By Isabelle Lai [Opinion\
When we are promised that enforcement action will be taken to tackle wildlife crime, we deserve to know what’s really going on instead of being fed a non-answer.
Without a doubt, one of the top 10 favourite words bandied around by the authorities is “enforcement”.
I can see why it is so favoured. Doesn’t it convey reassuring confidence that the full might of the law is going to come down hard on wrongdoers?
But enforcement is a much more meaningful word than that. It speaks of concrete action being taken to stop the spread of something which is bad or wrong.
When we are promised that enforcement action will be taken, I think we deserve to know what’s really going on instead of being fed a non-answer – which is to say, a nice, polite, reassuring answer that really doesn’t answer any of our questions.
Fresh in the public’s mind is illegal wildlife trade kingpin Anson Wong, whether he is really back in business and what the authorities are doing about it.
Burning questions have arisen in the wake of Al-Jazeera’s 101 East’s The Return of the Lizard King documentary, which provides substantial evidence that he might just have returned to his old habits.
Wong’s house was shown to have an enclosure housing African Serval cats, while the worker at Rona Wildlife, a shop lot housing exotic wildlife, named him as his boss.
What was the Department of Wildlife and National Parks’ (Perhilitan) reply? More....