Restore the ban on Monkey export

民主行动党副主席兼怡保西区国会议员古拉于2007年9月20日，在八打灵再也发表声明：

长尾猴的出口禁令解除，将导致它们被残忍地杀害成为食物，或在实验室里经历痛苦折磨。

天然资源及环境部长拿督斯里阿兹米卡立一定要澄清他本身自相矛盾的言论，“长尾猴出口禁令并未被解除，只有城市里的猴子才会被捕捉及出口。”显然地，这番言论令部长本身违反了1972年野生动物保护法令。

长尾猴被列在《濒危野生动植物种国际贸易公约》（CITES）附录二里。而在我国1972年野生动物保护法令里，长尾猴被列为二级受保护动物（Schedule Two, Part III），

我们为部长发表的似是而非的言论深表关注。我们置疑他允许受保护动物被出口国外的真正目的。这些可怜的灵长类将被残杀烹煮，并且在实验室里面对可怕的痛苦。显然地，是部长默许这种残忍、不人道的做法。

阿兹米必须回答下列问题：

1. 谁、什么公司会在长尾猴的出口、以及它们的痛苦、妄死中坐拥最大的利益？

2. 有什么证据显示环境部有资料证明长尾猴数量过多？由林业局提供的无危害统计（NDF）已经受人置疑，因为，在统计野生动物的科学研究里，是不可能精准确切地计算野生动物的数量，科学家一般上仅以分布区来计算它们的数量。

3. 如果环境部真的要控制长尾猴的数量，它们是否有考虑使用一些人道的方法如：绝育或无痛苦的人道毁灭？

4. 要如何解释长尾猴将在出口海外时，面对残酷至极的对待？

5. 环境部要如何分辩“城市猴子”及“乡村猴子”以进行“非法”或“合法”的交易？如此模糊的分类只会导致捕捉这些灵长类以谋利的非法活动激增。

长尾猴的栖息地已经在杂乱无序的发展中受到严重破坏。人类一直认为自己是万物之灵，我们往往忘了，动物比我们更早出现在这里，他们比人类需要更多的保护。我们必须将野生动物视为大自然母亲的组成部份，它们都是上天赐予的礼物，不应遭到毁灭。

古拉

Media statement by DAP vice chairman and MP for Ipoh Barat M.Kula Segaran on Thursday, September 20, 2007 in Petaling Jaya.

Lifting the export ban of long-tailed macaques will result in their slaughter for the cooking pot or being subjected to cruel experiments in laboratories.

The Natural Resources and Environment Minister Datuk Seri Azmi Khalid must clarify his contradictory statement that“The ban on the export of the long-tailed macaque has not been lifted, only monkeys in the cities would be caught and exported.” He is clearly in breach of the Protection of Wild Life Act 1972.

Long-tailed macaques are listed on Appendix II of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species(Cites). It is also classified as “Protected Wild Animals” under the our Protection of Wildlife Act 1972 (Schedule Two, Part III).

We are deeply concerned about the paradoxical statement made by the Minister. We would also like to question his motives for allowing protected species to be exported overseas. These poor wildlife primates will be destined for the cooking pot and be subjected to horrendous suffering in the experiment laboratories. This is clearly a cruel and inhumane act by the Minister.

Azmi has to answer the questions:

1.Who and which company will profit financially from the export of macaques, as well as their torture and death?

2.What evidence has the Ministry gathered to prove that there is a serious overpopulation problem? Non-detrimental finding (NDF) provided by the Perhilitan are being suspected as it is almost impossible to determine in the wildlife inventory. Wildlife population estimates normally appear as range.

3.If the Ministry really wants to control the monkey population, has it taken more humane methods into consideration, such as sterilization or humane culling?

4.How does the Ministry justify the extreme cruelty that we know macaques are subjected to when they are transported overseas?

5.How will the Ministry be able to differentiate between urban and “rural” monkeys for classification of legal or illegal trade? Such untenable classification will only lead to a growth in both legal as well as illegal trade of these primates.

