External and independent enforcement, emancipation from MOE

In historical admissions, MOE officers admitted the Ministry (not just schools) has swept sexual harassment & more under the rug. A corrupted MOE can only promise reforms, but never truly enact them. Today’s MOE acts with impunity, able to violate laws to protect its most dangerous officers. The only working path to save our schools will be external oversight:

Many sexual harassment, bullying cases 'swept under rug': Edu DG 

‍MOE did not take action on abuse, misconduct cases, court told

The most disturbing reality: there is no indication that the implicated MOE officers were prosecuted for textbook corruption under the MACC Act. Gratification definition (f) reads:

any other service or favour of any description, including protection from any penalty or disability incurred or apprehended or from any action or proceedings of a disciplinary, civil or criminal nature, whether or not already instituted, & including the exercise or the forbearance from the exercise of any right or any official power or duty;

Even PDRM and MACC, themselves both tainted with major corruption problems, have identified the MOE and its units as a root cause of corruption: 

Cops: School officials should report crimes, not cover them up

‍MACC: Graft, power abuse rife in Sabah education sector

Children emulate the adults around them. In many cases, the MOE is the perpetrator or the bystander that knew and explicitly failed to act. All claimed reforms, including CCTVs, more police, more wardens, more teachers, can and will succumb to the MOE’s culture of coverups. Who controls the CCTVs? The same old teachers and principals that have known and refused to act. For example, whistleblowing students in High Court proved what the MOE does when nobody is looking in Rusiah Sabdarin & Ors vs Mohd Jainal Jamran & Ors (2023):

[25] Together with some of her classmates, PW1 had met with Cikgu Kamisah (class teacher of 4SS) and Cikgu Shamsul (assistant class teacher of 4SS) to complain about the first defendant’s absences. Instead of taking action, they informed them that they do not want to get involved in the matter and to ignore the first defendant’s transgressions.

Why don’t more children & parents report? Because many can’t trust a corrupted MOE. Why aren’t teacher whistleblower reports taken seriously? Because a corrupted MOE protects perpetrators. MOE-controlled reforms are not enough. The appropriate oversight is a Constitutional body outside the Executive Branch known as a Public Ombudsman, endorsed by educators, activists, parents, and more. This critical reform underpins all other reforms. 

It receives, investigates, offers whistleblower protection, and takes legal or disciplinary enforcement action in severe public service misconduct cases. Its powers include restorative, punitive, and legal authority. The Ombudsman houses a national unit for cases in schools and children and a powerful public interest litigation unit. Public Ombudsman officers at schools—not principals nor teachers nor the MOE—ought to become a primary contact for bullied/abused students, disciplinary and criminal offences, whistleblower reports, and more.

This body must be firewalled from the interference of the Executive, with its budget a % of the annual budget; a total ban of all current and former public servants, politicians, and political entities; and its top officers elected by the people, not appointed by a political Prime Minister.

The clearest proof for an Ombudsman: the MOE has abandoned whistleblowers. Without whistleblowers, no one knows how many cases even exist, much less were covered up. The Ombudsman must be the guardian of whistleblowers, even as the Government refuses to.  

The final key will be an emancipatory education curriculum to be created by experts outside the MOE. Today’s MOE is the last institution in Malaysia to teach children about “character education”. An emancipatory education module outside of the MOE institutions ought to educate our children on gender equality, empathy, anti-bullying, children’s rights over the Government, gender-based violence, solidarity, our human rights, social and justice movements, social media  and media literacy, modern colonialism, and oppression.

All Malaysians must pressure their Member of Parliament to amend and vote for a truly competent, truly independent, and truly enforcing Ombudsman. We cannot risk the lives of ‍ by trusting the same old corrupt bodies.  In conclusion, it is plain the MOE cannot be trusted and Parliament must act. An external and independent “investigation” by the High Court of Kota Kinabalu has proven it (emphasis ours):

[47] … Despite knowing about the first defendant’s [SMK Taun Gusi Teacher Jainal Jamran] absenteeism since May 2017, the second defendant [SMK Taun Gusi Principal Suid Hanapi] failed to take any reasonable steps to exercise disciplinary control and supervision over the first defendant. … 

‍[78] Following the above, the plaintiffs submit that the instances of the first and second defendants’ flagrant disregard and abhorrent attitude towards the  plaintiffs’ education and by extension their future is reflected perfectly in  PW10’s [SMK Taun Gusi Teacher Nurhaizah Ejab] recorded private conversation with Cikgu Eddy where he had  admitted, inter alia, that he knew about the first defendant’s absences and, more importantly, that the second defendant was very much aware of it but intentionally neglected to take action. … 

