Malaysia, Home of Corrupt Officials
Primate experts from around the world gathered in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo, recently to consider how to save the great apes (gorillas, chimpanzees, bonobos and orangutans) from extinction. According to the AFP article about it, the main problems in stopping the trade in illegal wildlife are "corrupt bureaucrats, false documentation, [and] mafia-style clashes with armed groups engaged in smuggling."
And who does the expert quoted single out as one example of such corruption?
"Once we found four young gorillas from Nigeria in a zoo in Malaysia, with certificates bought from corrupt officials." [John Sellar, who heads the fight against trafficking with the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES)]
How nice for Malaysia to be recognised internationally for something; too bad it isn't something to be proud of.
And who does the expert quoted single out as one example of such corruption?
"Once we found four young gorillas from Nigeria in a zoo in Malaysia, with certificates bought from corrupt officials." [John Sellar, who heads the fight against trafficking with the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES)]
How nice for Malaysia to be recognised internationally for something; too bad it isn't something to be proud of.
posted by Pyewacket at 9:05 PM
3 Comments:
The story about the gorillas horrified me when it was uncovered last year - the Star did a great job ... but there remained a lot of unanswered questions.
no doubt this incident proved malaysians to be a corrupt bunch, but than again, considering the gorillas were to be housed in taiping zoo, thats not exactly a bad thing cause the animals there are well taken care of...better than zoo negara i say..and also please do highlight the corruption which i am sure is more rampant in africa. If the gorrilas were obtained from corrupt officials in africa, it is sure to happen again..hasnt been stopped for decades!
"We know for example that there are gorillas in the private collections of sheikhs in the Gulf countries. The animals are often gifts from sycophants and it is very difficult to track back to the source of the trafficking."
why not go after them?
they may have been better off at the taiping zoo
I agree, the corruption in some African countries and Gulf countries is horrendous and all efforts must be made to stop it at the source. However, I don't think the issue is whether the gorillas would have been well-taken care of at the Taiping Zoo or not. Captive breeding programmes are notoriously subject to abuse, being used as a cover for seizing wildlife from the wild. No responsible facility should encourage that by buying such animals. The only way captive-bred wildlife should be acquired is through strictly monitored exchange programmes, not through financial transactions.
When the European-American-African slave trade was going strong, abolitionists attacked the problem both at the source -- those in Africa who were willing and able to sell their fellow Africans -- and at the market -- the buyers whose demand drove the trade. We have to do the same to stop the illegal wildlife trade. Stop the sellers and the buyers...in this case, the Taiping Zoo, whose demand for gorillas contributed to this incident.
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