Macaque habitats have been progressively destroyed due to indiscriminate development. Human always think that we are greatest living beings. It appears that we have forgotten that the animals were here before us and they need more protection than humans. We must always look at the wild animals as part and parcel of the Mother Nature for they are god’s gift and should not to be destroyed.

M. Kula Segaran

Stop dog-catching competition

民主行动党中委及非政府组织局主任刘天球于2007年9月11日，在士拉央发表声明：

马上停止捉狗比赛

我们对于士拉央县议会举办的捉狗比赛表达深切关注。

在士拉央县议会的网站上刊登了关于上述比赛的一项广告，这项广告所传达的讯息极为残忍及不可理喻。

• 第一名得奖者将可获得1万5000令吉的奖金，而第二名及第三名的得奖者可分别获 1万3000令吉及1万1000令吉。
• 上述前三奖得主每名需至少捕获150只狗。
• 每个月，县议会将交发出每只狗20令吉给那些捉狗者作为津贴。

我们认同，为了要生活在一个健康及安全的环境，我们有必要控制流浪狗的数量以避免它们数量过多，然而，一项捉狗比赛不会是一个解决方案，它只会制造更多问题。我们基于下列理由，反对通过捉狗比赛来控制流浪狗的数量：

(1) 未受过训练的居民可能会伤害到自己。这些流浪狗不惯于接触人类，一旦被逼入困境，它们可能会攻击捕捉者。
(2) 丰厚的奖金将吸引一些人士，不择手段地进行捕捉行动以获奖，他们可能使用一些不人道的方法捉狗，导致狗儿受伤。.

(3) 这将间接鼓励人们捉狗甚至偷取家犬、宠物。

除此之外，难道我们的县议会就是这样花费向我们征收的门牌税及租税吗？那些可是我们的血汗钱。这笔多达5万令吉的奖金，应该被用在公众教育，以及一些更主动积极的措施如绝育、区分已阉割及未阉割狗只的执照、负责任的宠物主运动，同时，立法惩罚那些抛弃宠物的人士。

我们的县议会已经被骄纵恣肆太久了，以致他们无需为他们所浪费的一分一毫做出具公信力及透明的交待，而他们在浪费公款方面，也显得越来越有创意。

我们促请士拉内县议会马上停止捉狗比赛。

刘天球

Media statement by DAP CEC Member and NGO Bureau Chief Ronnie Liu Tian
Khiew on Tuesday, September 11, 2007 in Selayang.

DAP: Stop the Dog Catching Competition immediately!

We are deeply concerned about the Dog Catching Competition which is
organized by the Selayang Municipal Council (MPS).

The messages come out from the advertisement on the Selayang Municipal
Council's website were utterly cruel and ridiculous.

l The first-prize winner will get RM15, 000; the second-prize winnerl
will get RM13, 000 and the third -prize winner will win RM11, 000.

l The minimum number of dogs capture for the top three winners must bel
at least 150 dogs each.

l Each month, the council pays RM20 for each stray dog caught as anl
incentive to the dog-catchers.

While we agree that action to control stray dogs are necessary for reasons of safety and healthy environment and to avoid overpopulation, a dog-catching competition is hardly a solution but will only create a bigger problem. We object to the idea of controlling population of stray dogs through the dog-catching competition with lucrative prizes due to the following reasons:

(1)Residents are not trained and could hurt themselves. These stray dogs are not used to human contact and if cornered, they might attack those who try to catch them.

(2)The prizes were generous and would certainly draw desperate people who would resort to any means to catch dogs. They may harm or injure the dogs and may use inhumane methods.

(3)This will indirectly encourage people to catch dogs and perhaps even steal house pets.

On top of that, is this how our municipal councils are going to spend our hard-earned money from the increase in assessment and quit rent rates? The amount of money, which is more than RM50, 000, should be spent on public education, and more pro-active measures should be put into practice such as active sterilization programs, different licensing for neutered and unneutered dogs, responsible pet ownership programs and making abandonment an offence under municipal by-laws.

For too long our municipal councilors have not been held accountable and transparent for their spendthrift expenditure and they are getting more and more innovative in their extravagant spending.

