Parlimen mesti melaksanakan ombudsman awam di sekolah/Establish a schools ombudsman

[ENGLISH VERSION BELOW] Dalam pengakuan bersejarah, pegawai-pegawai Kementerian Pelajaran telah mengakui bahawa KPM juga (bukan sekadar sekolah) telah melindungi kes-kes salah laku seksual dan lain-lain: Many sexual harassment, bullying cases ‘swept under rug’: Edu DG; MOE did not take action on abuse, misconduct cases, court told.

KPM hanya mampu menjanjikan pembaharuan, namun tidak akan sesekali melaksanakannya secara hakiki. Pada hari ini, KPM bertindak dengan keleluasaan kekebalan undang-undang demi melindungi pegawai-pegawainya.

Satu-satunya jalan berkesan untuk menyelamatkan sekolah-sekolah kita: pengawasan bebas. 

Realiti yang paling membimbangkan: tiada seorang pun pegawai KPM yang terlibat telah didakwa atas kesalahan rasuah jelas dan nyata di bawah Akta SPRM. Takrifan suapan (f):

(f) apa-apa jenis perkhidmatan atau pertolongan lain, termasuk perlindungan daripada apa-apa penalti atau ketidakupayaan yang dikenakan atau yang dikhuatiri atau daripada apa-apa tindakan atau prosiding yang bersifat tatatertib, sivil atau jenayah, sama ada atau tidak sudah dimulakan, dan termasuk penggunaan atau menahan diri daripada menggunakan apa-apa hak atau apa-apa kuasa atau kewajipan rasmi; dan

Malah, pihak polis dan Suruhanjaya Pencegah Rasuah Malaysia (SPRM), yang kedua-duanya sendiri terpalit dengan masalah rasuah yang besar, telah mengenal pasti KPM sebagai pelanggar undang-undang yang tidak bertanggungjawab dan punca utama rasuah: Cops: School officials should report crimes, not cover them up; MACC: Graft, power abuse rife in Sabah education sector

Kanak-kanak mencontohi orang dewasa di sekeliling mereka. Dalam banyak kes, KPM adalah pelaku atau pihak yang mengetahui dan enggan bertindak. Semua pembaharuan yang diuar-uarkan, termasuk CCTV, lebih ramai pegawai polis, warden dan guru, boleh dan akan tunduk kepada budaya melindungi kesalahan dalam KPM.

Siapakah yang mengawal CCTV tersebut? Guru dan pengetua yang sama yang mengetahui dan enggan bertindak. Sebagai contoh, Mahkamah Tinggi telah dedahkan kelakuan sebenar KPM dalam kes Rusiah Sabdarin & Lain-lain lwn Mohd Jainal Jamran & Lain-lain (2023):

[25] Bersama beberapa rakan sekelasnya, SP1 telah berjumpa dengan Cikgu Kamisah (guru kelas 4SS) dan Cikgu Shamsul (penolong guru kelas 4SS) untuk mengadu tentang ketidakhadiran defendan pertama. Cikgu-cikgu tersebut tidak mengambil tindakan, sebaliknya memaklumkan bahawa mereka tidak mahu terlibat dalam perkara itu dan mengabaikan pelanggaran defendan pertama.

Mengapakah lebih ramai kanak-kanak dan ibu bapa tidak membuat laporan? Kerana ramai tidak mempercayai KPM… Mengapakah laporan salah laku daripada guru pemberi maklumat tidak dipandang serius? Kerana KPM… juga melindungi pelaku.

Reformasi kawalan KPM tidak akan pernah memadai. Pengawasan yang wajar adalah badan perlembagaan di luar cawangan eksekutif, yang biasanya dikenali sebagai ombudsman awam atau pembela rakyat, disokong oleh pendidik, aktivis, ibu bapa dan pelbagai pihak lain.

Pembaharuan kritikal ini menjadi asas kepada semua pembaharuan lain.

Badan ini menerima, menyiasat, menawarkan perlindungan pemberi maklumat, serta mengambil tindakan penguatkuasaan undang-undang atau tatatertib dalam kes salah laku perkhidmatan awam yang serius.

Kuasa-kuasanya meliputi bidang kuasa disiplin, keadilan restoratif, punitif dan undang-undang.

