KUALA LUMPUR: In the wake of a recent case of alleged abuse and bullying at a military university, Malaysia Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said that such incidents occur as they are tolerated and sometimes defended.
But in a strongly worded speech on Friday (Nov 1) at the Universiti Pertahanan Nasional Malaysia (UPNM) where the latest incident allegedly happened, Mr Anwar stressed that his government will not tolerate a bullying culture in educational institutions.
He also urged education leaders to take responsibility to put an end to the scourge.
On Wednesday, the Malaysian Armed Forces (MAF) confirmed that it was thoroughly investigating a case of a cadet officer who had allegedly been bullied by his senior at the Military Training Academy at UPNM in Kuala Lumpur.
The case has since gone viral on social media with some netizens expressing concern as to why such bullying incidents continue to happen at the university even after the tragic death of a navy cadet officer there in 2017 that was also linked to bullying.
Speaking at the dialogue event on Friday, Mr Anwar said that bullying culture has become systemic in Malaysia and this is a challenge that needs to be addressed by the relevant institutions and ministries.
“It’s a small group that does not represent all students but the culture allows it … a culture of thuggery, bullying and gangsterism in schools.
“Whether it’s national, Tamil, Chinese or religious schools, it is madness because we talk about knowledge but not about morals and values,” he told the UPNM students, as quoted by local media.
Mr Anwar added that he has since instructed Education Minister Fadhlina Sidek to look into the issue.
“I told the education minister, don’t compromise. I warned and advised (her) not to tolerate it all because we don’t want it to happen,” he said.
The recent incident at UPNM that first surfaced on Oct 30 is said to involve a senior allegedly pressing a hot iron onto a cadet officer’s chest, with photos of the burn marks later circulating on social media.
“The armed forces take such issues seriously and will not protect anyone involved in the case,” MAF’s Chief of Defence Force Mohammad Ab Rahman told Bernama on Oct 31.
Some netizens said that the latest case at UPNM reminds them of the incident that led to the death of 21-year-old navy cadet Zulfarhan Osman Zulkarnain in 2017.
“It seems that the bullying culture using an iron is ingrained in UPNM … if (the university) had taken it seriously, this would not have happened again,” said X user @chairmanGLC on Oct 31, with the post garnering over 3,500 reposts.
In July this year, six former UPNM students were sentenced to death by hanging for Mr Zulfarhan’s murder seven years ago.
According to local media, apart from having hot steam iron repeatedly pressed onto his body, Mr Zulfarhan was also subjected to beatings, kicks and punches. The case dominated headlines, with one of the three judges in the case describing it to be one of the rarest and “most extreme forms of cruelty”.
Mr Zulfarhan’s father had also expressed disappointment that a similar form of abuse suffered by his late son had apparently happened again to another student in the military university.
“The claim that the victim was pressed with an iron … is unacceptable … like what happened to my late son who had 90 marks from being pressed with a hot steam iron, I still can’t forget the suffering he endured,” Mr Zulkarnain Idros told local media Harian Metro.
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