OCTOBER 8 — Another bullying case, another death and another number added to the statistics.

When tragedy is repeatedly reduced to numbers, there is a danger that society slowly becomes numb to it.

A child who dies after being bullied is not a statistic.

That child is someone's son or daughter, someone's friend and someone's student.

Behind every number is a family left to deal with a loss that no law, policy or government programme can ever reverse.

Malaysia has taken significant steps to address bullying.

The Anti-Bullying Act 2026 and Anti-Bullying Tribunal have strengthened the legal framework, while the government has expanded school safety measures, including CCTV coverage, additional hostel wardens, counselling and student protection initiatives.

Yet the scale of the problem remains worrying.

Ministry of Education data show that 7,681 bullying cases were recorded in schools in 2024, up from 6,528 in 2023.

More recently, the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) 2025 findings reported that 27 per cent of Malaysian students experienced at least one form of bullying several times a month or more, compared with 20 per cent across Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries.

These figures raise an uncomfortable question: What are we still missing?

Perhaps the missing piece is not another scheme, camera or regulation, but a deeper understanding of what happens before adults become aware of a problem.

A child who is bullied may fear retaliation, embarrassment or being labelled a “snitch”, while some may worry that reporting will make matters worse or that adults will not understand.

This is particularly difficult when the bully is part of the victim's own peer group.

A reporting system can only work if a frightened child trusts it enough to speak.

Parents therefore have an important role, but we cannot assume children will automatically explain what is happening.

Distress may instead appear through withdrawal, anxiety, reluctance to attend school, declining interest in studies, unexplained injuries or sudden changes in behaviour.

These signs do not necessarily mean bullying, but they should prompt adults to ask questions and listen carefully.

Schools also need to look beyond whether a policy exists on paper.

They must ensure that students know where to seek help, that complaints are taken seriously and that teachers have the confidence and support to escalate troubling patterns.

This does not mean blaming schools or teachers.

Rather, we should examine whether concerns about reputation, parental complaints or public scrutiny can sometimes make difficult cases harder to confront.

Experts have made a similar point.

Malaysian Mental Health Association president Andrew Mohanraj has argued that laws and tribunals need to be accompanied by a prevention-first approach involving schools, parents and digital safety.

Child protection specialist Lee Lyn Ni has likewise stressed that laws alone cannot solve bullying and that restorative approaches should help children understand the harm they cause and develop empathy.

This is why CCTV, wardens, counselling, laws and disciplinary measures, while necessary, cannot be the entire answer.

A camera can record an incident, but it cannot explain why a child was too frightened to report it.

A law can provide accountability, but it cannot remove the fear that prevents a victim from speaking.

We therefore need to understand the culture of silence surrounding bullying.

Why are victims afraid to speak?

Why do witnesses hesitate to intervene?

Why might parents miss the warning signs?

And could individual incidents sometimes be dismissed as minor disagreements when, collectively, they reveal a much more serious pattern?

Until we answer these questions, we risk adding more schemes without addressing the reasons bullying remains hidden.

The success of Malaysia's response should not be measured simply by the number of laws passed, cameras installed or programmes launched, but by whether a vulnerable child can speak, whether someone listens and whether that child is protected before the harm becomes irreversible.

A bullied child should never have to become another statistic before we realise that something has gone terribly wrong.

*The author is from the Department of Electrical, Electronic, and System Engineering, Faculty of Engineering and Built Environment, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia.

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