COMMENT | I am shocked at this repugnant episode of bullying. What is happening to our schoolchildren? Why have they developed such sadistic tendencies?

Quoting G25 member Noor Farida Ariffin, anyone can understand her strong reaction after watching a video of a boy bullying another in the classroom with others cheering him on.

This particular video, which depicted a Standard Six student at a religious school in Sabah beating up a classmate with a chair, went viral in September last year. However, it is still being circulated on platforms such as WhatsApp.

In the wake of teen bully victim T Nhaveen’s death, the whole nation is shocked. Even inspector-general of police Khalid Abu Bakar has instructed the case to be reclassified as murder, after being investigated at first under Section 148 of the Penal Code for rioting with weapons.  

To take a step backwards, it is the authorities who should be blamed when privileged groups or individuals linked to a particular political party are allowed to show off their prowess in an attempt to bully others. They serve as bad examples to the younger generation of Malaysians.

“The other children who were in the classroom (in the Sabah video) seemed to have enjoyed the spectacle and made no attempt to intervene,” Farida added. “And how can this happen in a classroom and no teachers or adults were aware of what was happening?”

Urgent action needed

Shockingly, but this is the fast-changing landscape in the state of our education. To address this issue, according to Farida, most G25 members also feel that the Education Ministry and the school authorities must take urgent action to address the problem of bullying among schoolchildren.

In fact, the authorities also have to be seen taking action by making public what disciplinary measures or punishments have been meted out against the bullies.

Silence is not golden. As the oft-quoted aphorism goes: "Not only must justice be done; it must also be seen to be done."

A suggestion that the police should take seriously is to station their officers at different schools, and make their presence felt in the community.

School guard posts are great places to double up as police beats. Distribution of the officers in blue will also ensure a better patrol of the community, and their response time would be reduced substantially when there is an emergency.

Speaking as chairman of the Centre of Public Policy Studies, Ramon Navaratnam expressed his disgust after viewing the video. “A point-blank question: What on earth is the Education Ministry doing about this?” he asked. 

Ramon strongly advocated for maximum publicity after the disciplinary measures have been meted out, to allow justice to be upheld.

I concur with Farida’s stance that the ministry should adopt a zero-tolerance stance towards bullying in schools. Any form of bullying in any educational establishment has to be severely dealt with, and the disciplinary measures should be published widely.

This particular bully in the video I mentioned should not be spared any stern action against him. There is no room for leniency.

On a positive note, Farida recommended that “the school curriculum should inculcate the values of kindness and caring for others in schoolchildren". This is an important role played by teachers, apart from helping the children academically.

The responsibility of teachers

But what if teachers themselves are the bullies? A recent case at a school in Port Dickson involving an eight-year-old boy who was allegedly burned on the cheek by his teacher for being mischievous has also shocked the nation.

Under such circumstances, if the evidence is strong, the Negeri Sembilan State Education Department should not be dragging its feet over the punishment that should be immediately meted out against the teacher concerned. For suggestions on how to teach and discipline a challenging child, I recommend reading Tunku Munawirah Putra’s article.

Parents entrust their children to the teachers. As adults, they are supposed to protect the children. Instead, this teacher was more of a sadist than an educator!

A child’s life has been scarred by an irresponsible adult; since he has failed in the job, transferring him to another school would be seen as a totally irresponsible act by the state education department.

What if he repeats the same punishment, and worse, if another child dies under his care? Such a bullying teacher should be sacked instead. There are no two ways about it.

Lack of transparency

I believe that the “standard operating procedures" (or SOPs) that officers from the state education departments and district education offices like to use is nothing better than a smokescreen to hide their failure to supervise schools under their care.  

From my experience dealing with some of these officials at both tiers, complaints raised with them are hardly answered. Their non-committal and ambiguous replies given in writing are also more often than not just an excuse to open the floodgates to more wrongdoings.

If the parent of the boy bullied in the video were to write officially to the state education department, I am sure the answer given by the state education department would be the standard answer: “The case has been investigated, and disciplinary action has been taken.”  

The rationale that the authorities have to protect the bully’s identity in the name of confidentiality, for example, calls to mind the lack of transparency in such matters. If a video has already gone viral, why are we talking about protecting the identity of the bully?

No one can tell whether adequate measures to discipline the wrongdoer have been taken or not, if the punishment meted out is not stated in black and white.

Going by this argument, any punishment imposed on the bully should, therefore, be clearly spelt out in order to send a strong signal to other bullies.

We are not talking about an isolated case; in a year, I have received at least five to eight such video clips which have gone viral, and Farida also mentioned a few recent fatal cases due to bullying.

“This should not be allowed to be repeated,” she said. “Schools should also provide counselling sessions for the bullies and help them with anger management.”

In her response, Parent Action Group for Education Malaysia (PAGE) chairperson Azimah Rahim said that in dealing with the hardcore bullies, the police have to be called in.

Applauding the initiative by the ministry, however, Azimah said an independent investigation should still be conducted into such incidents, especially when it has attracted so much public attention. “The police should not conveniently side with the principal or the school,” she added.

Besides the police, other authorities are equally guilty when such an incident is reported – often, it ends up with the victims being blamed for provoking the bully, whereas the bully is let off the hook.

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

The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of Malaysiakini.