Pandas to soothe the nerves
Po at the Atlanta Zoo. © Beachkat1.
Po at the Atlanta Zoo.
ANYTHING about the Giant Pandas are a big hit and when it was announced by our Natural Resources and Environment Ministry on Monday that China had decided to loan two endangered baby pandas for a 10-year period, it made instant world news.
Pandas, from the bear family, are about the most easily recognised and loved animals in the world.
They evoke excitement from viewers who line up for hours outside the zoos from London to New York, Tokyo and Singapore, to get a glimpse of these furry and cuddly animals.
The baby pandas, about a year to three years old, are part of the loan system China has worked out since the early 1980s after concerns were raised over their loss of habitat, endangered status and the difficulty of breeding in captivity.
They are only loaned to countries that China has established strong and friendly relationship with or those that figure very highly on the list of countries deemed important to China.
Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak had made the request when he met his counterpart Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao in April when the two leaders opened the joint Malaysia China industrial park in Chengdu, Nanning.
The loan of the pandas, estimated to number about 1,600 in the wild and 268 in captivity, is an important gesture from China to Malaysia as well as commemorating the strong diplomatic ties between the two countries.
It is also to commemorate 40 years of relationship between China and Malaysia.
The political overtones are unmistakable.
Najib’s father Tun Abdul Razak made a path-breaking visit to communist China in 1974, shook hands with Mao Zedong and returned to call a snap election which the enlarged, new coalition Barisan Nasional won handsomely.
It was the first election after the May 13 riots in 1969 and the alienated Chinese community had backed Razak in the hope that the new Barisan Nasional he headed would usher in a new era in politics.
Forty years later, Najib is not hoping to win over the Chinese voters – most of whom are backing his political opponent Pakatan Rakyat – with his “panda diplomacy” with China but the successful arrival of the furry creatures is expected to definitively lighten the divisive atmosphere in the country.
Overall, Najib’s engagement with China and the continuing importance he is giving to China in trade, cultural and education matters will have a desirable effect on voters, including Chinese voters.
Having said that, pandas have always figured importantly in China’s diplomatic efforts.
The practice reportedly existed as far back as the Tang Dynasty when Empress Wu Zetian (625–705) sent a pair of pandas to the Japanese emperor but in modern times, “panda diplomacy” really took off after US President Richard Nixon’s 1972 visit to China.
China gifted two pandas – Ling Ling and Xing Xing – following that visit and the pandas generated world headlines and a mad craze in America.
Millions of people lined up to see them in Washington and in one stroke, China scored an instant diplomatic victory.
Japan reportedly dispatched two military aircraft to guard “Lan Lan” and “Kang Kang” when they entered its airspace on arrival from China as part of the now fine-tuned “panda diplomacy”.
West Germany rolled out the red carpet for its pair of pandas in 1974.
In the years since, the rare pandas have become firmly established as an important piece of China’s modern day diplomacy – to break the ice, ease tension and promote goodwill.
But it is not all diplomacy with pandas.
They have to be kept in special enclosures being built at the wetlands park in Putrajaya.
Pandas do nothing but laze around and eat special bamboos shoots (about 20kg a day) – their favourite and only food, which has to be imported from China or specially planted here.
They have to be kept in special, fully air-conditioned enclosure with climate controlled at temperatures ranging between 18°C and 22°C and humidity controlled at 50% to 60% all year round.
Ambient conditions have to be adjusted to simulate the four seasons similar to their natural habitat in south-western China.
According to one estimate, the cost can run up to RM20mil but the returns in the form of gate collection, research and diplomacy, far outweighs the cost.
The reverse is also true. Any mishap will spark a diplomatic uproar and ruin relations as well.
On arrival, the pandas will be quarantined for a month and five more months for acclimatisation before they are opened for public viewing.
Malaysia, the third country in South-East Asia after Thailand and Singapore to get the pandas, will also get the chance to name the pandas in a nationwide contest.
Hopefully, the arrival of the pandas, celebrated for breaking the ice between nations and exciting people, will also ease the tensions and divide in our nation.
Conservation groups feel that the money could be better spent to protect our own species rather than on two imported pandas.
They say the RM20 million would go a long way to save our species.
“This is a case of [Malay proverb) kera di hutan disusukan anak di rumah mati kelaparan [Importance is given to outsiders rather than own family],” said Professor Dr Maketab Mohamed, president of the Malaysian Nature Society (MNS).
He stressed that local species such as the Sumatran rhinoceros, the Malayan tiger, the tapir, pangolin and elephants to a certain extentd face extinction.
“The budget allocated to Department of Wildlife and National Parks Peninsular Malaysia (Perhilitan) for its conservation efforts is hardly sufficient. For enforcement effort itself, the budget will usually run out in three months,” he said.
The pandas are on a 10-year loan from China and will be housed in special air-conditioned enclosures in Putrajaya wetlands.
Maketab said enforcement effort includes tracking down poachers and locating possible poachers.
These activities are important to bring poachers to justice and also to send a warning to other potential poachers, he added.
He said in jest that the Sumatran rhinoceros was not as “adorable” as the giant pandas, but the rhinos have to be given special attention as they are going extinct at an alarming rate.
The smallest species in the rhinoceros species, the Sumatran rhinoceros are mostly poached for their horns.
Critical danger
WWF reports that the species are in “critical danger” as there are only about 300 of them left in the world. A survey conducted in 2005 revealed that there were only 13 such rhinoceros in Sabah, as opposed to the 30 to 70 believed to be there previously.
“The government needs to think about the local species which can be saved. There’s no point in allocating a budget to save these species when it is too late,” Maketab said.
Wong Siew Te of the Bornean Sun Bear Conservation Centre also echoed Maketab’s views.
Wong said that RM20 million was a lot of money which could be channelled to conservation of Sun bears, among others.
“With the RM20 million, one can build a conservation centre which helps incorporate and promote the welfare of the captive Sun bears in Peninsular Malaysia. You can have proper facilities including an education centre,” he said.
Although it is unclear if the species are facing extinction, International Union for Conservation of Nature’s report recently stated that the species are “vulnerable”.
The Sun bears are usually hunted for their body parts, bile and fur. It has been reported that some of these bears, whose bile is extracted while they are alive, are held captive in inhumane conditions.
Anbarasi Boopal from Singapore’s Animal Concerns Research and Education Society argued over the need to introduce two new species in the region when existing local species were often neglected.
“It is not really an ideal exchange of animals. After 10 years, these pandas need to adjust back to the environment in China.
“Pandas usually do not adapt easily. They are prone to infections and they don’t breed well in captivity,” she said, adding that conservation efforts for pandas are best done within their own habitat.
She added that the expertise needed to tend to these pandas was limited in this region.
She said the additional cost to train local experts to tend to the pandas could be best spent on raising awareness on the local endangered species instead.
Comments