By their blatant lawbreaking and absence of law enforcement respectively, Anson Wong and Perhilitan/Natural Resources and Environment Ministry have humiliated the CITES (Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora).

If, as it should have been, the convention had been enforced by CITES many years ago, Wong is unlikely to have got away with so much illegal smuggling of wildlife. Sadly, a seemingly impotent CITES lacks the will and guts to do what its generously paid bureaucrats are paid to do - namely, place sanctions on countries who continually break the convention - which has being going on in Malaysia for as long as anyone can remember.    

What would happen if CITES was to sanction Malaysia now? First and foremost it would be world news. It will be a massive blow to the Malaysian tourism industry. It would also be bound to reflect badly on the palm oil industry; who wants palm oil from a country known for its corruption and rampant illegal wildlife smuggling?

Malaysia would/will be placed in a group of countries others are unable to either buy CITES listed wildlife from or sell wildlife to. In other words Malaysia will be blacklisted, tainted - considered to be completely untrustworthy.

The question now is - do the Swiss-based CITES Secretariat and its Standing Committee members (the so-called enforcers) from around the world have the ‘right stuff’ - the personal integrity to uphold the convention? Frankly, many think not. These people seem either gutless or impotent, but maybe for once they will prove their countless critics wrong. I would be happy for them to prove me wrong.   

It beggars belief as to why the Malaysian government protects Wong. Who in government employment, maybe even at ministerial level, is on ‘the take’ from Wong? One day we will find out. It has to be someone who is able to ensure the law is not enforced despite overwhelming evidence of crimes being committed by individuals named and exposed in the media.

Not that Wong is the only infamous illegal wildlife trader in Malaysia with government officials in his pocket. There are others.

In the meantime we can only hope for the sake of the world’s wildlife the normally spineless CITES Standing Committee and Secretariat will sanction Malaysia. The case for sanctions is beyond question. The will and guts of CITES to enforce sanctions is questionable - very. But sanctions are wildlife’s only hope.

If you want your children and grandchildren to see wildlife in the wild either on TV or in real life, you had better hope and pray CITES gets its act together and sanctions Malaysia while there is still some wildlife left in the wild.  

SEAN WHYTE is CEO of Nature Alert.