‘Madness’: Anwar vows no tolerance for bullying following latest alleged hot iron abuse at military university

KUALA LUMPUR: Following a recent case of alleged bullying and intimidation at a military university, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said such incidents occur because they are tolerated and sometimes defended.

However, in a strongly worded speech on Friday (November 1) at Universiti Pertahanan Nasional Malaysia (UPNM), where the latest incident allegedly took place, Mr Anwar stressed that his government would not tolerate a culture of bullying in educational institutions.

He also urged education leaders to take responsibility for ending the scourge.

The Malaysian Armed Forces (MAF) on Wednesday confirmed that it is conducting a thorough investigation into the case of an officer cadet who was allegedly bullied by his senior at the UPNM Military Training Academy in Kuala Lumpur.

The case has since gone viral on social media, with some netizens expressing concern as to why such incidents of bullying continue to occur at the university even after the tragic death of a naval cadet officer at the university in 2017, which was also linked to intimidation.

In a speech at the dialogue event on Friday, Anwar said the culture of bullying has become a systemic phenomenon in Malaysia and it is a challenge that must be addressed by relevant institutions and ministries.

“It’s a small group that doesn’t represent all students, but the culture allows it… a culture of thugs, bullying and gangsterism in schools.

“Whether it is a national school, a Tamil school, a Chinese school or a religious school, it is madness because we are talking about knowledge, not morals and values,” he told UPNM students, as quoted by local media.

Anwar added that he has since instructed Education Minister Fadhlina Sidek to look into the matter.

“I told the education minister: don’t compromise. “I warned and advised (her) not to tolerate all this because we don’t want this to happen,” he said.

The recent incident at UPNM, which first came to light on October 30, is said to have involved a senior officer allegedly pressing a hot iron on the chest of a cadet officer, 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 this matter,” MAF chief of armed forces Mohammad Ab Rahman told Bernama on October 31.

Some netizens said that the latest case at UPNM reminded them of the incident that led to the death of 21-year-old naval cadet Zulfarhan Osman Zulkarnain in 2017

“It seems like the culture of bullying with irons is ingrained at UPNM… if (the university) took it seriously, this wouldn’t happen again,” user X @chairmanGLC said on October 31, and the post was re-shared more than 3,500 times.

In July this year, six former UPNM students were sentenced to death by hanging for Zulfarhan’s murder seven years ago.

According to local media, in addition to repeatedly pressing his body with a hot steam iron, Zulfarhan was also beaten, kicked and punched. The case dominated headlines, with one of the three judges handling the case describing it as one of the rarest and “most extreme forms of cruelty.”

Mr Zulfarhan’s father also expressed disappointment that a similar form of abuse suffered by his late son had apparently happened again to another student at the military university.

“The claim that the victim was pressed with an iron… is unacceptable… just like what happened to my deceased son who had 90 points for ironing with a hot steam iron. To this day, I cannot forget the suffering he suffered,” Zulkarnain Idros told local media Harian Metro.