Malaysia Info Guide
for Locals & Visitors

KUALA LUMPUR -- Malaysia has reaffirmed its commitment in protecting and conserving the population of tigers in the recently concluded Tiger Summit held in St. Petersburg, Russia.

Natural Resources and Environment Ministry, in a statement here today, said that during the summit, its minister, Datuk Seri Douglas Uggah Embas had pointed out the need for bold and affirmative actions to enable the doubling of wild tiger population by 2022 at the global level in a move to prevent the extinction of the endangered species.

"It is important for leaders to take bold and affirmative decisions and actions through the Global Tiger Recovery Programme (GTRP) to save the wild tiger and to double their numbers by 2022," the statement said.

Malaysia adopted the National Tiger Conservation Plan (NTCAP) last year with a primary objective to have 1,000 wild tigers by 2020 and outlined 80 action plans to achieve the objective.

The change followed an appeal by the Attorney-General's Chambers over the earlier sentence.

In his judgement, Justice Mohtarudin Baki of the Shah Alam High Court said that the Sessions Court judge, who initially sentenced Wong, had not taken into account the large number of snakes in Wong's possession in his ruling.

Had the snakes escaped, the safety of the airport staff and passengers would have been in jeopardy, Justice Mohtarudin Baki said.

He added that the accused was motivated by profit and was willing to smuggle with no concern for the safety of those around him and had no regard for the law. In reaching his decision, Justice Mohtarudin also took into account public interest in the case, noting that it should always prevail.

He then said the earlier sentence of six-months jail and RM190,000 (USD61,500) in fines was overruled before going on to announce the new, increased jail term to a packed courtroom.

KUALA LUMPUR: Notorious animal smuggler “Lizard King” Anson Wong was arrested at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) on Thursday while he was on transit from Penang to Jakarta.

Wong, nicknamed “ Pablo Escobar of the wildlife trade” after the Colombian drug lord, is said to be the biggest global animal dealer.

It is believed that Malaysia Airlines security staff, who had been alerted, detained him after a piece of his luggage was broken. Wong has been remanded until Tuesday.

Some 100 snakes were found in his luggage, including boa constrictors, two rhinoceros vipers and one matamata turtle.

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysian marine police said Sunday they had seized 6,250 turtle eggs smuggled in from a neighbouring country to be sold on the island of Borneo as a delicacy.

Gan Ping Sin, the marine police chief of Sandakan, in Borneo's eastern state of Sabah, said the eggs, worth RM11,250, were seized in an operation on Friday.

"The turtle eggs were seized from a boat in the Malaysian water during our operation but the boat operator managed to escape," Gan told AFP.

"We believe the eggs are smuggled in from a neighbouring country," he said but refused to identify which one.

The turtle eggs have been handed to wildlife authorities, Gan said, vowing to step up police operations in the area which he said had seen "quite rampant" turtle egg smuggling.

Turtle eggs are openly sold in markets in parts of Malaysia. Turtles once arrived in their thousands to lay their eggs on Malaysian beaches but are now increasingly rare due to poaching and coastal development.

Under Malaysian law, it is illegal to collect turtle eggs without a permit from the fisheries department but steady demand for turtle products and eggs in Southeast Asia continues to drive the illegal trade.

This prompted environmental group WWF to launch a campaign to stop Malaysians eating turtles in April last year, in a bid to help save stocks of the sea creatures.

JOHOR BARU: Local researchers have managed to capture ground images of the spotted leopard, the first official documentation of the animal in the country.

The images were captured using a state-of-the-art camera trap, specially designed to work under extremely humid conditions.

Wildlife Conservation Society Malaysia programme director Dr Melvin T. Gumal said the images confirmed the existence of spotted leopards in the country.

“Previously, we have only heard of sightings of these animals but now, we have documented proof they exist,” he told reporters at the Taman Negara Johor Biodiversity and Conservation Symposium held here yesterday.

Known as a powerful herbal aphrodisiac, Tongkat Ali is hugely popular in the country and abroad.
It has become such a big hit that there has been an explosion of Tongkat Ali food products online and offline.

There is the "kopi power" available in almost every coffee shop, also sweets and carbonated drinks, all touting to contain Tongkat Ali.

Question is: Are they effective? More importantly, are they safe? Is there even Tongkat Ali in some of the products, or are consumers just ingesting plain old coffee powder, sugar and nothing more?

If products contain barely discernible amounts of Tongkat Ali but are marketed as such, are manufacturers flouting any regulations?

No, says the authorities. Even if a so-called Tongkat Ali product contained barely detectable traces of the wonder root, but was marketed as such, manufacturers are not doing anything wrong.

This is because there is no requirement under the Food Regulations 1985 specifying that a product must have a certain amount of Tongkat Ali (Eurycoma longifolia Jack) before it can be marketed as such.

There is also no requirement for the authorities to check whether Tongkat Ali products in the market are actually effective or deliver the results as claimed.

Tongkat Ali products are consumed for general-wellness, but they are generally used as an aphrodisiac by men.

"So long as the product does not contain anything poisonous or detrimental to health, we do not monitor their efficacy," says Siti Aida Abdullah, the deputy director of Centre for Product Registration with the National Pharmaceutical Control Bureau.