Ban children – Ministry
JOHOR BAHRU: The Home Ministry (KDN) wants state governments to ban underaged youths from loitering around city areas, roads and certain locations late at night.
Its deputy minister, Datuk Nur Jazlan Mohamed, said the ban was necessary to tackle untoward incidents such as the cycling tragedy at Jalan Lingkaran Dalam here on Saturday.
“The curfew should be imposed by state governments so that owners of sites, locations or premises do not to allow underaged youths from coming to these places late at night.
“For example, the Johor City Council, which is responsible for the Johor Bahru City Square,” he said.
Nur Jazlan, who is also Pulai Member of Parliament, said this to reporters after attending the consituency’s Chinese New Year celebration here yesterday.
He was commenting on the tragedy in which eight teenagers were killed and eight others were injured when they were mowed down by a car at 3am on Saturday.
According to Nur Jazlan, the proposal was being made because the power of the police was limited in supervising underaged youths other than not having enough manpower.
He said the proposal need not be done in all states as not all states experienced the problem of underaged youths who go out until late at night.
“Many cases of underaged youths going out late at night are in Johor and the Klang Valley. The problem has been taking place for several years before this and I have urged police to take action.
“The problem is the children are underaged and the police cannot take harsh action against them. So, I make this suggestion to the state governments and KDN is willing to work with the quarters concerned to implement it,” he said.
According to Nur Jazlan, drastic action must be carried out in monitoring the underaged youths so that the numerous parties would not continue to blame the police when the authorities had done their duties especially in advising underaged youths and their parents.
He said in some cases parents scolded the authorities for accusing their children of wandering around at night when the onus of supervising children was on the parents.
“Through the proposal to the state governments, I am not asking the underaged children to be put under curfew but they should not be allowed to wander around in the city and certain locations specifically roads because there are many threats including crimes.
“The best way is for the state governments not to allow underaged youths to wander around at night. So, there must be a directive from the state governments so that integrated action, for example, with local authorities and those having jurisdiction over roads to be enlisted to help the police supervise the children,” he said.
He said police investigation found the driver was not speeding, not using handphone while driving and was not drunk.
“The road is a bit winding and hilly. This is my area, I am aware of the route’s condition,” he added.