Maximum 3-year Jail Term For Bullying Proposed In 2024 Bill Amendment
Malaysia has no specific laws that addresses bullying, as some experts have pointed out.
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To address bullying, including instances that occur online, two amendment bills have been presented to the Dewan Rakyat for first reading.
Yesterday (9 December), Datuk Seri Azalina Othman Said, a minister in the Prime Minister’s Department of Law and Institutional Reforms, introduced amendments to the Criminal Procedure Code and the Penal Code according to a report by The Star.
Both bills are scheduled for second reading.
Outline of the proposed amendments
The Penal Code (Amendment) (No. 2) Bill 2024 addresses offenses relating to bullying, such as disclosing personal information that causes someone to be harassed, distressed, afraid, or alarmed.
Sections 507B through 507G are some of the proposed amendments to the Penal Code (Act 574).
Anyone who uses, creates, or engages in any threatening, abusive, or insulting words, communications, or acts with the knowledge or ought to know that harassment, anxiety, fear, or alarm would ensue is guilty of an offense under Section 507B.
A maximum sentence of three years in prison, a fine, or both are the suggested penalties for this offense.
The Criminal Procedure Code (Amendment) (No. 2) Bill 2024 outlines penalties for various offenses related to bullying, harassment, distress, fear, or alarm.
Offences under 507C can result in a prison term of up to one year, a fine, or both, while subsection 507D (1) can result in a prison term of up to one year, a fine, or both for those who believe harm would be caused to themselves or another.
Subsection 507 (2) can result in a jail term of up to one year, a fine, or both for anyone who uses, makes, or engages in threatening, abusive, or insulting words, communication, or acts against someone with the intent to provoke harm.
If provoked, the person may attempt suicide or commit suicide as a result of such provocation. Section 507E can result in a prison term of up to three years, a fine, or both for circulating, publishing, or making available someone’s identity or information with the intention to cause harm.
Subsection 507F (1) and 507F (2) deal with the spread of such content. The amendments are consequential to the Penal Code amendments.
Malaysia does not have laws that specifically targets bullying
While there aren’t any specific anti-bullying laws in Malaysia, there are laws that can be used to address bullying and cyberbullying.
However, there are experts who say that it is not enough, and that the government should enact specific laws to address bullying.
According to a Bernama Fokus article, Dr Mohamad Naqiuddin, an associate researcher at the Institute for Social Science Studies, Universiti Putra Malaysia, also sees a need for Malaysia to enact an anti-bullying law.
“The absence of a specific law related to bullying in this country poses a challenge to efforts to put a stop to bullying.
“The existing legal provisions (related to bullying) focus more on meting out severe penalties for offences that result in physical injuries; however, the punishment for verbal bullying is considered rather mild,” he said.
Further in the article, senior lecturer Dr Norsafatul A. Razak at the Department of Educational Psychology and Counselling at Universiti Malaya said school authorities that conceal bullying incidents can be likened to neglecting the well-being of their students.
“It is essential for them to implement programmes to prevent bullying. Parents must also be vigilant and assess whether their children have the potential to be bullied so that they can be assisted should such incidents occur,” Norsafatul said in the article.
Meanwhile, Naqiuddin urged the community including parent-teacher associations to play a proactive role in creating a generation that can put an end to the bullying culture.
IJCWED defines bullying
Suzana Muhamad Said, a Senior Fellow in Law from the Faculty of Economics and Management in Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia published a paper in the International Journal for Studies on Children, Women, Elderly, and Persons With Disabilities (IJCWED) with a section highlighting three critical definitions of bullying.
Those features are:
- Repetition: repeated hurtful behaviour.
- Intent to harm: an intention to cause physical, psychological and/or emotional harm.
- Power imbalance between the perpetrator and the victim: through differences including physical size, strength, age, or status within a peer group.
In the study, bullying can include any one or more of the following:
- Physical: punching, pushing, tripping, kicking.
- Verbal: teasing, using offensive names, abusing, constant criticism, inappropriate comments about a person’s appearance, belittling.
- Non-verbal: writing offensive notes, rude gestures, graffiti.
- Psychological: spreading rumors, hiding or damaging possessions, inappropriate use of information technology, unauthorized use of camera phones.
- Emotional: Deliberately excluding others from a group, refusing to sit next to someone, overtly encouraging other people to actively ignore or avoid a person.
The paper quoted lawyers Mario A. Sullivan and Joachim Marjon saying there are many definitions of bullying, but is generally considered to be unwanted and aggressive behavior that is repeated or has the potential to be repeated.
In Malaysia, bullying is not statutorily defined. However, the act of causing hurt or death resulting from bullying may lead to charges under the Penal Code.
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