Kota Kinabalu: The Coroner’s Court was told that the District Education Office (PPD), the State Education Department (JPN) and the Malaysian Education Ministry (KPM) had visited SMKA Tun Datu Mustapha six times after the incident involving Zara Qairina Mahathir.
Nurul Shahadah Ibrahim, 38, said the dates she remembered included July 21, July 26, Aug 15, Aug 4, July 17, and Nov 1 this year.
She told the court that KPM had visited the school and met all the teachers.
To a question from counsel Clarice Vyone Conrad, Nurul said she did not consider KPM’s visit as a meeting, as it was merely a visit to see the teachers and give them motivation, since the SPM examination was just days away at the time.
“An example is myself. I taught SPM students this year, and when KPM came down to meet teachers like us, it really increased our motivation.
“And we believe KPM’s presence that day was very meaningful to us. It showed that as SPM teachers who were directly involved in the case, we could not neglect our candidates because they really needed us.
“I am very grateful to the parties who came to the school to motivate us because we too are teachers, and behind us are our students who depend on us.
“Therefore, we are doing our best to shoulder this responsibility,” she said.
To another question, Nurul said there was one occasion when KPM came to the school to hold a meeting to understand the chronology of Zara’s case.
She said the other visits were more of programmes to show support to the teachers, while JPN and PPD visited the school twice to learn about the case.
Nurul told the Coroner that the school did not inform PPD, JPN, or KPM about the internal investigations conducted by the school.
When asked why the school did not inform them about the internal investigations, she said the investigations were only for the school’s record.
Clarice: Did the school wait for the police to ask before giving the records?
Nurul: There is a high possibility of that. We would definitely give our full cooperation to the police.
Clarice: Why wait for the police or the court to ask before the school provides the records?
Nurul: Because we knew there was a police investigation, so at that time we felt it was unnecessary, and we left it entirely to the authorities.
Clarice: How would the authorities such as the police know when they were not even aware of the internal investigation conducted by the school?
Nurul: Until now, we have never had a case where we submitted our internal investigation report and the written statements we obtained to the police. If we submitted those documents, it would seem as if we did not fully trust the police.
Furthermore, the internal investigations we conducted were originally meant solely for internal records, to show that we had taken action after learning about the case.
