United States…

To The Editor
New Straits Times, 2008/11/24
By AMERJIT SINGH for Secretary-General Ministry of Natural Resources & Environment, Putrajaya

I REFER to the letters by E.L. of Petaling Jaya and Tan Yok Koon of Puchong (“Don’t skirt the central issue” and “Disheartening” — NST, Oct 24) on the issue of the export of illegally obtained wildlife. The Department of Wildlife and National Parks (Perhilitan) has always addressed corruption issues seriously, especially when it concerns its officials.

In the case of Anson Wong, the wildlife dealer from Penang, Perhilitan had monitored his import/export activities closely since 1985 in ensuring that he abided by domestic laws and procedures.

(more…)

Interesting news from Malaysia.  Last month the New Straits Times ran a terrific 3-part feature on The Lizard King, which included a rather severe accusation by officials inside the Wildlife Department that my book was “fiction” (along with some other not nice words).  In response to the Wildlife Department’s comment, I wrote a letter to the paper and so did Ms. Azrina Abdullah, Director of TRAFFIC Southeast Asia.  Both were published.  Ms. Abdullah called on the Wildlife Department (known as Perhilitan) to investigate the scenario described in The Lizard King.  

Yesterday, Dr. Amerjit Singh, writing for the Secretary-General of the Ministry overseeing the Wildlife Department, responded to the paper with a letter, which I’ll leave to you (and time) to judge: 

Perhilitan’s role: Enforcement going on

New Straits Times, October 19, 2008

 By : DR AMERJIT SINGH for secretary-general, Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment

THE Department of Wildlife and National Parks (Perhilitan) appreciates the issues highlighted in the letter “Take a close look, Perhilitan” (NST, Oct 1) by Azrina Abdullah on the wildlife trade monitoring network, Traffic Southeast Asia. (more…)