Story of Two Pandas

Year 2020: According to news report, two pandas from China will be on loan to Bolehland for 10 years for a sum of RM20m. Wow that's alot of buta money for China who is famous for eating exotic wildlife and animal cruelty. The report mentioned about the initiative by the 1Bolehland government to name the two young pandas. It was said that the name Altantuya and Bersih were selected by the public. A little bird was sent to China to eavesdrop the pandas. Their conversation here...

Altantuya: Bersih bro, do you know that we are going to Bolehland for a long holiday?

Bersih: Sis, how do you know?

Altantuya: I overheard Ah Jib discussing with Ah Mah. They said they will be coming to Bolehland too to take care of us.

Bersih: Sis Altantuya, I am very scarce to go to Bolehland because in Bolehland everything also can. Long time ago the Australia gave several kangaroos and they die after sometime in the Penang Botanic Gardens. There was a mini zoo in Penang Botanic Gardens and all the animals eventually die. So how huh? We are going to die in Bolehland?

Altantuya: Yeah I also heard that there are many zoos that don't really take care of the animals. Many of the animals were under fed and some even tortured. The primate zoo in Perlis was very bad, all the monkeys were so miserable and sad. But I think this time we only eat bamboo. As the workers don't eat bamboo mah so they can't curi our food hehehe...

Bersih: How to stay in Bolehland.... so hot?

Altantuya: Don't worry, we will be given air-cond room lah.

Bersih: What? Air-cond? I prefer fresh air than the suffy air.

Altantuya: Don't worry, we will be treated like king and queen. They paid RM20m for our long holiday and so i think they will take care of us!

Bersih: What? They want us to be King and Queen....want us to f**k to produce babies? How can lah? We are brother and sister only mah!

Altantuya: In Bolehland, everything also can. The rakyat in Bolehland said they don't need sex anymore because the government of Bolehland f**k them everyday!

Bersih: Wah, so syiok one! Quick, quick, i want to go Bolehland and get f**k everyday too!

Altantuya: Gatal ke?

------------news report below-----------

A plea for the Pandas
June 15, 2012
FMT LETTER: From Shenaaz Khan, via e-mail

China’s much publicised loaning of two Giant pandas to Malaysia is hardly an event to be received with rousing merriment. The exercise is in equal measure preposterous and superfluous and is unworthy of festive fireworks.

In an atmosphere of economic imbecility and political pandering, the Malaysian government has come up with the kind of inane idea that exemplifies its governing greatness. Their little reform agendas now include Giant pandas. Under the greedy guise of conservation, two Giant pandas are to bear the burden of bridging diplomatic ties between China and Malaysia.

How this is to be achieved is beyond baffling. But it yet again illustrates a blatant manifestation of Malaysia’s institutional pattern of exploiting animals to serve selfish human interests. To assume otherwise is grossly foolish.

Minister in Prime Minister’s Department Koh Tsu Koon has reportedly said that China’s gesture in lending a pair of pandas shows that it recognises Malaysia as a special country. Yes, Malaysia’s specialities include licensing countless zoos to abuse animals for human fortunes.

Malaysian zoos have for years abused and neglected their animals with complete legal immunity despite legislated codes of animal welfare clearly not being adhered to. Their registry of crimes include drugging tigers for photo taking sessions, forcing elephants to ride tricycles, cramping orangutans into runty cages and trafficking totally protected wildlife!

Zoos such as Taiping zoo, Danga Bay and A’Famosa, are fairly representative examples of these atrocious zoos and are in clear conflict of conservation. Nonetheless, the Malaysian government has habitually dedicated itself to ignoring and facilitating animal abuse as animal welfare and conservation have never been on the forefront of their political consciousness.

Hence, it is incredulous to imagine Malaysia being chosen for a conservation effort given its hideous track record. This whole panda loaning scheme has also made apparent the very deep pockets of the Malaysian government. While they feign financial frugality, they are ever ready to take on the colossal technical and architectural tasks necessary to house the pandas.

Malaysia’s decision to spend obscene amounts of money bringing in a non-native species for a decade long visit is further appalling given its complete and absolute disregard for its very own Malayan Sun bear. The Malayan sun bears are routinely orphaned and victimised by habitat loss from excessive logging, poaching for bear products and surging demand in the pet and zoo trade.

Amongst other conservation efforts, the 20 million ringgit could well be spent on saving the endangered Malayan Sun bear. Yet, the Malaysian government is not concerned in conserving them for they would serve no value to capital investments in China’s economic empire.

While I do not begrudge Malaysia the industrious opportunities China has to offer in trade and commerce, it is important to underscore here that China is the leading capital of animal abuse, illegal wildlife trade and wild meat consumption.

