Expert: It is best to understand what bullying is first

Terrifying ordeal: A victim cowering in fear as he is beaten up by two bullies (photo illustration through re-enactment by models).

PETALING JAYA: There needs to be a clear understanding of what constitutes bullying behaviour, says an expert on behavioural sciences.

Dr Goh Chee Leong, HELP Uni­versity vice-president and Faculty of Behavioural Sciences dean, noted that bullying is not just physical.

“It can be social, it can be cyberbullying, there are many forms of bullying,” he said when commenting on the proposed revision to the Education (School Discipline) Regulations 1959 that will give headmasters and teachers a more “organised” way to deal with discipline cases in schools.

He added that schools and the Education Ministry should have a very clear policy that bullying will not be tolerated.

Dr Goh, who is also currently the Malaysian Psychological Association president, defined bullying as “an act of purposeful cruelty” that involves one or a group of people intentionally trying to hurt someone else.

This hurt, he added, does not have to be physical.

“It can be by calling you names, trying to humiliate you, spreading rumours about you online or making you feel bad about yourself.”

He said the other element of bullying is that there is a “power difference” between the bully and the victim.

“This form of power could be in terms of numbers (group bullying) or size (an older or bigger bully).

“It could be an imbalance of power when the bully has authority over the victim such as in prefects bullying other students.

“All this makes it very hard for the victim to fight back,” he explained.

Dr Goh feels that bullies need to be shown what is considered “acceptable behaviour”.

Corporal punishment, he said, may not be ideal.

“This is because caning may only encourage the bully to continue using physical violence as he sees that as the best way to exert his power over the victim.

“The message that we want to send bullies is that physical harm is wrong.”

Counselling should be the way forward when it comes to tackling bullying, he said, and advocates counselling as a form of therapy for bullies.

“Counselling should be done by registered counsellors or clinical psychologists.”

Dr Goh said it is time schools considered having psychologists in schools to deal with these situations.