ANN/THE STRAITS TIMES – 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 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,” Razarudin was quoted by the Malay-language newspaper as saying during a monthly police assembly in Kuala Lumpur on January 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. A score above 30 indicates 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 had diabetes, high blood pressure and other illnesses associated with excess weight and fattening food, and 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 featuring spicy curries made with fattening coconut milk, carb-heavy rice dishes, sugary drinks and a penchant for late-night eating.
Malaysia also has historically lacked a strong tradition of active outdoor leisure pursuits, due in part to its sweltering weather and shortage of public spaces for exercise.
The police force’s new rules on BMI drew mixed reactions on the social media site Reddit.
There was a debate, for instance, on whether BMI was 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 country in the region to tie BMI to police promotions.
In 2020, the 220,000-strong Philippine National Police said officers hoping to get promoted or transferred, or to 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 was overweight and about 10 per cent was 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 potbelly around.