Across the world, elephant numbers are dwindling owing to China’s ruthless demand for ivory. China also remains the primary consumer of traditional Chinese medicine and wild meat, the two commodities driving the illegal wildlife trade and pushing many endangered species to near extinction.

And while China hands out pairs of pandas to various countries, their own horrific fur and bear bile farms kill, maim and brutalise bears every single day! Across China, bears are kept in cramped cages, their gall bladders implanted with metal catheters and their bodies clamped down with metal grilles to enable the extraction of their bile!

Their catalogue of abuses is endless! Therefore, like Stalin and Hitler advocating human rights, it is a complete travesty that the Malaysian and Chinese regimes should engage on conservation efforts given their respective reputations for animal cruelty.

Let us not be fooled by this farce! These pandas have been ripped from their homes, held hostage by their man masters and have now been pimped for profit! It is indeed a shameful day in Malaysian history as we have allowed pandas to be pawned for pungent political pursuits!

The writer is president of the Malaysian Animal Welfare Society
Source here

More stories here and here

Panda Diplomacy - a stupid idea!

Sunday May 1, 2011
Bring back panda diplomacy, China urged
Star

KUALA LUMPUR: A community leader hopes that China will loan its most famous icon – the panda bear – as a recognition of the long-standing relationship between the two countries.

Malaysia was among the first countries to establish diplomatic ties with China and both countries have enjoyed a long history of diplomatic relations as well as trade exchanges, said president of the Federation of Chinese Asso­ciations Malaysia Tan Sri Pheng Yin Huah.

“It will be of great significance if China can loan a pair of pandas to Malaysia as a symbolic gesture of the strong relationship between the two countries.

“Many countries have enjoyed this ‘panda diplomacy’,” he said in an interview.

Panda diplomacy, a practice which existed as far back as the Tang Dynasty, was revived in the 1950s and had been wildly popular.

Between 1958 to 1982, China gave 23 pandas to nine different countries.

One highlight of panda diplomacy was the Chinese government’s gift of two of the animals – named Ling-Ling and Hsing-Hsing – to the United States in 1972 after President Richard Nixon’s historic visit to China.

Nixon reciprocated by sending a pair of musk oxen.

By 1984, however, pandas were no longer used as agents of diplomacy, as China began to offer the animals to other nations on 10-year loans, with standard loan terms including a fee of up to US$1mil (RM3mil) per year and a provision that any cub born during the loan would be the property of China.

Previously, there was an attempt to bring pandas to Ma­­laysia but it did not materialise because it involved high maintenance costs as well as the need for an agreement between leaders of both countries. — Bernama

Sarawak's 12 new dams alarm environmentalists

Fauwaz Abdul Aziz
Jun 19, 08 1:46pm
http://www.malaysiakini.com/news/84715

Sarawak has proposed to build 12 massive dams in the next decade to harness its hydroelectric power, putting the state in a collision course with environmentalists.

The bold plan, which has not been made public, has irked activists who fear further destruction to Sarawak’s rainforests - considered as one of the world’s oldest - and the forcible relocation of thousands of indigenous peoples.

While the state does not need more power, it hopes to generate electricity for energy-guzzling industries and for export - both to Peninsular Malaysia and neighbouring Indonesia.

Half of the power produced by the controversial Bakun dam is expected to be consumed by an aluminum smelter to be built in Bintulu by mining multinational Rio Tinto, while the rest will be transported to Peninsular Malaysia through undersea cables.

The mega-smelter is a joint project between Rio Tinto and Cahya Mata Sarawak, a conglomerate owned by family members of Chief Minister Abdul Taib Mahmud.

Document made public ‘accidentally’

Sarawak’s bold ambition of generating a colossal 7,000MW of electricity between 2008 and 2020 - which include the 2,400MW Bakun dam - was unwittingly revealed in document made available on a China-based website.

The document appeared to be a slide presentation made by Sarawak Energy Berhad (SEB) managing director Abdul Aziz Husain in October last year at the China-Asean Power Cooperation and Development Forum in Nanning, China.

According to Abdul Aziz, Sarawak's rivers have the potential to generate a total of 20,000KW of power.

Published ‘accidentally’ on the website dedicated to the international forum, it was discovered by Switzerland-based NGO Bruno Manser Fonds (BMF).

According to BMF, an organisation set up by Swiss environmentalist Burno Manser who spent six years with Sarawak’s Penan and subsequently went missing in 2000, the document has since been removed.

But before the document was taken down, BMF was able to make a copy and it is now made available on the organisation’s website [available as PDF file].

