MANY of Malaysia’s animals and plants face extinction. This was made gravely clear in the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s recently released Red Alert of Threatened Species.

As a Malaysian, I am saddened to find that among all countries, Malaysia’s list of 1,141 threatened animals and plants is the third longest. There are 230 additions since last year.

The list includes the orang-utan, sun bear, sambar deer, bearcat, leopard, hairy-nosed otter, pangolin, bearded pig, tapir, tiger, river terrapin, leatherback turtle and the giam kanching tree.

Any “use” of these species is no longer sustainable and must stop.

Our threatened species such as the sambar deer are still presented to the public by the government as a “game species” and the number continues to decline due to hunting. This is definitely unsustainable.

As a concerned Malaysian, I urge the government to promptly impose a ban on all hunting, especially as the sambar deer hunting season starts next month.

By responding to this national emergency, our prime minister may bless Malaysia with a legacy.

JC Tansen
Petaling Jaya

Source: The Sun – October 31, 2008