E135 - Boys Will Be Boys: Zulfarhan Osman Zulkarnain

**Jessica** (0:00)
This is Jessica and you're listening to The Asian Madness Podcast.
It's the last episode of 2025, so happy holidays in advance to you if you celebrate. Hopefully this year has treated you well, and you've made time for your hobbies, family, friends, but most importantly, for yourself. It's easy to get lost in the daily life of school, work, and other people, and you end up neglecting yourself. Make sure you keep yourself happy and healthy, because without that, everything kind of sucks. That's my opinion, just saying. Anyway, what are we talking about today? Today's case is actually a listener suggestion, so in case you're still around, thank you, Muna from Malaysia. So let's get into it. You know how sometimes the people you trust, or people you're supposed to trust, turn out to be the ones who hurt you? Betrayals like these can hurt more because it feels unexpected. A stranger hurting you? Not cool, but you might get over it. A family member, somebody you know personally? Well, that will complicate things. It can be emotional injury, but it can also be fatal. This is one of those stories. It starts with a young man, only 20 years old. A Navy cadet with a dream to one day become a captain. But that dream was never realized because his life was cut short over a ridiculous misunderstanding, or so it seems. This was not an accident, and it wasn't just one person's doing. His name is Zulfarhan Osman Zulkarnain, accused of a petty crime. And even if true, the punishment did not fit the crime. We will find out how a simple accusation turned into one of Malaysia's most disturbing campus crimes. Let's begin. Before his name became a headline, before the courtroom drama and the heartbreak, Zulfarhan Osman Zulkarnain was just a boy with a dream. Born on November 29, 1996 in Kuala Lumpur, Farhan, as his loved ones called him, which also meant joy, wasn't the loudest in the room. He was not the kind of boy to pick fights or draw attention to himself. In fact, his father once described him as quiet, respectful and the kind of son that any parent would be proud of. The kind who followed rules, the kind who stayed out of trouble. Very Asian coded, if you know what I mean. Farhan had a younger brother, and according to reports, his mother struggled with miscarriages before finally giving birth to her oldest son. So understandably, he was a source of joy in his parents' life. From a young age, Farhan had one goal, to become a Navy captain. Not just a soldier, but a leader at sea. And this dream was rooted deep in him, tied to Malaysia's proud maritime history and his fascination with ships. So when he got accepted into the National Defense University of Malaysia, it felt like the beginning of everything he'd worked for. He enrolled in the naval program, studying electrical engineering. He was smart, disciplined, and took his role seriously. His parents had every reason to believe he was on the right path. They still remember the day they dropped him off at the university. His mother, Hawa, said he told her to look through his belongings if she ever missed him. That simple gesture stayed with her. And yet, university life was not perfect. Living in a dorm surrounded by high-pressure routines and strict military culture, tensions were bound to rise. The usual things kids complain about cropped up. Shared spaces, clashing personalities, noise, what have you. It was never anything serious, and despite it all, Farhan never got a disciplinary record. He wasn't the type to bully or haze others, which might have made him stand out, but for the wrong reasons. He wasn't like the others. And in places like these, where the idea of holding power is everything, being different can be dangerous. It can put a target on your back. So what happened to Farhan? It all started with a silly laptop. May 21st, 2017 Inside the dorms of the National Defense University of Malaysia, a group of students approached 20-year-old Farhan. Their tone was off, accusatory and aggressive. They claimed he had stolen a laptop. Farhan said he hadn't taken anything. Again and again, he denied it. But they didn't believe him. Or maybe they didn't care. They could have just been out for random blood. So instead of having a conversation about it like regular people, what followed was an ambush. They pushed him, punched him, dragged him back to his room like he was a criminal. What happened behind those closed doors over the next several hours was nothing short of torture. On the surface, it was about a laptop, but it ended up being more than that. From 2.3 in the morning until sunrise, Farhan was beaten with plastic pipes, hangers, hoses, whatever they could grab and use as a weapon. But the worst item they used was a steam iron. One by one, they took turns pressing it into his skin, dragging it across his chest, his back, even his private parts. The pain must have been unimaginable, excruciating, reminiscent of the Middle Ages or something like that. Definitely not what you would expect in the 21st century, and definitely not from a bunch of students who are supposed to be in school to learn and serve their country. 50 shades of messed up. And all of this just to force a confession about a laptop. But Farhan never confessed, because there was nothing to confess to. At this point, if he had confessed, it would have made sense as well. Torturing people to get a confession is not exactly a new tactic, but we definitely should know how flawed it is. People confess under pressure, and people in military school should know better. But again, were they really hung up on this laptop, or were they just out there doing this whole boys will be boys thing? They left him in the morning, telling anyone who asked that he was just sick. And after their classes that day, they came back. Not to check on him, but to do it all over again. It was barbaric, and I'm genuinely shocked that Zulfarhan has managed to stay alive after all the beatings and pain inflicted on him. These degenerates used the same steam iron on the same exact wounds, layering new burns over old ones. They rotated the iron between the six of them, taking turns torturing their classmate. And in between beatings, they actually tried to treat his injuries. Not that it helped, because rubbing ointment on second-degree burns hardly undoes the damage. Believe it or not, they spent the next few days repeating the same process. Beat, torture, leave, return. Rinse and repeat. If these are the people being trained to protect your country, how safe are you really? But you know what really comes to mind when hearing about all this? Where the hell are the teachers? The other students? How was it that no one heard all this going on? Or perhaps were other students suspicious but unable or unwilling to say anything, fearing that they would be next? This is a dorm room, not an off-campus house in the middle of nowhere. Six days after the first attack, they finally brought him to a small private clinic. I do not understand the train of thought here, but then again, none of this makes sense to me. The doctor, assuming his injuries came from military training, gave him some medication and sent him right back, back to the same hands that had tortured him. So ridiculous I have no words. By May 31st, 10 days after all this started, his condition became critical. No shit. These degenerates took him to the clinic again, but it was already too late. In the early hours of June 1st, one of the students, Muhammad Amin, noticed something was wrong. He sent another cadet, Muhammad Nazir, to check on Farhan. Nazir found him unresponsive. When he said he couldn't perform CPR, panic set in, and that's when they finally called an ambulance. But like everything else in this frustrating case, the ambulance came too late.