COMMENT The frequent occurrences of school bullying have to be nipped at the bud.

It is the responsibility of both the school and the parents to stop bullies from being a nuisance to society. The reason for the rise in the number of cases of school bullying is because of the failure of both parties to discipline the child.

There is a saying, “Melentur aur biarlah dari rebung” (good behaviours are formed in early childhood).

Bad behaviours need to be dealt with

Suspension from school even for one year, as suggested by Education Minister Mahdzir Khalid, is not the solution. The late Yong Chee Seng, who was principal of Methodist Boys’ School Kuala Lumpur, once said, “If we have a naughty boy, we try to keep him in school. At least, he is still under our influence to turn him into being a good citizen.”

Discipline is the key in dealing with school bullies. Punishment has to be accompanied by proper counselling.

It is a major disaster in a particular country where a Malaysian couple was recently sent to jail for caning their own children. We are reminded that the father who spares his rod does not love the child enough to chastise him of his wrong from young.

The government should never have interfered with the parents’ right to discipline their children, so long as they are not subject to abusive parental behaviours.

Instead, the government should provide facilities for the rehabilitation of school bullies. School bullies have to be quarantined like any infectious disease.

According to the principal of a girls’ school in the Klang Valley, both counselling and rehabilitation in a special facility, away from other students, will help these bullies turn over a new leaf. Her priority is to address the safety of other students first.

Another friend in my chat group agreed with the suggestion. “To curtail extreme cases of bullying, and to ensure that it is effective, it has to be done by isolating the bullies from the majority of the students. You can’t change the bully overnight!” he exclaimed.

“The important thing is to get them out of the mainstream education and put them together for rehabilitation. Do we have a choice? Both of us would sincerely want the bullies to change overnight and be absorbed into the schools once again... but we know it is not possible, as much as we want it on paper.”

Bad behaviours, bad vibes

In my opinion, to do away with caning in schools is also a big mistake. We allow our children to grow up to become a social problem. Soon, these behaviours turn into a crime that has to be dealt with by the judges and prison wardens.

This often has to do with the rowdy behaviours that the children see in their parents themselves. If the parents can give a flying kick to another fellow Malaysian who was wearing yellow, what can we expect their children to behave?

With all the political violence and provocation that we see on the television, and politicians trying to justify them, or being called a hero, it is no surprise that Malaysia is fast becoming a breeding ground for road bullies, school bullies and wife bashers.

With the culture that is being inculcated, and what we see just from the way how Bersih 5 convoy was treated recently, we cannot expect children to behave better than their parents.

Look at Umno Sungai Besar divisional leader Jamal Mohd Yunos, who recently led his red shirt lackeys on a rampage against Bersih 5 convoy.

Jamal made certain threats against Bersih 5, and the moment former co-chairperson Ambiga Sreeneevasan and current chairperson Maria Chin Abdullah were issued death threats, all fingers are now pointing at Jamal, who people think is capable of coming out with all sorts of mischief.

Why did not anyone think the threat could have been sent out by Uncle Tom next door? Why only Jamal? It is because he has attracted all the bad vibes that even when he claimed to do some community work to help Sekinchan not to be submerged in water, no one believes him any more.

Sekinchan assemblyperson Ng Suee Lim’s explanation was that Jamal was only concerned that his little hotel in Sekinchan would be flooded due to the high tide. To an ordinary citizen like me, the DAP politician has far more credibility than the Umno man.

As I have always said, no thanks to people like Jamal and Mohd Ali Baharom or Ali Tinju, no wonder Umno has become a four-letter word these days in the minds of most urban people.

It is obvious from here that if we allow our young people to emulate thugs that they meet outside the school, they may end up as social rejects.

These social rejects will never raise the dignity of any race, even if they claim to be championing their race and religion. Have the red shirts done anything to make the Malays proud? Nay, I think most of my Malay friends are angry with the kind of stupid behaviours exhibited by the red shirts.

If they continue to flout the laws thinking that they can get away with it, instead of the 50 sen cane that could have disciplined them from young, they may find themselves with the big rotan that leaves them languishing in great pain for days.

Let rehabilitation takes its full course, if school and parental discipline despite using the cane could not deal with the more hardcore ones, but keep them one to a few years for juvenile detention such as Henry Gurney School in Malacca.

Thanks to a reader’s comment (which I overlooked in my article), Mahadzir’s suggestion of one year’s suspension is nothing but a reward to look forward to.These boys will join the bad hats outside the school and they will never want to return to school any more.

Finally, politicians should stop praising or protecting the triad gangs.

STEPHEN NG is an ordinary citizen with an avid interest in following political developments in the country since 2008.