Dear Malia Obama,

I was very touched to learn that you talk to your dad, the president of the US, every week to find out what he is doing to help the tigers. Your concern for tigers warms my heart and I pray it will help save the tigers including those in Malaysia.

Our tiger population has plunged from about three thousand to five hundred in fifty years – in the time our country has been independent.

This is because we keep converting large areas of forests to oil palm and, lately timber plantations, break up habitats with roads and other infrastructure, some of which are quite unnecessary, and allow logging that degrades habitats.

Many of our tigers are also killed by poachers who cater to the crazy demand for tiger parts in traditional Asian medicine, and our efforts to stop poachers have been feeble.

Recently, Malaysia came up with a National Tiger Action Plan to double our number of tigers by 2020.

In spite of having this plan, we continue to do a lot of things that are unkind to tigers like building an expressway through protected national or state parks. How sad.

And what is happening in Malaysia also goes on in Indonesia, a country that is close to your dad’s heart no doubt. A lot of tiger habitats there are being cleared for oil palm, some by Malaysian companies.

The tigers and many of our magnificent wildlife like the orangutan, rhinoceros and hornbills need urgent help. It will take audacity to save them. May I thus request that the US:

1. Help set up a global fund for countries to keep their tropical forests intact and free of poachers and loggers; and

2) Halt deforestation within her own borders to set a gold standard for an abiding ‘Peace with Mother Nature’.

Finally, as we have the second highest number of threatened tigers in the world, could you pay us a visit soon?

P.S. Tell your dad he is doing a great job, and you are our beautiful angel to the tigers.