A quick search on the Internet revealed such a document - entitled ‘Chinese Power Plants in Malaysia – Present & Future Development’ - had existed, but can no longer be found.

Mulu National Park at risk

The 48-page document provides the specific locations of the 12 new hydropower plants, aside from Bakun dam, which is to be completed in 2010 [see map].

The construction of the RM3.2 billion Bakun dam - the region’s largest dam - wiped out a swatch of rainforests the size of Singapore and displaced 10,000 indigenous peoples.

Understandably, environmentalists fear the worst on hearing the state government’s proposal for another dozen of hydropower plants.

If the plan, described by BMF as “excessive”, is to proceed, hundreds of Sarawak’s native communities in Sarawak’s interior will lose their traditional lands and have to be relocated to elsewhere.

“It is to be expected that all of the proposed dams will adversely affect indigenous communities living in Borneo's unique tropical rainforest environment,” warned BMF in a press statement.

National treasures such as the world-renowned Mulu National Park may also fall victim when parts of it will be submerged under the planned 220 megawatts dam on the Tutoh river in northeastern Sarawak.

The Mulu National Park is listed by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (Unesco) as a world heritage site because of its biodiversity and its extensive network of caves.

No public participation in EIAs

BMF slammed the state government for its lack of transparency in land and forest matters, pointing out that Sarawak legislation does not obligate developers to include public participation in the environmental impact assessment (EIA) process.

The NGO also decried that the natives, as in the past, are likely to be “doomed to pay the price for the production of export energy”.

None of SEB’s top officials, including Abdul Aziz, could be reached for comments.

Meanwhile, state DAP deputy chairperson Chiew Chin Sing said the state government should put the interests of Sarawak people before those of multinational corporations.

The Kidurong state assemblyperson added that delivering electricity through 700km of undersea cables to Peninsular Malaysia would result in tremendous wastage.

“Also we cannot deny the indigenous communities their right to their land,” Chiew told Malaysiakini yesterday.

Is Your Neighbour Missing?

Have you seen a pangolin in your backyard some weeks ago? Your dog could be barking at it in the middle of the night. And you would have been happy to see one....but you were angry because you loose your sleep. And today your friendly neighbour is no where to be seen? Well, your pet dog will have to spend more lonely nights.

Probably, your neighbourly pangolin could be on that "Noah's Ark" heading for China.

This story really frightened me:

'Noah's Ark' of 5,000 rare animals found floating off the coast of China

at http://www.guardian.co.uk/china/story/0,,2088589,00.html

I am a Chinese. Believe me, Chineses eat everything that moves!

But not me! Oh, forgot to tell you, I am not from China.

If you find that the common animals like lizards, turtles, tortoises, snakes, bears, pangolins and others missing from your compound, your estates, the forests, then chances that they could be caught and smugglered out of Bolehland!

In Bolehland, rules can be bent. Eyes can "tutup satu mata" (close one eye). "Bocor" (Leakage) can be fixed with taxpayers money. And the story continues...

Coastguard : Ok, pangolins, cicakman (lizard man), ninja turtles and you look funny(some kind of civet cat which the coastguard haven't seen)...give me your passports!!

Pangolin : Sorry, official....I..I...don't have passport.

Coastguard : What? No, passport, no entry. Go home!

Pangolin : But I was forced to come, mah! I live happily in one of the kampung (village) and I played with my neighbour dog. I missed the dog now. Can I go home?

Coastguard : No way. Who dare to own you? You look so ugly with all the scales. I guess you taste good too. Aprodisiac huh? Yum..yum.... Ok tell me how you come here!

Pangolin : I was caught one night by a man who spoke some kind of foreign language. Then I was taken to a "towkay" (business man). Then this towkay put me in a case with others like me.

Coastguard : What do you mean "others like you"?

Pangolin : Others animals loh....like that cicakman, that turtle ninja and my brother from that Kampung Babi Hutan.

Coastguard : Don't you have stringent custom regulation in your country to check on your passport?

Pangolin : Got, got, many, but just for show only lah. Remember, we are Bolehland. "Boleh" meant "Can"....so everything also "can".

Coastguard : Don't play-play with me! What do you meant "everything also can"?

Pangolin : You see, without passport I can also come here...so don't you think I slipped out of my country with somebody "tutup satu mata"?

Coastguard : Oh, I see....good, then I can "makan" (eat) you tonight. Nobody can claim you are from Bolehland as you don't have passport. Hee, hee, hee....!

Conclusion:

The coastguard had a good meal. You lost a friendly neighbour. Your neighbourhood is quieter now. You can sleep well. Some towkays were richer by a few hundred dollars. Your grand children will only able to see pangolins in books.

Is that what you want?