Ombudsman menempatkan sebuah unit nasional bagi kes-kes di sekolah dan kanak-kanak serta sebuah unit litigasi kepentingan awam yang berkuasa. Pegawai ombudsman awam di sekolah – bukannya pengetua, guru, mahupun KPM – perlu dijadikan titik hubungan utama bagi pelajar yang dibuli dan didera, kes penyalahgunaan kuasa, dan laporan pemberi maklumat.

Badan ini mesti dilindungi sepenuhnya (diasingkan) daripada campur tangan cabang eksekutif, dengan peruntukan belanjawannya sebagai peratusan daripada belanjawan tahunan; larangan penuh ke atas semua penjawat awam, ahli politik, dan entiti politik sedia ada atau bekas; serta pegawai tertingginya dalam pilihan raya – bukannya dilantik oleh perdana menteri yang berpolitik.

Bukti paling jelas untuk keperluan Ombudsman: KPM telah mengabaikan para pemberi maklumat. Tanpa pemberi maklumat, tiada siapa yang tahu berapa banyak kes yang wujud, apatah lagi yang telah dilindungi. Ombudsman mesti menjadi pelindung kepada para pemberi maklumat, sekalipun kerajaan enggan berbuat demikian.

Kunci utama yang terakhir ialah kurikulum pendidikan pembebasan (emancipatory education), yang diwujudkan oleh pakar subjek di luar KPM. KPM hari ini adalah institusi terakhir yang sesuai mengajar kanak-kanak pun tentang ‘pendidikan karakter’.

Modul pendidikan pembebasan, yang diwujudkan di luar campur tangan KPM, boleh mendidik anak-anak kita mengenai kesaksamaan gender, empati, anti-pembulian, hak kanak-kanak ke atas kerajaan, keganasan berasaskan gender, solidariti, hak asasi manusia kita, gerakan sosial dan keadilan, literasi media sosial dan media, penjajahan moden, serta penindasan.

Semua rakyat Malaysia mesti mendesak ahli parlimen mereka untuk meminda dan mengundi bagi sebuah ombudsman yang benar-benar kompeten, benar-benar bebas, dan benar-benar berkuasa menguatkuasakan undang-undang.

Kita tidak boleh mempertaruhkan nyawa jutaan anak-anak kita dengan mempercayai badan-badan korup yang sama. Sebagai kesimpulan, jelaslah bahawa KPM tidak boleh dipercayai dan Parlimen mesti bertindak.

‘Siasatan’ bebas oleh Mahkamah Tinggi Kota Kinabalu telah membuktikannya:

[47] … Walaupun mengetahui tentang ketidakhadiran defendan pertama [Guru SMK Taun Gusi Jainal Jamran] sejak Mei 2017, defendan kedua [Pengetua SMK Taun Gusi Suid Hanapi] gagal mengambil apa-apa langkah yang munasabah untuk melaksanakan kawalan dan pengawasan tatatertib terhadap defendan pertama. … 

[78] Berikutan perkara di atas, plaintif berhujah bahawa kejadian defendan pertama dan kedua secara terang-terangan mengabaikan dan sikap menjijikkan terhadap pendidikan plaintif dan seterusnya masa depan mereka dicerminkan dengan sempurna dalam rakaman perbualan peribadi SP10 [Guru SMK Taun Gusi Nurhaizah Ejab]  dengan Cikgu Eddy yang beliau akui, antara lain, bahawa beliau mengetahui tentang ketidakhadiran defendan pertama dan, yang lebih penting, bahawa defendan kedua sangat menyedarinya tetapi dengan sengaja mengabaikan untuk mengambil tindakan. … 

[86] Keterangan yang dikemukakan semasa perbicaraan menunjukkan bahawa kecederaan atau kerugian yang dialami oleh plaintif bukanlah kerugian ekonomi semata-mata. Ia bersifat kecederaan dan trauma emosi dan/atau psikologi. Keterangan pakar psikologi kanak- kanak, Dr. Noor Aishah binti Rosli (SP9) mengenai kecederaan dan/atau impak kepada plaintif akibat ketidakhadiran defendan pertama diterbitkan semula di bawah:

Pemahaman tentang ketidakhadiran dalam kes ini, dari aspek psikologi, ia dipanggil keganasan berstruktur. Keganasan berstruktur ialah kuasa sosial yang membahayakan kumpulan orang tertentu, menghasilkan dan mengekalkan ketidaksamaan dalam kesihatan dan kesejahteraan. …

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

Tiada.Guru Campaign

English version

Parliament must establish an ombudsman for schools

External and independent enforcement, emancipation from MoE

In historical admissions, Ministry of Education officers admitted the ministry (not just schools) has swept sexual harassment and more under the rug.

