Honour threatened by bullying cases

MALAYSIA’S military university, Universiti Pertahanan Nasional Malaysia (UPNM), was established on June 21, 2006 – taking over from Akademi Tentera Malaysia that had been established in 1995 – to produce military and civilian graduates for Malaysia’s defence needs. Its motto is “Duty, Honour, Integrity”. But recent bullying cases show that UNPM is failing to live up to its motto.

Zulfarhan Osman Zulkarnain, 21, was bullied and tortured until he died on June 1, 2017. Six cadets have been sentenced to death in the case.

On Nov 8, in another bullying case at UPNM, Cadet Officer Amirul Iskandar Norhanizan, 22, was charged with causing hurt by pressing a heated steam iron on the chest of his junior, 20-year-old Muhammad Salman Mohd Saiful Surash.

On Monday, authorities began investigating yet another alleged bullying case at UPNM that the police said resulted in “serious injuries” to a 19-year-old cadet. He was allegedly stomped on by his third-year senior, causing fractures to the cadet’s ribs and spine.

Napoleon Bonaparte famously said that “There are no bad soldiers, only bad officers”. One wonders what the military leadership and management of UNPM are doing? They don’t seem to have had much success in instilling a culture befitting its motto, and if they made efforts to deter what seems to be a culture of bullying, they haven’t been successful at that either.

I believe Malaysia’s military culture is an honour-based one. Such is the importance of this honour- based culture that Section 85 of the Malaysian Armed Forces Act 1972 states that: “Every officer subject to service law under this Act who behaves in a scandalous manner, unbecoming the character of an officer and a gentleman shall, on conviction by court-martial, will be dismissed with disgrace from His Majesty’s service.”

The Oxford English Dictionary defines scandalous as “shocking and unacceptable”. Have UNPM’s military officers acted in a manner befitting officers and gentlemen?

CHEW KOK LIANG

Petaling Jaya