By The Straits Times | Created at 2025-01-17 11:08:22 | Updated at 2025-01-21 09:52:59
3 days ago
Malaysia’s police force is once more battling the bulge, as it adds body mass index (BMI) – a metric for body fat – as a requirement for climbing up the ranks.
Officers in the Royal Malaysian Police will have to keep their BMI at 28 or lower to qualify for promotions under new rules laid down by Inspector-General of Police Razarudin Husain, Malaysia’s Berita Harian has reported.
“This initiative is important to ensure the health and skills of police officers, enhancing their ability to deliver the best service to the community and the country,” Tan Sri Razarudin was quoted by the Malay-language newspaper as saying during a monthly police assembly in Kuala Lumpur on Jan 16.
BMI is a measure of body weight against height, which indicates whether one has normal weight, or is underweight, overweight or obese.
For adults, a healthy BMI is between 18.5 and 24.9. A score of 25 or more indicates being overweight, while anything under 18.5 suggests being underweight. Over 30 means obesity.
Malaysia’s 130,000-strong police force has been trying to enforce tougher fitness standards since at least 2016.
That year, overweight police officers were ordered to shed the pounds after reports came out that one in 10 of them were “obese”, limiting their effectiveness.
A growing number of officers were suffering from diabetes, high blood pressure and other illnesses associated with excess weight and fattening food, and that an average of 560 officers were calling in sick each day then.
In 2015, some 200 officers were reported to have died due to heart attacks and illnesses related to diabetes.
Malaysia media reported in 2024 that 54.4 per cent of the country’s adults were either overweight or obese. This was according to a 2023 national survey of 13,616 Malaysians across all age groups, with the latest figure a jump from the 44.5 per cent figure in the same survey in 2011.
Experts blame a diet marked by spicy curries made with fattening coconut milk, carb-heavy rice dishes, sugary drinks and a penchant for late-night eating.
Muslim-majority Malaysia also has historically lacked a strong tradition of active outdoor leisure pursuits due in part to its sweltering weather, Islamic modesty, and shortage of public spaces for exercise.
Is it actually a fair gauge?
The police force’s new rules on BMI, though, drew mixed reactions on the social media site Reddit.
There was a debate, for instance, on whether BMI was, in fact, a fair gauge to use.
“BMI is a terrible measure,” said user Electronic-Contact15.
9M-LimaWhiskeyAlpha agreed, saying he was a bodybuilder and tended to have a high BMI score because of his muscles and not because he was fat.
“Not terrible, just misused,” said AmonWeathertopSul
Malaysia is not the first nation in the region to tie BMI to police promotions.
In 2020, the 220,000-strong Philippine National Police said officers hoping to get promoted, transferred, or further their studies would need to maintain a healthy BMI.
Like Malaysia, the Philippines’ police force has a waistline problem: A 2019 study found 35 per cent of the force were overweight and about 10 per cent were obese.
That order, however, was suspended because of the Covid-19 pandemic and the restrictions to outdoor activities that went with it.
It has not been reinstated.
Promotions for policemen in the Philippines are now based on whether they can meet benchmarks for push-ups, sit-ups, runs and other exercises, rather than on whether they are lugging a pot-belly around.
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