KOTA KINABALU: A former manager of Sabah Foundation (Safond) has taken the group to court over actions which she alleged led her to leave its employ which was reportedly precipitated by the deaths of 14 Borneon elephants in Gunung Rara Forests Reserve last year that brought into the open alleged encroachment and illegal felling in the area.
Masturah Sulaiman, 45, alleged that her report on the elephants’ deaths had apparently made Rakyat Berjaya Sdn Bhd (RBJ), the subsidiary of Safond, which employed her as environmental manager since 2004, unhappy.
As environmental manager, Masturah said, she also headed the Environmental Impact Assessment Unit, later renamed the Forest Resources and Environmental Unit.
She is suing the group manager of RBJ, Gregory Mosigil, as the first defendant; senior group manager for Human Resource and Corporate Services (Group) of Sabah Foundation, Rosmawati Lasuki, as the second defendant; and administration and finance manager of RBJ, Li Fui Yee, as the third defendant.
Masturah, who is now attached to the Forestry Department, disclosed in a media update that the suit was filed through Messrs Chee & Co last Friday.
She is taking the position in her suit that she only knew about the elephants’ deaths, ten initially, through a local newspaper report dated January 30, 2013. The ten animals were found at Forest Management Unit (FMU) 23, a Sabah Foundation concession area in the Gunung Rara Forests Reserve, about 130 km from Tawau.
The area where the elephants died was managed by RBJ, she said, “and as the Environmental Manager, I ought to have been notified of the deaths of the elephants, but no one from RBJ or Safond informed me about it”.
Masturah said that upon learning of the deaths of the elephants, she immediately wrote to the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) to get more details on the tragedy.
The WWF, in their reply, disclosed that they had already reported the elephant deaths to Safond, the Sabah Forestry Department and the Sabah Wildlife Department on Jan 15, 2013, two weeks before the newspaper report.
“I immediately proposed and suggested, inter alia, mitigation measures,” she said.
“However, instead of incorporating the professional suggestions in the operational routine, I was transferred to the Conservation and Environmental Management Division (CEMD) within 24 hours on August 30, 2013.”
She later learnt, upon making inquiries, that her transfer was “part of restructuring efforts at Safond, where six divisions were being closed down”.
Following her inquiries, she was given a memo dated October 21, 2013 directing her to explain “who had informed the media on the alleged encroachment and illegal felling in Gunung Rara Forest Reserves” where the elephant deaths had occurred.
Masturah is pleading in her suit that she finally tendered her resignation on Nov 22, 2013 due to the actions of the three named defendants.
She is claiming damages for conspiracy to injure, exemplary and aggravated damages, costs, interest
and any other reliefs that the Court deems fit and reasonable.