Sahabat Alam Malaysia (SAM) expresses great concern over the lack of transparency exercised by Perhilitan with regard to the ivory stockpile in their custody.

At issue is Perhilitan’s reluctance to call an independent audit on the ivory stockpile and the destruction of the contraband goods as answers to the ivory stockpile are rather vague, with only assurances that ivory are in their safekeeping and nothing has gone lost or missing.  

SAM expresses concern over the mystery of the alleged missing ivory which was believed to be given or presented as gifts to a powerful elite figure. To quell the misconception, Perhilitan should reveal the truth by allowing an NGO like Traffic to carry out an audit into the seized ivory in their possession. Until today there has been no action so far despite urgings from wildlife groups.

The other concern is why as seized contraband, ivory has not been destroyed but kept by Perhilitan and for how long does Perhilitan intend to store the ivory? What message is it trying to portray? Keeping seized ivory implies that it has a value but that value is only to a living elephant not in some trinkets or work of art.

Crushing seized ivory will not end the trade or save the elephant but it will draw significant media attention to the issue, presenting a symbolic message to the world that Malaysia will not stand idly by while organised crime syndicates and all those implicit in the illegal ivory trade profiteered off the brutal decimation of a species.

Other countries in Africa, Asia and Europe have similarly crushed or burned ivory stockpiles, showing the same determination, but why not Malaysia?

Even if Perhilitan does not care about the elephants it should seriously care about those rangers who are being killed for defending elephants, death of law enforcement officials and  custom officers for trying to arrest criminals while organised gangs shipped container loads of ivory all over the world making a fortune at the expense of those dead pachyderms.  

Perhilitan should show that is it not supporting organised crimes and murder by doing the needful to their confiscated ivory stock.

Elephants and people are losing their lives, with organised crime more entangled in the trade than ever before and failure to tackle this makes Perhililtan complicit in the bloodshed.

There needs to be a clear and transparent answer and it is time the newly appointed natural resources and environment minister takes a serious view of this issue about Perhilitan’s reluctance to carry out an audit and the destruction of the contraband goods.

SM MOHAMED IDRIS is president, Sahabat Alam Malaysia (SAM).