DECEMBER 19 — Most schools already know how to say the right things about bullying. 

We have assemblies. We have posters. We have slogans about kindness. 

Yet bullying persists because the hardest part has never been awareness. The hardest part is what happens after a child decides to speak up.

That is why the Anti-Bullying Bill matters. Parliament has now moved to create a specific legal mechanism to address bullying complaints and manage cases in educational settings. 

The Bill passed the Dewan Rakyat on December 3, 2025 and later passed the Dewan Negara on December 16, 2025. 

At first glance, that may sound like a technical reform. In reality, it is a cultural reform. It changes what schools can no longer do. 

They can no longer treat a report as optional, inconvenient, or too small to matter. 

During the Senate debate, the minister explained that the Bill is meant to legally require educational institutions to accept all bullying reports, including isolated incidents.

This point is more powerful than it looks.

Many victims do not stay silent because they do not know bullying is wrong. They stay silent because they think the system will not protect them. 

They have heard the familiar lines. It was just teasing. It happened once. There is no proof. Do not make it bigger. 

If adults respond like that, a child learns a dangerous lesson. Reporting is pointless. Reporting is risky.

So, the real question is not whether we can create new campaigns. The real question is whether we can build a reporting system that students trust.

A reporting system is not simply a form. It is a chain of decisions. Who receives the report. How fast the school responds. How the report is recorded. 

Whether the student is protected from retaliation. Whether the alleged bully is addressed fairly. 

Whether the school communicates with parents in a calm and consistent way. Whether follow up happens after the first meeting, not just during the public spotlight.

If any link in that chain breaks, students notice. They talk, and they stop reporting.

The Bill introduces a new route for redress through a tribunal. The Malaysian Bar welcomed the Bill and highlighted that the tribunal can address complaints, award compensation up to RM250,000, and include rehabilitative elements such as counselling or parenting support orders in suitable cases. 

The Bill also includes a plan to establish an Anti-Bullying Tribunal with jurisdiction to hear and decide bullying complaints, with details set out in the Bill. 

This should not be read as a call to punish children harder. It should be read as a message to institutions. 

Bullying is not a minor discipline issue that can be buried. It is harm with consequences, and there must be accountability when systems fail to respond.

Still, laws do not protect students by themselves. Implementation does. If Malaysia wants this legislation to succeed, we should treat school reporting as a core function, on the same level as attendance and exam administration.

There are a few practical principles that can lift trust without turning schools into courtrooms.

First, reporting must be easy. Students should have more than one safe way to report, including a trusted teacher, a counsellor, and a confidential channel that does not require them to be brave in public.

Second, the response must be consistent. The public loses trust when similar incidents are handled very differently depending on which school it is, which family is involved, or which teacher receives the report. 

Consistency does not mean every case receives the same punishment. It means every case gets the same seriousness and the same minimum standard of action.

Third, protection must be real. If a student reports something and then faces revenge through rumours, social media harassment, or exclusion, the message spreads quickly. Reporting makes life worse. Anti-retaliation safeguards are not optional if we want early reporting.

Fourth, the goal should be early intervention, not escalation. When the system accepts isolated incidents, it does not mean every small incident becomes a crisis. 

It means small harm is taken seriously before it becomes big harm. That is prevention in its most practical form.

Fifth, schools should be transparent in a way that protects students. This transparency should not be achieved through public naming, but rather through basic reporting on patterns and responses. 

When parents and communities can see that reports are received, tracked, and acted on, confidence grows. When everything is hidden, rumours grow faster than facts.

There is also a wider lesson here for Malaysia. This Bill currently focuses on those under 18, and some reporting suggests the government may later study extending the scope to adults after assessing effectiveness. 

That is intuitive, as a new system must first work where the need is most urgent. But it also signals something bigger, that bullying is not confined to schools. It is a behaviour pattern that can continue in colleges, workplaces, and online spaces if we normalise silence early.

If we get implementation right, the change will not be loud. It will be quiet. More students will report earlier. More adults will respond consistently. More harm will be stopped before it escalates. That is what safety looks like in real life.

If we get it wrong, we will repeat a familiar cycle. A law is passed. Headlines come and go. 

Posters multiply. Then the reporting experience remains confusing and intimidating, and silence returns.

Malaysia has taken an important step by passing the Anti-Bullying Bill 2025. The next step is less glamorous, but it is the one that will decide everything. 

Build reporting systems that are simple, dependable, and protective. When students trust the system, bullying loses its greatest weapon, which is silence.

* Galvin Lee Kuan Sian serves as a lecturer and programme coordinator in Business at a private college in Malaysia, and a PhD Candidate and Researcher in Marketing at Universiti Malaya. 

** This is the personal opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of Malay Mail.