KUALA LUMPUR: There should be no forms of bullying at all schools and universities, says Sultan Sharafuddin Idris Shah.
The Selangor Ruler said the police as well as the magistrate or judge hearing the cases must ensure that the punishment meted out are proportionate with the gravity of the offence.
“Cyberbullying and bullying in general must not be allowed,’’ His Royal Highness said when commenting on a recent incident where a social media influencer died after being bullied on social media.
A man was jailed for a year for posting lewd comments on social media about the influencer while a woman was only fined RM100 for deliberately uttering vulgarities with the intention to incite anger and disturb peace through her TikTok.
Sultan Sharafuddin also spoke on the three bullying cases that had taken place at Universiti Pertahanan Nasional Malaysia (UPNM) recently.
The Sultan said being a bully does not mean that a person is tough, and reminded everyone to respect each other, learn from young on how to live in harmony and help one another.
Five military cadets involved in three separate bullying incidents have since been expelled from the university, dismissed from the army and ordered to compensate the government.
“Bullying cases cannot be accepted. Where did they get the idea to bully?
“The armed forces should be disciplined and this (bullying incident) was in a university and not a school,’’ said Sultan Sharafuddin, adding that he holds the institution’s officials responsible as the bullying took place behind closed doors.
The incident came to light only after one of the instructors noticed injuries on a victim during an inspection.
The Sultan said officials embroiled in such cases here generally do not take responsibility.
“I think if it is in Japan, they would resign and apologise,” he added.
On another matter, Sultan Sharafuddin said the Klang river is only 2m deep but filled with a lot of garbage.
“There are big items thrown in, even bicycles and big pieces of furniture, and there are also tonnes and tonnes of rubbish which always end up in Klang.
“On top of that, we have floods every year, but unfortunately we do not have floodgates,” he said, adding that the authorities seem to not have any serious flood mitigation plan.
On effluents being dumped into rivers, Sultan Sharafuddin said houses and factories must not be built near rivers as there must be sufficient empty space on riverbanks to act as buffer zones.
