School principal manipulative person, claims witness

KOTA KINABALU: The High Court here on Monday heard that the second defendant of a suit against an English Language teacher in Kota Belud was claimed to be a manipulative person and allegedly made other school teachers at the secondary school look stupid.

A star witness, who was testifying before Justice Datuk Ismail Brahim, testified that the second defendant which is the school’s principal known as Hj Suid Hj Hanapi, was also claimed to have made teachers feel that they were useless that they had no managment skills.

Under examination-in-chief by counsel Shireen Sikayun, the witness also claimed that Suid not only made teachers look stupid but also allegedly embarrassed and put the blame on them.

The witness further testified that the students were also scared of the second defendant.

To another question, the witness claimed that in one meeting, the second defendant humiliated the witness by saying that she did not address absenteeism teacher issue to him (Suid) much earlier.

The witness further claimed that the second defendant did that in front of all the teachers and said the witness was a failure even though she had received Anugerah Perkhidmatan Cemerlang (Excellent Service Award).

Siti Nafirah Siman, the 23year-old sole plaintifff, had named Mohd Jainal Jamran, Suid (sued in his capacity as school’s principal), Sekolah Menengah Kebangsaan Taun Gusi, District Education Officer of Kota Belud, Director of Education Sabah, Director General of Education Malaysia, Minister of Education Malaysia and Government of Malaysia as first, second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh and eighth defendants respectively.

Siti Nafirah had filed the suit against the first defendant for his alleged failure to teach the English Language subject to her and her classmates during his assigned periods or timetable for the academic year of 2015.

The plaintiff, who was represented by Shireen, also sued the other defendants for their alleged failure to take action against the first defendant for allegedly failing to teach her and her classmates.

Senior Federal Counsel Jesseca Daimis and Federal Counsel Mohd Fazriel Fardiansyah Abdul Kadir acted for the defendants.

Meanwhile, counsel Datin Mary Florence Gomez (Sabah Law Society’s Women and Children’s Rights Sub-Committee chairperson) and Yannik Mohd Annuar held a watching brief for the Human Rights Commission (Suhakam).

The trial will resume on

February 20.