You do the maths.

It's been awhile since I last made a satirical and sarcastic post about pure lunacy of the society, so here comes one, brace thyself!

I accidentally read this one old article on the smuggling of pangolins or rather fondly known as tenggiling for the locals. I admit that I'm big fan of animals and reading materials like these really saddens me and it begs the question "Why does this happen in MALAYSIA AGAIN??"

Looking back at our animal smuggling history, Malaysia has been known as the hotspot for wildlife trading, the illegal ones. Heck, even the world's most notorious smuggler Anson Wong comes from Malaysia. We have a jungle of diverse animals and plants, but instead of treasuring it, we give them away for leafy greens which is not even green to begin with.

It's pretty simple, really, to understand the equation. First and foremost, look at how ridiculously low the penalty for smuggling wildlife in Malaysia is!! 5 months jail and RM2000 fine??! Who wouldn't kill for that?! Let's put the statistics on the board, even though my statistics failed me badly, but nontheless, if a math-idiot like me can understand it, how can the Government not?!

Let's just use the pangolin case as a drawing board. Poachers get RM50-RM95 per kilo of pangolin and an extra RM150 to RM180 for the scales. Juvenile pangolins are preferred in the market, fetching up to prices of RM2000 each. In Peninsular Malaysia, prices of live pangolins range from RM30 to RM330 per kilo, depending on season and location. These pangolins are then shipped frozen or live, with live being more valuable to countries that has demands for it, say, America, Thailand and China? A pangolin would usually weight from 3 kilo to 15.8 kilo. Let's just take the mean and put it at 10 kilo as an average.

Now, bear the variables in mind and put them into this equation. The biggest case involved with the seizure of a container lorry carrying 100 polystyrene boxes filled with 530 frozen pangolins. Two men were arrested in this case where each were sentenced to 6 months of jail and a fine of RM9000. So, put the average of all variables in. 530 frozen pangolin x 10 kilo x RM80 = RM 424 000 of profit and they were only fined like.. what? RM9000 each? RM9000 x 2 person = RM 18 000. Take the risk and versus the profit, now you tell me, who wouldn't kill for these kind of money?

Now, let's take the Malayan Tiger case. Jail time maxed out at 6 months (once again because that is the max.. stupid ain't it?) and a fine of RM 10 000 regardless of the number of tigers. And for the variables. Each tiger skin fetches RM 15 000 in the market. We have even yet to look at the price the tiger's tooth, claws, meat, bones and even the tiger's penis will bring in the market! Overall, an adult tiger can fetch a total of almost RM 100 000 just like that.

So.. now you see why Malaysia is such a bloody haven for wildlife smuggling? Simply because PERHILITAN, the Jabatan Perlindungan Hidupan Liar dan Taman Negara or in English, The Department of Wildlife and National Parks, is corrupted to the core. How can smuggling and illegal logging activities be done right under their noses? Like seriously? And also, this also calls for greater pressure to push for an amendment to our current law. Simply that, and you'll see a better future for all our generations to come.