HAZING, ragging, initiation, orientation. For boarding school students, they generally mean one thing: a vicious cycle of fear, pain and humiliation that needs to stop immediately.
New Sunday Times reader Ummi Fatihah is one of many with stories of such experiences.
In the New Straits Times’ Letters section last Thursday, she writes about her seniors telling the juniors that they had experienced far worse and exerted similar power plays on their juniors in the name of tradition.
“Why can’t we stop it now? Isn’t it more noble and considerate for people who have gone through unpleasant experiences to discontinue imposing ridiculous traditions on juniors?” she asks.
Professor Datin Dr Noran Fauziah Yaakub of Cyberjaya University College of Medical Sciences’ Faculty of Allied Health says incidences of ragging at boarding schools are mainly due to socio-environmental factors.
“Supporting and continuing ‘tradition’, displays of power in social status among students, modelling themselves after what they experienced when they were new to the school are some of the reasons for hazing in boarding schools and universities,” says Dr Noran.
While there are no known local statistics on ragging, she says a study revealed that physical bullying occurs about 50 per cent of the time in schools, with slapping, pushing and kicking happening more than five times a month (2.5 per cent of the time).
Dr Noran says psychological bullying, like name-calling and teasing occurs at least once or twice a month (80 per cent of the time).
“Ragging is a form of bullying, as there is intent to harm or intimidate others with no balance of power, and the victim feels vindicated,” she says.
Dr Noran, who is well-known in the study of aggression in schools, explains that although hazing has been around for a long time, the brutality of the initiation process has become increasingly intense as youths are curious to experiment.
“They want to show that they have the courage to do it. Social media helps to fuel their brutal mission.”
While death is the most extreme possible outcome, there are many others that involve negative life-altering consequences, she adds.
“One study has shown that 71 per cent of students who have been hazed suffer from negative consequences in terms of their psychological wellbeing and academic performance.”
Counselling psychologist Dr Gerard Louis says ragging is a foreign practice that has found its way into the local school system.
“Ragging is part of Western culture. It’s been happening for decades in sorority houses in the United States.
“Somehow, our undergraduates have adopted this tradition,” he says, adding that hazing can be carried out in very subtle ways.
“The more external and explicit forms are easy to spot, but it’s the more implicit kind of bullying that’s difficult to track, and can have serious implications.”
With the popularity of social media, the effects of ragging are far greater today than they were just a couple of years ago, says Louis, who points to YouTube uploads such as “going komando”, “asrama harlem shake” and “mamat bangla”, which clearly depict shameful acts of ragging.
“Like any other traumatic experience, ragging can impact a person for many, many years, depending on the extent of it,” he adds.
“But, ragging is even more traumatic today with the social media craze.
“The humiliation doesn’t stop with the individual student. It extends to his parents, siblings and relatives.”
Asked whether there is a need to set up a helpline for victims of ragging, such as in India, Dr Noran says: “There is a need to plan how it should be implemented at the ministry and school levels.
“There is a need to teach teachers, parents and students how to use this helpline.
“Another issue is the party on the receiving end. How prompt are they in addressing and acting on reports of bullying,” she says.
However, Integrated Psychology Network consultant psychologist Valerie Jaques says there is no point in having a helpline if it is not promoted and utilised.
“Hazing can occur anywhere because the environment allows it to happen.
“If those identified as being involved in hazing are expelled then others will stop doing it and victims will start speaking up,” she says.
“But if schools do not take strong action against those who hurt others because they are different, then the school system is silently supporting these actions.
“Silence and inaction is a response suggesting acceptance of the situation.”
Jaques says fear is an underlying factor for victims’ silence.
“The victims are made to be afraid of consequences if they tell their parents or teachers or those in authority.
“Parents and teachers are also unable to form trusting relationships with the victims, who do not feel safe and protected if they open up about their problems,” she adds.
Unfortunately, she says, school authorities do not want to be implicated in such cases as they would carry negative consequences for the institutions.
“I feel that parents should be just as accountable for these heinous crimes as their children who are the perpetrators.”
She says initiation in schools and universities is generally accepted as a social ritual that creates a sense of belonging.
“The activities were originally intended to form bonds of brotherhood and sisterhood, where students stick together and trust one another.”
However, Jaques says they have taken a harmful and heinous path.
“Hazing is now used to feed power and manipulate control, which are negative forms of leadership. The goal is to create fear so that the members are aligned and afraid to go against the power or authority in charge,” she says.
She says any sign of disloyalty is usually dealt with harshly and results in serious consequences for victims.