We urge the MPS to stop the Dog Catching Competition immediately.

Ronnie Liu

New Sports Game ? DOG-catching contest !

What a maverick measure!
How can these people take dog-catching as a sports game?
This is the website of Selayang Local Council (http://www.mps.gov.my/default01.htm)

It states that the dog-catching contest is going on. The competition is open to residential associations of Selayang and a RM15,000 cash prize awaits the team that manages to catch more than 150 dogs in a span of six months. Second and third prize of this contest is RM13,000 and RM11,ooo respectively.

Monkey export ban not lifted

WHAT IS EXACTLY GOING ON?
Ban Lifted or not lifted?

KUALA LUMPUR: The ban on the export of the long-tailed macaque has not been lifted, Natural Resources and Environment Minister Datuk Seri Azmi Khalid clarified.

“I did not use the word 'lift'. The media quoted me wrongly,” he told a press conference during the Malaysian Energy and Climate Change Dialogue yesterday.

Instead, he said, only monkeys in the cities would be caught and exported.

On Aug 18, Azmi was quoted as saying that the Cabinet had in June agreed to lift the ban on the export of the monkeys found in urban areas, as there were numerous complaints that the monkeys had stolen food and attacked people.

“The proposal to catch and export the monkeys was only to reduce their numbers in cities because they are causing problems,” he said, adding that the monkey population in Malaysia was more than 700,000, with 250,000 in urban areas.

“We don’t allow the monkeys from the jungle to be caught and exported,” he added.

Catching those in the cities and exporting them did not mean the export ban was lifted, he explained.

“We are only controlling the numbers in the cities. People can catch them and do what they want with them. If they want to export them, we allow it,” he said.

Asked whether licences had been issued to exporters of monkeys caught in the cities, Azmi said no. He said the Government had moved the monkeys to their natural habitat but they seldom survived because the monkeys there would kill them.

Efforts to sterilise these monkeys did not work because those not sterilised bred quickly, he added. (DID they ever sterilise monkeys over the last 20 years? )

HILARY CHEW meanwhile reports that the Malaysian Animal Rights and Welfare Society’s (Roar) president N. Surendransaid the minister’s explanation was highly confusing and misleading.

Roar is the umbrella body of local animal rights groups.

“Allowing urban monkeys to be hunted almost certainly will lead to trapping of monkeys in the jungle,” he said, adding that the group doubted the Wildlife Department would have enough resources to monitor the hunting or the capability to differentiate between urban and jungle monkeys.

Roar yesterday handed a memorandum to Azmi demanding that the minister reinstate the ban.

Reimpose export ban on macaque, urges animal rights groups

By HILARY CHIEW

KUALA LUMPUR: Animal rights groups have opposed Natural Resources and Environment Minister Datuk Seri Azmi Khalid’s decision to lift the 23-year-old export ban on the long-tailed macaque.

The groups come under the umbrella body, the Malaysian Animal Rights and Welfare

Society (Roar). President N. Surendran said lifting the ban was tantamount to condemning the monkeys to an insufferable fate.

“It is shocking that the authorities themselves are committing the offence. The minister is aware that the monkeys are used as pets and for food and medical (testing) purposes.

“In the food trade, the monkeys have their skulls pried open while alive, so diners can eat their brains,” Surendran claimed.

Under Section 92(f) of the Wildlife Protection Act 1972, anyone who “wilfully does or wilfully omits to do anything which in any way causes any unnecessary suffering, pain or discomfort to any wild animal or wild bird” can be fined up to RM5,000, or sentenced to up to three years in jail.

On Aug 17, Azmi announced that the ban had been lifted, and now the group is demanding that the ban be reimposed.

Surendran also questioned the minister’s claim that sterilisation efforts to control the macaque population have failed, hence justifying the trading of this protected species.

“As far as we know, there has been no serious sterilisation programme of the long-tailed macaque. Even if it was true that some displaced monkeys have attacked urbanites, exporting them is not the solution.”

