SHAH ALAM - A former student of the Universiti Pertahanan Nasional Malaysia (UPNM) Military Training Academy (ALK) has exposed a deep-rooted culture of bullying among cadets.
The source, who wished to remain anonymous, described the practice as a long-standing tradition that has persisted for years.
He also revealed the attitude of the trainers, who turned a blind eye and merely observed the actions of senior students, justifying it as part of military training meant to test physical and mental resilience.
According to him, actions that were initially meant to "teach" junior cadets gradually became more extreme due to the lack of supervision from trainers.
"In reality, bullying and ragging of junior cadet officers were not new issues; they had been happening for a long time. In the past, many cases were covered up for certain reasons.
"There was even a case where a junior cadet had committed an offence. He was given two options for punishment: either to be 'taught' by seniors or to have the offence recorded.
"Most of them chose to be 'taught' by seniors because it would result in a salary deduction if the offence was recorded.
"The punishment method depended on the senior's discretion, which could include choking, hitting, and so on," he told Sinar.
According to the UPNM website, the salary of a first-year cadet officer was RM1,500 per month, along with an allowance of RM565.
The source added that this issue would never end because once the junior cadet officers became seniors, they would repeat the same actions towards other students.
He said that he had witnessed bullying and beatings at the institution during his first year of study.
He described that it was even worse when the victim was beaten by more than ten senior cadet officers, leaving them barely alive.
"The victim was strangled with a rope and beaten in a group until they collapsed, but no one dared to help, and we could only watch the incident unfold.
"What was even more heartbreaking was that the trainers did not stop them; instead, they just watched as spectators on the sidelines.
"Over there, even if a junior was well-behaved and didn't cause any trouble, they would still get beaten or ragged because seniors would find any excuse to do so. The situation became worse if the junior had personal issues with a senior," he said.