Best approach to curb social extremism among youths

KUALA LUMPUR: The federal government will adopt the best approach to avoid the youths from being involved in social extremism as it is feared that such activities would eliminate the eastern values and identity that they have upheld all this while.

Youth and Sports Minister Khairy Jamaluddin said the move was necessary because such threats were present in various forms and ideology which could lead to moral decay among the young generation.

“An example of the threat (from social extremism) faced by Malaysia currently is when our younger generation becomes attracted to the struggles of the so-called IS militant group, which is not merely confined to their interest but also willingness to go to war purportedly in the name of ‘jihad’.

“We regard the attraction from the social extremism as posing a competition to us, we should provide something that is more attractive, which can meet their idealism, so that they need not fulf il their idealism through deviationist platform,” he said when opening the Fourth Session of the 29th Term of the National Youth Consultative Council Conference (MPBN).

He said that the government had looked into the requirements in drawing up the policy, direction, as well as programmes which were relevant in efforts to ensure that the youths were not easily trapped by the social extremist symptoms to the extent that they became the ultra-liberal or religious orthodox group.

At his press conference later, Khairy said that currently, the MyCORP programme, which is an international-level welfare volunteer programme, was perceived as the best platform to realise this objective.

“At the government level, we must provide activities that can compete, which can attract the young generation so that they will not be i nvolved i n this activity,” he said.

In addition, Khairy said the move by the government in introducing the ‘Wasatiyyah’ (Moderation) concept was most appropriate especially in the efforts to tackle the threat posed by these social extremist activities.

“The moderation concept is a firm and bold stand which states that Malaysians should not be involved in the extremist activities at all because they would only destroy the future of our nation as well as that of the youths,” he said.

Regarding the outcome of the presentations made by the participants at the MPBN conference, Khairy said the ministry would try to provide a suitable time frame to enable the leaderships of the youth organisations to be coordinated with the amendment to the new definition for the age of the youths, which is from 15 years to 30 years.

He said the move was necessary to avoid problems that could arise such as the smooth administration of the youth associations, as a preparation to the new Malaysian Youth Policy ( DBM) to be implemented in 2018.

“We have reached agreement today that the DBM will be announced and tabled next year, with the definition in the age implementation in 2018 where the age of the youths will be defined as between 15 and 30 years old,” he said. – Bernama