Selangor Society for the Prevention of Cruelty Against Animals chairman Christine Chin called for better management of the human-animal conflict caused by man encroaching on the habitat of the macaques.

She also urged the authorities to look into creating sanctuaries for wildlife to achieve sustainable development.

I am long-tailed Macaque, who wants to eat me?

Monkey export ban lifted

PUTRAJAYA: Monkeys can now be caught and exported and the authorities claim it is to please urban folk who have been complaining that the animals have been creating problems for them.

Natural Resources and Environment Minister Datuk Seri Azmi Khalid said the Cabinet, at its meeting on June 27, agreed to lift the ban to export monkeys found in urban areas as the public had complained of having foodstuff stolen and being attacked by the animals.

However, he gave an assurance that there would not be "total elimination" of the long-tailed macaque from city areas and they would still be allowed to roam around as long as the numbers were "ideal."

Azmi said the human-monkey contact became more frequent after the animal's natural habitat was cleared to make way for development, including creating new residential areas.

He said a solution to the "confrontation" had to be sought.

"I realise we will be getting a lot of heat from other countries and even non-governmental organisations but this solution is necessary after other efforts have failed. We have tried transporting them to other areas as well as sterilising them but monkeys breed too quickly.

"Our main concern now is to ensure that only experts are allowed to catch the monkeys because we do not want them to be put under stress, abused or tortured. The other important point is that only monkeys found in cities can be caught and not those in their natural habitat," he told a press conference yesterday.

According to the Wildlife Department's statistics, there are 742,000 long-tailed macaques in the country, of which 258,000 are found in city areas, including Kuala Lumpur.

The Government, in 1984, had imposed a ban on the export of long-tailed macaques following a reduction in the monkey population and the ban stayed for 23 years until last month.

"I must stress that the long-tailed macaque is not a threatened species in Malaysia,'' Azmi said.

(BUT IT IS PROTECTED WILD ANIMALS in the Protection of Wild Life Act 1972!!)

Tanjong Bin development needs further study 救救海马，救救蒲莱河

The public and environmentalists have raised their concerns about the development of petrochemical and maritime industries at the Tanjung Bin, along Sungai Pulai Estuary in Pontian, Johor.

A preliminary Environmental Impact Assessment report was submitted by the project’s proponent Seaport Worldwide Sdn Bhd. The assessment was carried out by Hijau Sekitar Sdn Bhd.

I regret to say that some misleading, erroneous and inaccurate information has been found in the Preliminary Environmental Impact Assessment report. In this respect, the Department of Environment should direct Seaport Worldwide to submit a detailed Environmental Impact Assessment (DEIA) report.

According to the preliminary EIA report, activities within the project site such as oil storage, ship building and repairing, grit blasting and heavy metal fabrication will be done at a wetlands area, which is adjacent to a Ramsar site. This development will impact enormously on the wetlands and affect the livelihood of the fishermen nearby.

(The Convention on Wetlands, signed in Ramsar, Iran, in 1971, is an intergovernmental treaty which provides the framework for national action and international cooperation for the conservation and wise use of wetlands and their resources.)

There will be a broad-scale clearing of 2,255 acres of mangrove forest which can be approximated to 913 soccer fields - this will disappear permanently from the global map.

We found that some conclusions in the preliminary EIA report have been merely assumed. For instance, the report states that ‘it is expected that the seagrass beds will regenerate themselves’ after the rivers are dredged.

In fact, the seagrass beds found at the river bank of Sungai Pulai are the most extensive seagrass beds in the country. There are at least 10 types of seagrass growing there which also serve as homes to various types of marine life on which local fishermen rely on.

The formation of seagrass beds take a long time. A bed requires specific conditions of water depth, water quality, sunlight, nutrients and much more. Who can ensure that after such heavy polluted industries, the seagrass beds will still be preserved?

Another serious error in the EIA report was the lack of consultation in its assessment. The seahorse species which are found in Sungai Pulai is of the Hippocampus Kuda variety and not the Hippocampus Denise. The latter are the smallest seahorses in the world which can only be found in deep water coral reefs.

