Jame wants cops to probe defamatory statements against him

KOTA KINABALU - State Education Department Director Datuk Jame Alip wants police to investigate defamatory statements made against him. Jame who lodged a police report at the Karamunsing Police Station at about 5.03pm on Monday, claimed to have received via WhatsApp a banner photo of himself with defamatory statements from an individual by the name En Ruzi at about 5.41pm on Jan 8 asking for clarification on the statement.

The statement allegedly had 'Enough is enough!!! Sabahan must wake up! We lost autonomy! We also lost every thing include we have to depend the 3,000 teachers come from Malaya!' written in it.

Jame denied issuing any such statement and claimed it was a defamation against him to bring down his reputation as the State Education Director as well as to create disharmony between local teachers and teachers from the peninsula.

Earlier during his visit to schools in Tenom, Jame said the statement arose after several teachers from the peninsula were stranded in the flash floods and were not able to return to Sabah after the school holidays ended recently.

"This is a defamation which aims to bring my reputation down, I have never issued such statement because we understand the problem they are facing.

"The number of peninsula teachers in Sabah is only 26 per cent from that figure (3,000), while the rest are locals, in fact I have never differentiated between the status of peninsula or local teachers because we are all the same, their presence here is to assist us," he said.

On another note, Jame applauded the cleanliness of SMK Kemabong in Tenom, the students level of discipline and the performance of teachers which he described as excellent an according to the existing regulations.