PETALING JAYA: Lawyers and a social activist believe enforcing existing laws and adopting anti-bullying policies will be better at addressing the issue of bullying, as opposed to enacting specific laws to make it a serious crime.
This comes after the High Court sentenced six students of the National Defence University (UPNM) to 18 years in jail for causing the death of navy cadet Zulfarhan Osman Zulkarnain four years ago.
The court, which delivered its verdict on Nov 2, found that 90 burn wounds had been inflicted on Zulfarhan using a hot steam iron, causing his death.
Lawyer N Sivananthan said Malaysia had enough existing laws that cover a wide range of bullying scenarios, such as verbal abuse (psychological bullying), cyberbullying, physical abuse and sexual assault.
Citing several laws such as the Communications and Multimedia Act (CMA) 1998 and various provisions in the Penal Code, he believed they would provide sufficient punishment to offenders.
“For this reason, I do not think there is a need for specific legislation to criminalise bullying,” he told FMT.
Senator Fadhlina Sidek said intervention, a good reporting mechanism, education and awareness, as well as legal literacy were equally important to address the issue.
She added that ragging in higher education institutions should be stopped immediately as it could normalise bullying.
“This practice of cultivating the culture of fear, imbalance of power and traumatic experience for our young people with high hopes and dreams when they enter the university has to be stopped at all levels,” she said.
Meanwhile, prominent social activist and Alliance for Safe Community chairman Lee Lam Thye stressed that educational institutions must play a proactive role to stamp out this culture of violence by taking disciplinary action against students or even expel them.
“It’s time to remove this culture of violence in educational institutions. Violence in whatever form must not be tolerated and accepted.
“Far too many students have been traumatised. Some have been scarred for life by incessant bullying.” - FMT
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