Additionally, the report did not mention marine life such as the pipefish and dugongs which are listed in the Red List of International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN) and which will be threatened by the development.

The preliminary EIA report also claims that there is a 500m buffer zone between the industrial site and the Ramsar site. It is doubted that with such a short distance between the industrial site and the wetlands area, how can the authorities ensure that the heavy industries will not destroy the Ramsar site?

Currently, there are five Ramsar sites in Malaysia. According to Ramsar convention, should there be any drastic changes in the ecological character of our lands as a result of industrial development, pollution or other human interference, Malaysia will be listed on the Montreux Record which indicates that we have failed in preserving our wetland heritage. This will certainly tarnish the image of our country.

Clearly, the Tanjung Bin preliminary EIA report is too simplistic and lacks professionalism. The Department of Environment should direct the developers to submit a detailed EIA report which should outline the full affect of development in the area.

Also allow the general public to have a say in the matter, as in the long run, it is the people’s children who will inherit these lands. And who is to say that they will want perished wetlands?

(This was published in Malaysiakini.com)

民主行动党秘书长环境事务专员邓晓璇于2007年8月10日在八打灵再也发表声明：

由于初阶环境评估报告出现误导性、错误的、不正确的资讯及结论，我们促请环境局指示柔佛州丹绒宾石油化学及海事工业发展商呈交详细环境报告（Detailed Environmental Impact Assessment）

我们接获来自公众的投诉，针对柔佛州丹绒宾石油化学及海事工业发展商Seaport Worldwide 私人有限公司所提呈的初级环境评估报告提出他们的看法。

由于上述重工业发展计划与国际世界湿地保护区毗邻，同时即将影响当地的渔民生计，因此，我们对于有关发展计划将产生的深远影响表示高度关注。

根据Hijau Sekitar私人有限公司为上述发展商所进行的环境评估，这项重工业发展计划将导致2255英亩（或913公顷）的湿地被砍伐。这意味着，将会有相等于近913个足球场那么大片的湿地将会从地图上消失。

我们注意到，有关环境评估报告出现一些未经专业研究的所得出的结论。例如：有关报告认为海草床在加深海床、河道工程时会自然生长回来。

事实上，蒲莱河岸、河口一带的海草床是全国海草最密集的地区，生长着至少10种海草，是各种各样海洋生物的温床，也是当地渔民渔获量的来源。

海草床的形成并非一朝一夕的事，它需经历一段很长的时期。它需要特定条件如：水温、浪潮、水质、阳光、营养等，谁能够确保在发展石油化学及海事工业等具污染记录的工业后，有关环境评估报告是否有任何缓减环境影响的方式，确保海草床能被完整地保留下来？

此外，上述环境评估报告中另一个严重错误，是将生长在蒲莱河一带的黄金海马（Hippocampus Kuda）的学名写成Hippocampus Denise，后者是一种世界上最小的海马，只能在深海珊瑚礁处才能见到，这项错误显示出有关环境评估过程并没有进行多方面的咨询。同时，有关报告也未列出其它已被国际自然与自然资源保护联盟（IUCN）列为受保护生物的海牛、海龙。

我们也置疑，用以发展重工业的湿地地段与国际湿地保护区之间的缓冲带仅仅相隔500公尺，有关当局如何保证在上述将排放重金属等污染物的工业不会对国际湿地保护区造成影响？

目前，我国共有5个湿地被列为国际湿地保护区。根地1971年国际湿地公约，若上述湿地的生态环境因科技发展、污染或人类活动而改变，我国将被列入蒙特列记录（Montreux Record）届时，我国将因湿地保护工作失败而名誉扫地。

有鉴于以上种种原因，我们认为上述初阶环境评估报告针对发展地段的生态环境所做的考察及所提出的环境影响减缓措施过于简单、草率、不专业，因此，我们促请环境局指示发展商及其环境顾问缴交一份“详细环境评估报告”，以允许公众针对其内容 进入深入的审核及讨论，让大家讨论我们是否要留下一片毁坏不堪的湿地给未来的孩子？

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