KUALA LUMPUR: The Youth and Sports Ministry, with the Education Ministry, will launch an independent investigation into the incident involving two teenagers who were slapped by their volleyball coach during a tournament recently.
Youth and Sports Minister Hannah Yeoh said: "We want to identify if the same coaching method (adopted by the coach) which uses force as depicted in the clip was used on other occasions against the volleyball team.
"We must learn from this (incident), improve and ensure it does not recur," she wrote on her Twitter account.
Yeoh also thanked the Education Ministry, which earlier announced that it would be meeting the parents of the teenage girls to get more information over the incident.
In a separate Twitter postings, she urged Malaysians to stop normalising physical abuse as a means for behavioural compliance.
"(I) read comments on slapping incident by (a) volleyball coach, saying it is wrong to slap girls.
"Slapping boys (is) wrong too. In fact, slapping anyone is wrong.
"Malaysians must stop normalising physical abuse as means of behavioural compliance. It is wrong on kids, athletes, spouses or maids," she wrote.
Her comments came on the heels on a clip, which went viral on the social media, depicting a volleyball coach slapping two of his players during the recent 2022 Malaysia Youth U-14 Volleyball Championship in Johor.
The coach's action earned the wrath of social media users.
The Malaysia Volleyball Association (Mava) said the coach had been suspended from involvement in all national volleyball activities until investigations were completed.
Mava also announced that they would establish an investigative body to look into the incident immediately and would contact the related parties for that purpose.