School bullies and defensive officials

The authorities must show sincerity in tackling what appears to be a real social problem.

COMMENT

Malaysia’s bullying epidemic has become a talking point over social media these past few months. Rarely does a week go by without a video of a bullying case going viral. While some of us may snicker, others are appalled that our young people can behave in such an uncivilised manner. Clearly, we have a problem, and being wishy washy about it helps no one.

Take the case of M Kavi Varman, 14, who was allegedly kicked from behind by a classmate, causing him to fall onto the side of a table and fracture his elbow. It seems that the boy who committed the offence belonged to a group that had been bullying Kavi for two months. And what was Kavi’s crime? Apparently, he told a teacher that those boys had been absent from class.

Kedah Education Department Director Azuyah Hassan has jumped into the fray with a claim that there was no bullying. He said the boys had been running about in class until one fell onto a table. With due respect to Azuyah, we must point out that elbows don’t get fractured every day. To dismiss the possibility of bullying outright when bones have cracked seems insensitive and reeks of a face-saving exercise. There is something foul that many will catch wind of quickly, and Azuyah must either produce evidence to support the claim or be accused of needlessly trying to protect the school.

Azuyah cannot let the Education Department seem like it is protecting bullies, especially when the alleged victim claims that he has lodged reports with the school authorities over his predicament to no avail. While no one deserves to be tried in the court of public opinion, the authorities must recognise that the public opinion on this is negative and there must be action to show that they take the alleged bullying epidemic seriously. That starts with not dismissing this case out of hand and actually doing the groundwork while appealing for calm.

We’ve all been young before, and the simple truth is that there are few things in this world as cruel as schoolchildren, even if we want to think of our kids as little angels incapable of violence, hate, and cruelty. We must expect more out of our children and ourselves because a child’s behaviour reflects his upbringing. Parents must come to terms with the idea that it is high time to instil discipline in their children. We owe it to our children to provide them with a strong, principled upringing.

Once upon a time, some schools in Petaling Jaya were notorious for having large numbers of students who were delinquent. They were known as “gangster schools.” But efforts were made to resolve the problem and the number of wayward students have dwindled dramatically. Those schools now have a new breed of hardworking students. There is no reason why, with fervent anti-bullying efforts, we cannot replicate the success elsewhere. Let us recognise that this is a problem and move forward towards solving it.