Perhilitan calls off second raid at gibbon rehab centre

• UPDATED 8PM | Added comments from Perhilitan enforcement director Pazil Abdul Patah.

• UPDATED 6PM | Rewritten after Perhilitan stopped their raid and the centre lodged a police report against the department. 

After a 10-hour raid yesterday, the Wildlife and National Parks Department (Perhilitan) returned to the Gibbon Rehabilitation Project (Grep) centre this morning for a second raid.

Arriving at about 10.30am, they stopped their operation at around 2pm without seizing any gibbons.

The centre’s staff and the department gave Malaysiakini different reasons for calling off the raid.

Grep project manager Farhanah Bamadhaj said the officers left after they failed to produce a warrant authorising their raid. She later lodged a police report against the department.

However, Perhilitan enforcement director Pazil Abdul Patah told Malaysiakini that the department did not need a warrant. He explained that the raid was aborted after officers failed to coax the gibbons to cooperate.

According to Farhanah, 14 Perhilitan officers arrived at the centre this morning to confiscate two more gibbons. Four gibbons were confiscated yesterday.

She had requested the officers show her a court warrant. When they failed to do so, she told them to leave and they eventually complied.

Farhanah later lodged a police report at the Cheroh police station in Raub, Pahang against Perhilitan.

According to the report, which Malaysiakini sighted, she claimed the department had no right to confiscate any gibbons from the sanctuary.

“If they do not have a warrant, Perhilitan does not have the right under the Wildlife Conservation Act 2010 to take the gibbons.

“On Dec 29 8.30am Perhilitan already took four gibbons without a court warrant,” read the report.

Section 94 of the Act states that officers need permission from the magistrate in the form of a warrant to perform search and seizure procedures.

When contacted, Pazil said Perhilitan’s decision to leave was not because of the lack of a warrant.

“This had nothing to do with any warrant. This was because we did not want to drug (the gibbons) when they refused to go into the trap.

“We wanted to allow them to naturally enter the trap but they refused. We will try again,” he said, adding that he did not know when the department would be back at the centre.

When asked if his officers had a warrant to enter the centre, Pazil stressed that Perhilitan was empowered under Section 97 of the Wildlife Conservation Act 2010 to conduct raids without warrants.

The section allows enforcement officers to enter state land, reserved land, permanent reserve forest, alienated land, and mining land without a warrant.

“Perhilitan can go in even without a warrant. Perhilitan is powerful,” he said. 

Legal tussle

The raids come amidst an ongoing court case between Grep founder Mariani Ramli and Perhilitan.

Earlier, Mariani had expressed deep concern over how the raid would traumatise the gibbons, possibly reversing some of the progress they made while under rehabilitation.

“Perhilitan should not have trespassed into my property as I did not give them any permission to come in.

“They also moved the gibbons knowing they were under rehabilitation. They could have always come and checked the rehabilitation work I have been doing. I have always welcomed them and have shared the progress reports with the department and have been ready for their officers to come in and audit the project.

“The translocation has caused unnecessary trauma especially to the gibbons who suffer from zoochosis,” she told Malaysiakini.

Zoochosis is a condition where animals exhibit abnormal behaviour due to time in captivity.

A former Perhilitan ranger, Mariani had taken her former employer to court over a claim of unfair dismissal back in 2016. She challenged both her termination and Perhilitan’s order for her to return six gibbons which had been placed under her care while employed under the department.

Mariani won the case in the High Court but the judgment was set aside by the Court of Appeal on Nov 15.

Her lawyers filed an application for leave to appeal to the Federal Court on Dec 14. They have yet to apply for a stay on the Court of Appeal decision but have informed the court of their intention to do so.

With the stay not yet filed or granted, Perhilitan has the right to confiscate the gibbons.

Perhilitan Peninsular Malaysia director-general Abu Kadir Abu Hashim told Malaysiakini yesterday that the department was within its powers to conduct the raid.

“This is the Court of Appeal’s decision. The gibbons must be surrendered to Perhilitan,” he said.

Abu Kadir further claimed to have no knowledge of Mariani’s leave application.

Pazil similarly said yesterday that his officers were acting in accordance with the Court of Appeal order, adding that the department had the expertise to rehabilitate gibbons.

Malaysia is home to five out of 20 gibbon species, and all five are listed on the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species.

The Grep centre is recognised by the IUCN for its gibbon rehabilitation work.

Call for gibbons to be returned

Meanwhile, Mariani along with a small team of Grep staff and volunteers staged a demonstration outside the National Wildlife Rescue Centre in Sungkai, Perak, this afternoon.

They held placards in front of the facility demanding that Perhilitan return the gibbons.

“Return Garu, return Daly, return Betsy, return Lola,” they chanted as seen in a video shared on Facebook.

The names refer to the four gibbons Perhilitan seized yesterday.

In a statement at the demonstration, Mariani said the department had erred in entering the centre and seizing the primates by force.

“The Court of Appeal did not allow Perhilitan the right to seize the gibbons by force, without following legal processes.

“Perhilitan had wrongfully and illegally trespassed into my land without any prior notice and Perhilitan failed to abide by the Wildlife Conservation Act in terms of enforcement,” she said. 

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