DPM: 4 WAYS TO TACKLE SOCIAL ILLS
Efforts to address problems must be forward-looking, says Zahid
EFFORTS to address social problems in Malaysia must be forwardlooking, Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi has said yesterday.
He listed four ways to move forward, including raising people’s religious knowledge.
“All faiths teach us to do good... We should ensure that our children receive greater religious knowledge.
“So long as such knowledge is not abused or misused and coupled with continuous implementation, we can tackle social issues,” he said at the National Social Council Townhall.
Zahid said the second approach was to empower the family and community institutions.
This needs to start with the parents and the society without waiting for the government to prompt them to do so.
He stressed on the need to inculcate good values in society at large as the third way forward in addressing social ills.
“We must make an effort to understand each other, and to be understood by each other. A community that understands each other will live in harmony.
“When we live in harmony and respect one another, drug peddlers will not have a place in our community, while gangsterism and bullying will be alien to us.”
Based on police statistics, were 2,322 bully cases were reported since 2012 until June this year.
“The government will not close its eyes or mind in addressing bully problems.
“This is my personal commitment to improve things and find solutions to social problems.”
Zahid highlighted the drug addiction problem, saying there were 30,844 drug addicts last year.
“Of the total, 22,903 of them were new addicts and 7,921 were drug users who went back to their old habit after they had been rehabilitated,” he said, adding that efforts to fight the drug problem must be continuous.
It was also crucial, he said, for Malaysia to form its Social Economy Research Institute as well as to upgrade the Ethnic Studies Institute in Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia.
Zahid yesterday also named Communications and Multimedia Minister Datuk Seri Dr Salleh Said Keruak as chairman of the Cabinet Committee on Cyber Crime.
“I will bring this (Salleh’s appointment) up in the cabinet meeting on Friday,” he said in response to an idea raised in the townhall to have a dedicated committee tasked with addressing the growing concerns about digital social problems.