The Pahang government will soon launch an anti-bullying awareness campaign to curb the social issue which had become rampant and more worrying of late, according to state women and family development, communications and multimedia committee chairperson Shahaniza Shamsuddin.

She said the campaign would see a collaboration between government departments, primary and secondary schools, as well as parents, to ensure that they would become more aware of the issue and the changes in behaviour of the bullied victims.

“Parents’ involvement is vital as most bullying cases are caused by the differences between the victims and the offenders. Parents need to teach their children to accept and tolerate differences among their peers.

“The upbringing of each individual varies according to their respective families and it is okay to be different. It is important for the parents to give emphasis (to their children) to respect the differences,” she told Bernama in Kuantan today.

Shahaniza also said that the state department would promote the campaign along with the ‘Click Wisely’ campaign introduced by the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) to fight cyber-bullying.

“Some are not aware that making comments on social media with malice about someone or masquerade as someone else is a form of cyber-bullying...This is among the subtle form of bullying which will be emphasised in our campaign,” she said.

In George Town, the Penang Malays Association (Pemenang) would send a memorandum to propose for a law to be drafted to prevent bullying which had been rampant among the school students recently.

Its president, Mohd Yussof Latif said the memorandum would be sent to the Higher Education Ministry; Women, Family and Community Development Ministry; and the Education Ministry early next month.

“The memorandum, among others, calls for actions to be taken against the school found to have been hiding bullying cases which occurred in its compound,” he told reporters in Kuantan today.

He said the culture of ‘ragging’ at schools and institutions of higher learning should be banned as it would lead to bullying.

- Bernama