The run up to the Chinese year of the Tiger has been especially turbulent in Malaysia thanks to a series of high profile stories causing widespread outrage.

Allow me to introduce Yok Meneh (pictured seated). Yok - an orang asli or Malay aboriginal got his 5 minutes of fame after he was admitted to hospital for treatment following an apparent Tiger attack in Perak. He even had the nerve to smile as he was photographed, elaborate on his lies and pose with his injuries.

According to the Star newspaper on 7th February 2010:

Orang Asli Yok Meneh has been foraging in the forest for years bringing home petai and other vegetation. Yesterday, the usual uneventful trek became a harrowing one for the Semai when a tiger pounced on him.

But the 47-year-old is not one to be easily done in. He summoned up courage and fought the animal with his hands and a rock. And the human won. The animal slunk away.

The attack left Yok Meneh with a gaping wound measuring 15.2cm (6in) long and 10cm (4in) deep on his back. He also suffered injuries to his hands and legs from fighting back.

“In all my years of going into the forest to collect produce, this is the first time I have been attacked by a tiger,” said Yok Meneh,from his bed at the Teluk Intan Hospital.

He was in the forest near his house at Kampung Ras in Sungkai, about 80km from here, when the incident happened.

“I was so engrossed in collecting petai that I did not notice the tiger had crept up behind me,” he said, adding that the tiger was silent until it had pounced on him and pinned him down.

“And then it started growling and growling. I shouted for help before it sunk in that I was all alone and no one could save me.

“The moment I realised I had to save myself I tried to grab anything I could with my hands.

“I found a rock, grabbed it and fought back, hitting the tiger on its head again and again until it slunk away.”

The feisty orang asli then dragged himself about 1.6km out of the forest to his home.

When his wife saw him bedraggled and bleeding, she sought the help of a worker from a nearby oil palm estate to take him to a clinic.

However, because of the severity of his injuries, Yok Meneh was transferred to the Teluk Intan Hospital for treatment.

Asked whether the attack would deter him from going back into the forest, Yok Meneh said he had no choice but to continue as his family’s survival depended on the produce he collected.

You could almost feel sorry for poor old Yok until February 11th when it was reported:

The tiger trapped by a group of orang asli in Sungkai last week died an excruciatingly slow and painful death — so painful that Perak Wildlife and National Parks Department (Perhilitan) director Shabrina Shariff wept when she saw the body.

The tiger was bloodied — it had taken five bullets, two of them in its eyes. It had spear wounds all over, with the poison from the spears slowly killing it. Its flesh was torn by the wire snare and its left forelimb had been torn off.

Shabrina said she could not imagine the pain the four-year-old male tiger would have gone through since last Tuesday, the first day its limb was caught in a snare.

The carcass was found by Perhilitan officers five days later on Sunday with its left forelimb detached and the bloodied body riddled with gunshot wounds.

“But I am very sure that the pain and trauma it suffered before it died would have been excruciating,” said Shabrina. The tiger that was found dead by Perak Wildlife and National Parks (Perhilitan) officers after it attacked orang asli Yok Meneh at the Bukit Tapah Forest Reserve in Sungkai

“We extracted five bullets from its body, limb and both eyes. Its flesh was badly torn by the wire snare and spears the poachers had jabbed it with,” she said.

Shabrina said it had also been poisoned as the spears used by the orang asli were laced with sap from the Ipoh Tree.

Shabrina said that it was impossible for the tiger, which had been injured so severely, to survive.

“It is one of the worst poaching cases I have seen.

“It was a really handsome and big cat, weighing some 120kg and measuring 1.5m to 1.8m long.

“It had very beautiful fur but sadly, we were unable to restore and preserve its skin due to the extent of the injuries.

“All that we could salvage was its bones, which we will assemble later for display,” she said, adding that for the time being, the tiger was buried at the Wildlife Conservation Centre in Sungkai.

Orang asli Yok Meneh had last Saturday claimed that he was attacked by the tiger while on his way to gather petai at the Bukit Tapah Forest Reserve.

However, it was later found that he had been attacked while trying to kill the tiger, which was caught in a snare set by other orang asli.

Shabrina said the orang asli claimed that they hunted tiger for its meat which was considered an aphrodisiac.

“But I believe that they could be involved in selling tiger parts to middlemen.”