Malaysia enlists military veterans to boot bullies out of schools: ‘you touch, you go’

Malaysia will deploy military veterans as full-time hostel wardens at a group of elite boarding schools from Wednesday, in a new push to curb bullying after a series of abuse cases stirred public anger over student safety.

In a move reminiscent of Netflix’s trending K-drama Teach You a Lesson, where a Special Ops veteran takes on school bullies, the first 16 former Malaysian Armed Forces personnel will report for duty at eight Mara Junior Science Colleges (MRSM).

MRSM is a network of state-run residential schools known for science education and places reserved mainly for bumiputra students, the country’s ethnic Malay and indigenous majority.

The move comes a day after Mara chairman Asyraf Wajdi Dusuki vowed that six MRSM students in Johor would be expelled if found guilty of bullying a 14-year-old junior, whose parents said he had asked to leave the residential school because he could no longer endure the abuse.

“I want to reiterate the stand that I have repeatedly stressed to the entire MRSM community, ‘You touch, you go’,” Asyraf said in a social media post on Sunday night. “There will be no compromise and no place for bullies in MRSM.”