Ragging Must Be Banned

 The recent reports of bullying of medical interns in Penang and the tragic consequences that followed must force authorities to examine afresh the criminal conduct of ragging that is passed off as an acceptable social ritual. Not long before the Penang case, there was the case of a naval cadet from a local university who died of injuries allegedly from ragging by other cadets. Sadly, these are not the only instances of reported cases of ragging and bullying ending in physical injuries and death.

Racist underpinnings

Whenever these serious offences come to light, colleagues of the victims reveal the existence of a widespread practice of the kind of conduct that led to the tragedies. Additionally, the Penang case suggests disturbing trends of complicity by individuals in authority and racist underpinning in the conduct that caused the death.

The situation calls for a closer and more honest examination of the circumstances that led to these tragedies than has been the case until now. If the allegations of racism and the role it played in the death of the medical intern have even a semblance of truth, there is a need for the authorities in charge of institutions like universities and hospitals to deal with the matter urgently.

Politeness and a generally accommodating, non-confrontational attitude that shapes our community have allowed our public institutions to be managed on ethnically divided streams.  Officials in charge of internships are insensitive or indifferent to the fears and uncertainties of those being initiated into the profession. Discriminatory treatment and exclusion, some of the reported causes of the tragedy in the Penang case, may force those who are going through a critical phase in their lives into hopelessness and despair.

A two-pronged approach to ragging

A two-pronged remedial measure must be put in place. The first step must be to ban ragging in all its forms in all educational institutions and training hospitals and facilities such as hostels. A perusal of some of the disciplinary regulations of public universities does not reveal any provisions against ragging. Neither are there any such provisions in the Educational Institutions (Discipline) Act 1976 which applies to all public higher education institutions other than public universities. The Universities and University Colleges Act 1971, under whose provisions, public universities are established deals extensively with the activities of students, student organizations, and groups but nothing in those provisions deals with ragging.

Private Universities and Colleges are regulated by the Private Higher Educational Institutions Act 1996 (Act 555). The regulation of the discipline and conduct of students in these institutions under Part VIII of Act 555 does not contain any provisions that deal with ragging. Act 555 empowers institutions established under its provisions to make their own student disciplinary rules but there are no guidelines issued by the regulatory bodies as to what has to be included in them.

The most effective means to ban ragging would be to introduce provisions in the above regulations and laws to expressly ban ragging in higher education institutions. However, students and others exposed to ragging will have a greater degree of protection if the prohibition is accompanied by proactive measures by the institutions to advise, counsel, and monitor the problem within the institutions. The counselling must be extended to those managing internship programmes.

The armed forces are another area where serious attention must be given to ragging.

The Ethnic Issue

Whilst banning ragging is important, the more difficult problem lies in dealing with the racial overtones of some of the reported practices that are associated with ragging. It is not only the physical and psychological abuse by peers that must be considered but also the practices of officials and mentors that raise fear or apprehension in an individual because of the differential treatment and exclusion.

Laws alone will not deal with this aspect of the ragging problem. Clear steps must be initiated by the governors of institutions, the professoriate, and the professional bodies to be vigilant against discrimination and differential treatment of those, especially freshmen and interns, to whom they have a responsibility to train or initiate. Leaders of the institutions involved must introduce measures in their organizations to ensure that institutional practices and individual idiosyncrasies do not drive those who are assigned to them to be mentored to resort to the kind of desperate acts that are reported.

CLP (Certificate in Legal Practice) in Urgent Need of Review

There is a serious need to review the CLP, a compulsory qualification for law graduates with law degrees that do not fall within the list recognized by the Legal Profession Act 1972. 

When it was introduced over 40 years ago, the CLP was meant as a temporary measure to meet an exigency of that time caused by policy changes made to professional admission procedures in England and Wales. Traditionally, the legal profession in this country has aligned itself with the style and methods of the legal profession in those countries. This has also been the case with the profession's attitude to legal education and the CLP particularly. One consequence of this alignment is that it has fostered a public view that the local profession is hierarchically linked to the profession in England and Wales. It has led clients, including some high-profile ones, to seek lawyers from England giving the impression that foreign lawyers are better than the local ones. The truth is that practitioners in this country can match the best in the world. The local Bar must look more closely at how the profession serves local needs and how it is perceived locally.  

Of all the professions in this country, none can match the way the Bar has stood up in defence of civil rights and government excesses. The courage they show in these instances exceeds by far their vocational obligations. They have risen against iniquities and bad government at great cost to individual lawyers and the profession as a whole. This courage will wane and disappear in the profession unless new generations are inspired to carry that special burden that lawyers bear as champions of justice and fairness. One great weakness of the CLP is that by concentrating on the so-called practical subjects, it has ignored trends in this country that are progressively undermining the legal system. A qualifying course for new entrants into the profession must create an awareness of these trends so that they can continue the extra-mural work of lawyers as defenders of justice in our society. 

At a practical level, the Legal Profession Qualifications Board (QB) owes a duty to intending practitioners to update the existing qualifying procedures which now also include a chambering period of nine months supervised by a lawyer of standing.  

The CLP has gone through many embarrassing controversies. In my opinion, as someone who has been in legal education for over 30 years, the exams do not match the needs of either the graduates or the profession. It is an outdated method introduced without much thought and continued without serious review. Professional preparedness is best acquired through professional training, which must be integrated into the chambering period. Chambering students must be trained with the essential skills of lawyering so that they can function efficiently as lawyers as soon as they are called to the Bar. Any course designed to prepare students for practice must also consider the different learning backgrounds these students come from. Automatic recognition of 'local' graduates ignores the great differences that prevail across local law schools and their graduate output. It also glosses over the prevailing attitudinal differences to legal education in our law schools and the law generally. 

The profession needs an education council to continually monitor legal education and practice and champion these causes. This has been on the agenda for over thirty years, but from about the same time the CLP was introduced. More than four attempts have been made but none were successful. Neither the Bar nor the QB is qualified (nor expected) to decide on how a lawyer is to be trained, particularly when neophytes come from such diverse educational and attitudinal backgrounds.  This is a task best left to a legal education council.

What is immediately required, however, is an examination of how the CLP exams and their procedures are adversely affecting law graduates aspiring to practice law in this country. The professional exams as currently designed and executed do not pass the test of legal fairness as expressed in the many axioms that are familiar to lawyers.   

Bhanu Artist

 Bhanu Achan, the Kuala Lumpur-born artist, has produced some remarkable works over his 40-year career. I have known him since he was a toddler. Bhanu’s many talents were evident even at that young age. He was also among the smartest in his generation. Top results in high school sent him to medical school in India. However, influences and experiences in that mystical land led him to quit medical studies to express himself through his art. He has produced a large collection of work, all beautiful to look at in an aesthetic sense. But what is remarkable about his work are the impressions they deliver beyond colour and form. They leave you wondering for a long time about their meaning.

Bhanu has exhibited his works in over 50 exhibitions. Three of his works are in the permanent collection in the National Art Gallery in Kuala Lumpur

Despite his great talent, Bhanu has had his difficulties in life. He is offering to sell two of his recent works for RM 5000 apiece. The works are acrylic on canvas, measuring 2ft x 3ft. I hope there are connoisseurs amongst us who would be interested or someone like me who just likes beautiful things for the house. The paintings would be a good investment and help an artist in need.