Of Concerts, Ceramahs And Animal Rights, Part 3 (hopeful News)
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This is a note to let all readers know that I have communicated with the parliamentary candidate for my constituency, Mr Wong Chen, whom I must say, is the brightest and most brilliant politicians I’ve ever come across. After attending his dialogues, I wrote to him about the issue of sparing our ear-notched animals and CNRM in general.
It struck me that Mr Wong Chen might be interested to hear me out when he mentioned that the powers-that-be have to “rule with a conscience” with reference to another issue in a question posed by a member of the audience in one of his dialogues. After attending practically all his ceramahs and dialogues, he struck me as a politician who is willing to listen. He also comes across as being extremely and exceptionally intelligent and wise and is able to give very real, knowledgeable and realistic strategies on various issues.
So I wrote to him and asked if he might be interested to discuss the issue of animal welfare. Within a few hours, I received a reply. I must say that this is a very pleasant surprise compared with how animal issues are usually brushed aside and ignored by those in power. Mr Wong said he looks forward to listening to my ideas and will address the issue after the elections. He also mentioned that he had cats and dogs when he was young.
If he is elected (I’m confident he will be, if we have clean and fair elections), I look forward to meeting this brilliant mind and I’m sure we all would like to know how he responds to our proposal.
Ini kalilah, folks…let’s remain hopeful that our furry friends on the streets may be treated with a bit of kindness under the new government. As much as we think we do not want to have anything to do with politics or politicians, how can we hope for better legislation and laws that will treat our animals in a kinder fashion if we do not engage in dialogue with the politicians? So, like it or not, we have to at least try…for the sake of the animals and the generations to come.
Remain hopeful, please.
And please remember that we need a bigger voice. So if you want to add anything to what we are going to propose, please feel free to write to me at chankahyein@gmail.com.
Proposals (in this order):
1. To spare our ear-notched animals from being captured. And if captured, to be released.
2. To have restricted zones whereby if the majority of the residents put in in writing that they do not want animals captured, that particular neighbourhood will be exempted from the local council’s animal-catching activities.
3. To stop giving out contracts to private animal-catching companies and instead, channel these funds to neuter street animals.
There are many more, of course, but let us work on #1 first.
We need a big voice.Your voice.
Speak up for the animals. They cannot speak for themselves.
Updates on 30th April: I was privileged to have a brief chat with Mr Wong Chen at his dialogue last night. In short, while changing legislation is something to work towards, how we want to care for street animals is a matter at a local level. In other words, we, the people, decide. To put it simply, we simply need a biggervoiceto push for better treatment and better laws to protect the animals. The powers-that-be has to listen to the majority. Can we be the voice of the majority? That’s something we need to work towards.
As an analogy, when Asmaa Mahfuz stood alone and shouted on Tahrir Square, she was quickly joined by many others and soon, her single voice became a strong voice of the majority.
If we want to see a change in the treatment of street animals, be it at a local level or higher, we need a bigger voice.
Source: http://myanimalcare.org/2013/04/29/of-concerts-ceramahs-and-animal-rights-part-3-hopeful-news/
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