The 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 Malaysian Anti-Corruption (MACC) Act.

The definition of gratification (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 the police and the 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 cover-ups.

Who controls the CCTVs? The same old teachers and principals that have known and refused to act. For example, whistleblowing students in the 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 and parents report? Because many can’t trust the … MoE. Why aren’t teacher whistleblower reports taken seriously? Because … 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 or 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 percentage 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 that an ombudsman is needed: 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 must pressure their MPs to amend and vote for a truly competent, truly independent and truly enforcing ombudsman. We cannot risk the lives of millions of our children 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]

Tiada.Guru Campaign

Signatories

Organisations

1. Altsean-Burma
2. All Women’s Action Society (Awam)
3. Angkatan Kesatuan Siswa Sosialis (Aksi)
4. Association of Women Lawyers (AWL)
5. Blood Money Campaign
6. Borneo Komrad
7. Cahaya Society
8. The Commission for the Disappeared and Victims of Violence (KontraS)
9. Community Action Nexus Berhad
10. Defend Myanmar Democracy
11. Demokrat Malaya UM
12. End CSEC Network
13. EnglishBah Learning Initiative (EngLearn)
14. Filsufi & co
15. Friends Against Dictatorship (Fad)
16. Gerakan Anak Muda Pantai Timur Sabah (Gempurs)
17. Gerakan Perempuan Melawan
18. Greater Equitable Measures (GEM)
19. Hayat
20. Himpunan Advokasi Rakyat Malaysia (Haram)
21. History Carriers (HC)
22. Klima Action Malaysia (Kamy)
23. Kuala Lumpur and Selangor Chinese Assembly Hall (KLSCAH) Civil Rights Committee
24. Legal Dignity, Malaysia
25. Liga Mahasiswa Malaysia
26. Liga Mahasiswa Universiti Malaya
27. Liga Rakyat Demokratik
28. Light Brigade
29. Mandiri
30. Magway Region Human Rights Network – MHRN
31. National Early Childhood Intervention Council (NECIC)
32. Network for Human Rights Documentation-Burma (ND-Burma)
33. The OKU Rights Matter Project
34. Pacos Trust
35. Pangrok Sulap
36. People Like Us Hang Out! (Pluho)
37. Pergerakan Tenaga Akademik Malaysia (Gerak)
38. Persatuan Kesedaran Komuniti Selangor (Empower)
39. Persatuan Kolektif Pendidik Sabah (Hive Educators)
40. Persatuan Martabat Untuk Semua Petaling Jaya (Martabat PJ)
41. Pertiwi Progresif (PRO)
42. Pocket of Pink (POP)
43. Pride In Research (Malaysia)
44. Projek Ruang Lawan / Ruang Lawan Project
45. Protect and Save the Children
46. Pusat Komas
47. Reproductive Rights Advocacy Alliance Malaysia (RRAAM)
48. Seed Malaysia
49. Serata
50. SIS Forum (Malaysia)
51. Siuman Collective
52. Sabah Women’s Action Resource Group (Sawo)
53. Sabah Youth Movement
54. Sitt Nyein Pann Foundation
55. Solidariti Pendidikan
56. StandUp Malaysia
57. Suara Mahasiswa UMS
58. Tenaganita
59. Teoh Beng Hock Association for Democratic Advancement 赵明福民主促进会
60. The Tiada.Guru Campaign / Kempen Tiada.Guru
61. Voice of the Children
62. Women Lead Resource Centre -WLRC
63. 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
The views expressed in Aliran's media statements and the NGO statements we have endorsed reflect Aliran's official stand. Views and opinions expressed in other pieces published here do not necessarily reflect Aliran's official position.

AGENDA RAKYAT - Lima perkara utama
1. Tegakkan maruah serta kualiti kehidupan rakyat
2. Galakkan pembangunan saksama, lestari serta tangani krisis alam sekitar
3. Raikan kerencaman dan keterangkuman
4. Selamatkan demokrasi dan angkatkan keluhuran undang-undang
5. Lawan rasuah dan kronisme
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