Measures must be taken to address campus bullying, says academician

KUCHING (Nov 3): A call has been made for the government to consider amending the Education Act 1996 or coming up with a new law aimed at effectively addressing the issue of bullying in campus.

In this regard, Universiti Sains Islam Malaysia’s Faculty of Syariah and Law associate professor Dr Muzaffar Syah Mallow believes that it is high time for the government to take a bold step in tackling this matter before it gets out of hand.

“If no drastic step is to be taken, campus bullying will not only harm the victims but also tarnish the reputation of the country’s education system as well as its position as an educational hub.

“It is crucial for us to understand that the act of bullying will also affect the perpetrators because they may become criminals in the future, if there was no early intervention,” he said in a statement.

Adding on, Muzaffar Syah said many steps could be taken to curb campus bullying, with putting relevant legislation in place being one of them.

He pointed out that Malaysia could emulate the UK’s Education and Inspections Act 2006 in dealing with the bullying issue in the educational sector.

“Reference can also be made to the USA where all its 50 states have already implemented their respective anti-bullying laws,” he said.

Muzaffar Syah opined that by having such law, the country would be able to address various issues related to youth delinquency, gangsterism as well as bullying.

“No one should take campus bullying lightly. Bullying can happen to anyone regardless of age or gender, and it can occur in schools and universities,” he said.

Muzaffar Syah recalled how the country was shocked over the tragic death of 21-year-old university student Zulfarhan Osman Zulkarnain in 2017.

“The undergraduate student passed away at Serdang Hospital. He sustained serious injuries, suspected to have been incurred by being bullied by his varsity mates.

“On July 23 this year, the Court of Appeal reinstated the murder charge under Section 302 of the Penal Code for the six former students for causing the death of Zulfarhan Osman Zulkarnain,” he said.

According to Muzaffar Syah, many experts have recognised that bullying can happen anywhere and at any time, with the university compound being no exception.

“Many societies assume that bullying doesn’t happen in university as they expect university students to be smart and mature enough to not do that.

“However, there are many reasons why bullying happens in the university. It might be due to lack of supervision by the university management, or having ineffective or outdated policies pertaining to campus bullying,” he said.

In this matter, Muzaffar Syah reiterated the call for university management to take the issue of bullying seriously and develop comprehensive plans to deal with it more effectively.

He added that the university management, students’ association and relevant non-governmental organisations (NGOs) should work together in addressing this.

“They need to hold more educational talks and awareness programmes that highlight this issue.

“The students must also be educated if we want to combat and put an end to campus bullying,” stressed the academician.