Wildlife organisation demands answers to lingering Lizard King questions

Isabelle Lai The Star 23 Nov 13;

PETALING JAYA: The Government must give solid answers to the alarming enforcement issues raised in an investigative film featuring wildlife crime kingpin Anson Wong, said Traffic Southeast Asia.

Its legal and policy officer Shenaaz Khan said Al Jazeera’s 101 East film Return of the Lizard King had raised “so many doubts and questions about Malaysia’s commitment to fight global wildlife trafficking business”.

“It is time we had some solid answers from the Government,” she said in an immediate response to the film, which premiered yesterday on the Al Jazeera network.

She urged the authorities to provide a credible explanation as to how Wong was seemingly back in the multi-million dollar illegal wildlife trade despite Government promises to the contrary.

Khan pointed out that Natural Resources and Environment Minister Datuk Seri G. Palanivel had confirmed that new permits were refused to Wong and his wife, Cheah Bing Shee, while their earlier permits were revoked in 2010.

“This makes Wong’s ‘ask the Government’ response — to the question of how he was able to carry on trading wildlife despite the revocation of his permits — a very worrying one. It requires clarification from the Government,” she said.

Khan called upon the ministry and the Department of Wildlife and Natural Parks (Perhilitan) to declare all permits issued since 2010 to companies linked to Wong and his wife, which were named in the film.

She said the authorities must reveal who approved these permits and what species were traded using those permits.

Based on the revelations in the film, Khan also asked whether any further investigations were conducted into the contents of Wong’s laptop and three handphones, which were confiscated in his 2010 arrest.

She pointed out that Al Jazeera, as a news agency with no enforcement powers and little access to information, had been able to discover such damning details about Wong’s activities.

She said conservation groups and the media had also repeatedly raised such questions, revealed links and urged the Government to investigate Wong over the past three years, to little avail.

“There is no excuse for Government agencies with full enforcement powers not to do more and act on what they find,” she said adding that the rest of the world was reacting to the global wildlife trafficking trade with growing seriousness and offering million-dollar rewards for information on top traffickers.

In George Town, efforts to contact Wong were unsuccessful as his whereabouts remained a mystery.

A family friend said he had lost touch with Wong, while his relatives were not at their shophouse in Pulau Tikus when visited by The Star.

Penang Wildlife and National Parks Department (Perhilitan) director Jamalun Nasir Ibrahim said he was not aware if Wong was still involved in the illegal wildlife trade.

“There is no information linking him here to our department. We have not come across or managed any case with regards to his involvement or his return to the illegal wildlife trade,” he said.

Authorities in the dark over convicted trafficker's return
The Star 23 Nov 13;

PETALING JAYA: The Malaysian authorities are apparently in the hot seat as a new investigative film has revealed that convicted wildlife trafficker Anson Wong is back in business.

Posing as interested buyers, Al Jazeera’s 101 East presenter Steve Chao and his team conducted a year-long investigation which took them to Madagascar, Indonesia and Malaysia as they sought to infiltrate Wong’s network.

Natural Resources and Environment Minister Datuk Seri G. Palanivel told Chao that he was unaware of Wong’s infamy.

“I do not know who this person is. I have never come across him. Only today was I told of this chap,” he said at the time of the interview.

However, he added that the ministry had done right in cancelling Wong’s business licences and permits.

He said that he would not know if Wong had resumed his activities as people could do things illegally without the ministry’s knowledge.

Asked whether he would go after top-level officials if they were suspected to be Wong’s accomplices, Palanivel said: “I won’t know, because sometimes things can go without my knowledge.”

However, he said he would look into it if anyone was found to be corrupt or accept bribes.

Chao and his team discovered an enclosure housing Serval cats from North Africa when they did a scouting trip to Wong’s Penang residence.

Posing as an interested buyer, he also visited Wong’s wife Cheah Bing Shee in her office where she told him: “We also import animals for sale, including skunks and other creatures.”

All licences and special permits issued to Wong and his wife allowing them to sell or possess wildlife were revoked in September 2010.

However, public records showed that they were allowed to renew several business permits, including for the Bukit Jambul Reptile Sanctuary and air cargo operator Aerofleet.

Chao also discovered Rona Wildlife, a company formed after Wong’s 2010 conviction.

Although it was registered under an unrecognised name, it had trading permits to export the same animals Wong did to the same customers in the United States previously.

Upon visiting the address, located on the upper floor of a shophouse in Penang, he found exotic wildlife such as albino pythons stashed there.

The worker confirmed that his boss was “Mr Wong. Anson Wong.”

When confronted about Rona Wildlife and asked whether he was still in the smuggling business, Wong said he had no comment beyond confirming that he had several companies.

When Chao told him that according to the Government, he was not supposed to be trading in wildlife, Wong responded, “Well, ask the Government.”