‍[86] The evidence adduced at the trial shows that the injury or loss sustained by the plaintiffs is not a pure economic loss. It is in the nature of emotional and/or psychological injury and trauma. The evidence of the child psychologist, Dr. Noor Aishah binti Rosli (PW9) on the injury and/or impact to the plaintiffs due to the first defendant’s absenteeism is reproduced below: Understanding about the absenteeism in this case, from the aspect of psychology, it is called structural violence. Structural violence are social forces that harm certain groups of people, producing and perpetuating inequality in health and wellbeing. … 

‍Quotes from Rusiah Sabdarin & Ors v. Mohd Jainal Jamran & Ors [2023] 8 CLJ 603 [HC].

Signatories:

Organisations

1. ALTSEAN-Burma
2. ANAK
3. All Women’s Action Society (AWAM)
4. Angkatan Kesatuan Siswa Sosialis (AKSI)
5. Apa Kata Wanita Orang Asli
6. Association of Women Lawyers (AWL)
7. Blood Money Campaign
8. Borneo Komrad
9. Cahaya Society
10. The Commission for the Disappeared and Victims of Violence (KontraS)
11. Community Action Nexus Berhad
12. Defend Myanmar Democracy
13. Demokrat Malaya UM
14. End CSEC Network
15. EnglishBah Learning Initiative (ENGLEARN)
16. Filsufi. & co
17. Friends Against Dictatorship (FAD)
18. Gerakan Anak Muda Pantai Timur Sabah (GEMPURS)
19. Gerakan Perempuan Melawan
20. Greater Equitable Measures (GEM)
21. HAYAT
22. Himpunan Advokasi Rakyat Malaysia (HARAM)
23. History Carriers - HC
24. Klima Action Malaysia (KAMY)
25. Kuala Lumpur & Selangor Chinese Assembly Hall (KLSCAH) Civil Rights Committee
26. Legal Dignity, Malaysia
27. Life Under Umbrella
28. Liga Mahasiswa Malaysia
29. Liga Mahasiswa Universiti Malaya
30. Liga Rakyat Demokratik
31. Light Brigade
32. MANDIRI
33. Magway Region Human Rights Network - MHRN
34. National Early Childhood Intervention Council  (NECIC)
35. Network for Human Rights Documentation-Burma (ND-Burma)
36. The OKU Rights Matter Project
37. PACOS Trust
38. Pangrok Sulap
39. People Like Us Hang Out! (PLUHO)
40. Pergerakan Tenaga Akademik Malaysia (GERAK)
41. Persatuan Kesedaran Komuniti Selangor (EMPOWER)
42. Persatuan Kolektif Pendidik Sabah (HIVE Educators)
43. Persatuan Martabat Untuk Semua Petaling Jaya (Martabat PJ)
44. Pertiwi Progresif (PRO)
45. Pocket of Pink (POP)
46. Pride In Research (Malaysia)
47. Projek Ruang Lawan / Ruang Lawan Project
48. Protect and Save the Children
49. Pusat KOMAS
50. Reproductive Rights Advocacy Alliance Malaysia (RRAAM)
51. SEED Malaysia
52. SERATA
53. SIS Forum (Malaysia)
54. SIUMAN Collective
55. Sabah Women’s Action Resource Group (SAWO)
56. Sabah Youth Movement
57. Sitt Nyein Pann Foundation
58. Solidariti Pendidikan
59. StandUp Malaysia
60. Suara Mahasiswa UMS
61. Tenaganita
62. Teoh Beng Hock Association for Democratic Advancement 赵明福民主促进会
63. The Tiada.Guru Campaign (primary author)
64. Voice of the Children
65. Women Lead Resource Centre -WLRC
66. Youth Empowerment

Individuals

1. Ain Husniza
2. Dato' Dr Amar-Singh HSS, Consultant Paediatrician, Child-Disability Activist
3. Amy Dangin
4. Azira Aziz, Lawyer/Advocate & Solicitor
5. Belle Razali
6. Beverly Joeman
7. Debbie Stothard
8. Dr Nadirah Babji, medical doctor and SRHR activist
9. Fazar Arif
10. Dato Dr Hartini Zainudin, child Activist, co founder Yayasan Chow Kit
11. Hasbeemasputra Abu Bakar
12. Ivan Alexander Ong
13. Kasthuri Patto
14. Marina Mahathir
15. Megan Steven
16. Prof. Dato' Noor Aziah Binti Mohd Awal
17. Puteri N. Balqis
18. Rose Ismail
19. VieN, Independent Comic Artist