UPNM bullying: Cadet officers to be examined for injuries - minister

PARLIAMENT | Regular physical examinations will be conducted on Military Training Academy cadet officers of Universiti Pertahanan Nasional Malaysia (UPNM) to detect abusive activities that may cause injury.

Defence Minister Mohamed Khaled Nordin said it was among the eight improvement actions and prevention mechanisms that have been and are being taken to prevent incidents of bullying from happening again.

He said at the same time meetings between cadet officers and top officials of the academy will also be held in private to obtain information on misconduct among cadet officers.

“This is to overcome the issue of cadet officers’ reluctance to report inappropriate incidents,” he said in response to a question by Nordin Ahmad Ismail (PN-Lumut) regarding efforts to ensure that bullying activities at UPNM are stopped during the Minister’s Question Time session in the Dewan Rakyat today.

Khaled said the Malaysian Armed Forces (MAF) had also increased the staffing of officers and other ranks assigned to the academy and added trainers to increase monitoring of cadet officers.

He said with the additional officers, there would be 48 people compared to 31 officers earlier and other ranks personnel from 124 to 182.

The minister added that the MAF also assigned a trainer on duty for each company to enable closer monitoring of cadet officers daily.

“Trainers on duty have been instructed to patrol the accommodation of cadet officers after 11.59pm every day,” he said, adding that action will be taken against cadet officers found guilty of abuse.

Starting February 2023, he said seven closed-circuit cameras (CCTV) were installed on several levels of accommodation blocks to detect suspicious activities and the ministry is planning to increase the number according to need and suitability.

In the meantime, the isolation of first-year cadet officers was carried out at Bukit Putera starting in April and placed under the full control of the instructor since the group is usually targeted.

Khaled said the cases of bullying reported at the academy only increased this year compared to 2022 and 2023, with one case recorded each year.

He said the ministry would expose the forms of offences and impose severe punishments on bullies, besides emphasising the seriousness of the offence of conspiring to hide bullying incidents at the academy.

- Bernama

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