I just watched a video of a bunch of girls bullying another girl in our Malaysian School. The victim was slapped and beaten with what I saw as an iron/wooden rod. Verbal abuses were hurled at the victim. As a mother, I am very heartbroken to witness this kind of torture. (video can be accessed here)
If I put myself in the shoes of the victim, I cringed. I can never imagined being bullied. Eventhough in my primary years (from 7-12 years old), I spent in a school where I was only a handful of Chinese, there wasn’t any animosity. In my secondary school years, I was the head prefect and looking back, life was very easy then. I failed to understand how schools have evolved into this. Just a few days ago, there was another video of a boys beating up another victim. Not too long ago, a boy died after being bullied.

Therefore, as a citizen who is passionate about the future of her country, I am very disappointed with the Ministry of Education. The Ministry of Education has launched an anti-bully website with sms, hotline and complaint form. All the pomp and grandeur. For what? The poor victims don’t even dare to tell their own parents and teachers. How do you think they dare to made any complaint direct to the Ministry? Can’t the Ministry of Education do something more proactive like educating us parents and also the children?

I had just surfed over to the website again and am thoroughly disappointed. There is not a single piece of reading material that our children can turned to. There is nothing to educate us parents on what to do.

On March 9th, 2006, I had voiced my disappointment with the Ministry of Education. This can be read from my personal website. And excerpt of it here:

Think what kind of impression are we giving to the children? That they have the right to over-ride all the authorities and go straight to the highest authority? How many staffs do they have that can afford time to actually check each complaint individually? We know kids make prank 999 calls. What gives the impression that some rascals will not make false reports? How do you think the people in authorities in the school will react if they are questioned over all these?

I really like the style which the MOE tries to go down to the level of the kids. They want to be kids-friendly, which is very commendable. But things can be done with more forethoughts? (like the handphone issue?)

Therefore, as a parent, I will try to impart whatever I can learn from the trusted websites found overseas. I will copy and paste some of these information and hope that out there, if there are any children/teenagers who are being bullied, will know what to do. I hope the guidelines drawn out by the experts from the United Kingdom, Childrenfirst.nhs.uk.

Originally posted 2006-06-29 00:33:08.