BSBCC explains statement over Sun Bear Run
KOTA KINABALU: Bornean Sun Bear Conservation Centre (BSBCC) chief executive officer and founder Wong Siew Te has expressed disappointment over the Sun Bear Run organisers’ police report against him for defamation following his earlier statement on the centre’s stand on the event.
His earlier statement, published in online new portals and local media last Thursday, he said, was purely intended to clarify the centre’s noninvolvement in the Sun Bear Run event so as to avoid misleading the public into thinking that proceeds from the run would go to the centre.
“We received many enquiries from the public on whether the proceeds of the Sun Bear Run would go to BSBCC as the BSBCC is well-known for our work with sun bears in Sabah. As the founder and CEO of the centre, I have an obligation and responsibility to inform the public about the truth,” Wong said when asked to comment on the matter yesterday.
The Sun Bear Run organisers, Wildlife Alliance Sdn Bhd and Valiant Event Management had on Sunday said that they have lodged a police report against Wong for his attempts to “tarnish the event, the company’s credentials and effort.”
The organisers, who were represented by June Gerald and Melissa Angus respectively, also accused Wong of duping the public into thinking that the Sun Bear Run was a charity event when they had never marketed it as such, but purely as an awareness platform instead.
In explaining his position and the centre’s, Wong said he was approached by Dr Raymond Alfred of the Borneo Conservation Trust (BCT) with an offer to participate in the event that the latter himself said he was organising, and that he was not informed about the Wildlife Alliance or Valiant Event Management.
“I stressed that the run has to be a charity run and not merely a profitmaking event for certain parties. I did not know that it was not (a charity run) until January 25, 2016 from an email by Dr Alfred, through which I also found out that neither was the Rhino X-Run (which was organised by the same companies under the Heal the World Run Series), all of which including the Elephant Run, which I thought to be charity events but weren’t.
“So, yes, they never said it was a charity run, which is even more reason why I think I have the responsibility to tell the public that the Sun Bear Run is not a charity run but a theme run instead. The public need to know the truth that their money paid to participate in the run is not going to benefit the BSBCC or sun bear conservation efforts,” Wong stressed.
Wong expressed regret over the misinterpretation of intentions on the part of the organisers, who also said that Wong had responded negatively towards their request for the centre’s involvement in the Sun Bear Run, as well as their proposals to Wong.
Wong said he had received an email dated December 4, 2015 with the Borneo Conservation Trust (BCT) letterhead and signed by the executive secretary of BCT, which was an invitation to “officiate awareness programmes namely a drawing competition and the Sun Bear Run.”
Due to his busy schedule, Wong only replied the email on January 20, 2016, with various enquiries on the organisers’ profile and details as he had never heard of them prior to that, as well as the companies’ transparency in disclosing their net profit from the event.
“The donors, supporters, and participants of the run all have the right to know where their money is being spent and go to, and the organisers have the obligation and responsibility to the public.
“The BSBCC feels that transparency and accountability is extremely important in these kinds of fund raising events which involve public funds. We condemn any parties who try to exploit the name of the BSBCC or abuse conservation for personal benefit,” Wong pointed out.
As the only non-profit organisation in Malaysia, with partnership from the Sabah Wildlife Department and Sabah Forestry Department, working on the conservation of sun bears in Sabah, he said the BSBCC therefore has to be extremely cautious with the invitation before they could agree to participate in such events.
“I do not think that my response to him was ‘negative’. At that time, I did not know who the organizers were - Wildlife Alliance (Borneo) Sdn Bhd and Valiant Management, and neither did I know about Dr Alfred’s or BCT’s roles in the run.
“I needed to know their credentials and authentication for the runs. I also needed to know how they handled financial information on the past two runs (bear in mind that I thought the elephant and rhino runs were charity runs) and they have to be transparent to the general public and participants before I can participate and get myself or the centre involved,” he added.
Wong said he was shocked to learn that no funds from the Rhino X-Run were channelled to the Borneo Rhino Alliance (BORA), the non-governmental organisation (NGO) which is raising funds to save the state’s last few rhinos.
“Most people who participated in the runs (Rhino X-Run and Borneo Elephant Run) were thinking that their participation in the runs would benefit the state conservation efforts to help Bornean pygmy elephants and Sumatran rhinos. However, they did not.”
Due to these facts, he said, BSBCC needed to be extra careful about the Sun Bear Run.
“As the founder and CEO of the BSBCC, together with our partners such as the Sabah Wildlife Department, Sabah Forestry Department and LEAP, we had to make sure that the name of the BSBCC or sun bears would not be exploited by any parties to generate personal benefit. We condemn any people who attempt to use the name of the BSBCC as a marketing tool to boost their profit making agenda,” he said.
While the BSBCC acknowledged that they do not own the name “sun bear”, and that anyone can use it for any purpose, they are the only NGO doing conservation work for sun bears and that meant that they had the responsibility to inform the public that they are not involved in the run and neither will the profit from the run benefit the BSBCC and sun bear conservation, Wong added.
Having said so, he hoped that the Wildlife Alliance and Valiant Event Management could withdraw their police report against him, so as to enable the centre more time and resources to do real conservation work on the ground to help sun bears.
“I have been working tirelessly to help and conserve sun bears in Sabah for the past 18 years. Thanks to the generous help from the Sabah state government and great partnership from the Sabah Wildlife Department, Sabah Forestry Department, and LEAP, my team and I have been working very hard across Sabah to conserve sun bears through a holistic approach that involves improving animal welfare of the rescued sun bears, education, research and rehabilitation.
“We do not have the time or resources to deal with these kinds of legal matters. I hope they can withdraw their police report so that we have more time and resources to do our real conservation work on the ground to help sun bears,” Wong said.