Speaking out to save tigers in Malaysia

Jade Chan, The Star 29 Apr 10;

FIVE local personalities will be “baring it all” in a Tiger Show as they compete to be named the WWF-Malaysia Tx2 Tiger Ambassador.

The Tx2 Double or Nothing Tiger Show will see entertainment artistes Aishah Sinclair, Rina Omar and Sazzy Falak, RedFM DJ Jeremy Teo and Mooky of pop punk outfit One Buck Short raising awareness on the dwindling number of Malayan tigers and threats to their existence, while competing for the ambassador title.

The ambassador hunt is part of the Tx2 Tiger Conservation Campaign that was launched in February with the aim of doubling the number of wild tigers in Malaysia and the world by the next Year of the Tiger in 2022.

It is one of the many activities planned throughout the year to highlight the plight of the tigers through www.tx2.my.

WWF-Malaysia executive director and chief executive officer Datuk Dr Dionysius SK Sharma said the tiger was at the tipping point of its existence.

“At the beginning of the 20th century, it was estimated that 100,000 tigers roamed the Earth. Barely a century later,we have lost more than 97% of the tiger population we used to have.

“We now have as little as 3,200 tigers in 13 countries,” he said.

What is more amazing, he said, was that Malaysia had the second largest tiger population in the world, with an estimated 500 wild tigers.

“These 500 tigers are still threatened by rampant poaching and illegal trade, forest conversion and land clearing, overhunting of their prey and conflict between tigers and humans for the same resources,” Dionysius added.

“Our campaign aims to reduce these threats faced by tigers, by raising the emergency funds to put more men on the ground and building an immense hype on the conservation of tigers.”

Dionysius said apathy was a big problem among the public with a certain unwillingness to understand the plight of the animals, which was why the celebrities were roped in to maximise their creativity in highlighting the campaign.

He added that all the necessary elements had been identified under Malaysia’s Tiger Action Plan that was launched in 2008, and hoped that the plan would get the resources it needed under the 10th Malaysian Plan.

Rina said all five of them had something in common — they each had a passion for the cause, with some she described as “nerds who read obsessively about animals” — like herself.

“A lot will be bared in our videos. We’ll be working hard to create awareness and direct more traffic to the website, particularly by engaging social media sites like Twitter and Facebook,” said Aishah.

Teo expressed his desire to help get rid of people’s apathy by making them see that everyone can play a role and make a change.

“I didn’t know anything about tigers before the whole campaign started, but the more I learnt, the more intrigued I got. Thus the more we learn, the greater the awareness,” Mooky added.

As an animal person and WWF-Malaysia fan, Sazzay said she would do anything she could to support the cause and believed the campaign would be a good experience for everyone.

The public is invited to vote for their favourite celebrities from April 26 to May 22 either online or via SMS.

Five new video clips by the five celebrities will be featured each week to further highlight the campaign.

For details on the ambassador hunt and campaign, visit www.tx2.my.