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2 June 2023
KUALA LUMPUR: The government must provide teacher Nurhaizah Ejah full whistleblower protection, urged the ‘Tiada Guru’ campaign activists.
The movement spokesman said 37-year-old Nurhaizah, a former teacher at SMK Taun Gusi in Sabah, must be protected following her court testimony earlier this year that she was repeatedly threatened and had her car tyres slashed after she spoke out against an English teacher’s repeated truancy.
Nurhaizah also testified that she was humiliated and scolded. She was warned to stop smearing the school’s reputation by complaining over the teacher’s absenteeism.
Civil society organisation, Agora Society member Esther Sinirisan Chong said Nurhaizah was due to testify in the civil suit filed by former SMK Taun Gusi and Kota Belud students against, among others, their then English teacher.
Aside from Nurhaizah, Chong said the three ex-Form 4 Sains Sukan students, who are plaintiffs in the case — Rusiah Sabdarin, Calvina Angayung and Nur Natasha Allisya Hamali, now aged 21 — must also be given complete whistleblower protection.
In 2017, when the teacher’s alleged absenteeism took place, Calvina was the head school prefect; Nur Natasha was a prefect, while Rusiah was the class monitor.
In 2020, the trio filed the lawsuit and named their Form 4 English teacher Mohd Jainal Jamran, the school principal Suid Hanapi, the education director-general, the education minister and the government as defendants.
Their lawsuit was the second after the first filed by former SMK Taun Gusi student Siti Nafirah Siman in 2018.
The trio’s lawsuit claimed Jainal refused to enter their English class for months in 2017, with zero attendance after July that year.
The other defendants, they claimed, failed to take any steps to rectify their teacher’s months-long absences.
Chong said Nurhaizah was brave enough to voice up and expose the irresponsible act while the students fought for their right to seek knowledge and get educated.
Kota Belud, where they live, is said to be one of Malaysia’s 10 poorest districts.
“Nurhaizah came forward, and we hope she gets the protection she deserves. She was threatened and made a black sheep.
“These three children and the teacher put their safety and that of their families as well as reputation on the line to fight for accountability for Malaysian students.
“They have become a benchmark of bravery,” she told reporters at the Suara Rakyat Malaysia office in Petaling Jaya,today.
A petition for whistleblower protection has been launched jointly written by Tiada Guru campaign and Safiah Omar, a former student of Nurhaizah.
The petition said Nurhaizah, who was born in Kota Belud, was a SMK Taun Gusi student herself and then became a teacher at the school.
Norhaizah said her complaints and reports of absenteeism fell on deaf ears in 2015, and when the issue recurred with the same teacher in 2017, she took a different strategy.
It included making 80 time-stamped video recordings of the class when Jainal was scheduled to teach but was absent. #
