Power Lies In The Hands Of Youths To Shape The Country's Future

By Yasmin Ahmad Zukiman and Siti Fatimah Ahmad KUALA LUMPUR, May 8 (Bernama) -- The saying that the future of a country lies in the hands of the younger generation clearly reflects how important the younger generation or youths are to a country. It also stresses the importance of handling important assets properly such as looking into the welfare of young people in a country as they will define the fall and rise as well as the status of development of a country. However, are they, the precious assets of the country, ready to take on the challenges they have been entrusted with, considering the present generation's leaning towards lighter stuff in life and having a good time rather than tackling the issues of national interest and that of the country? The role and responsibility of educating or guiding the younger generation should of course not rest solely on the government, but instead, various parties should play their part in ensuring that youths become precious assets of the country and not "glass splinters", said the President of the Malaysian Youth Council (MYC), Mohamed Maliki Mohamed Rapiee. Associations or organisations that support youths and youth activities should be strengthened to help the government in the development of a new generation of leaders for the future, he told Bernama. ROLE OF THE MALAYSIAN YOUTH COUNCIL The MYC, which was officially set up in 1950, is the leading body in Malaysia that is responsible for coordinating youths and student organisations in the country and has been tasked with making the younger generation more creative and proactive as well as responsible citizens of this country. The role it plays is also constantly reviewed and expanded according to the needs of prevailing situations to ensure that the young people of the country are capable of leadership and have the ability to expand their potential to the highest level, said Mohamed Maliki. In order to support the development of the younger generation, he said various youth programmes have been organised to cover various areas from sports, culture and economy to social and political knowledge. One area of focus for the MYC is the involvement of youths in voluntary services, which are known to develop positive values in young people such as compassion, cooperation, care, patriotism and humanitarian values. YOUTHS AND VOLUNTEERISM "We know that charity work comes with no pay and needs the energy of the volunteer, but the practice of such good deeds needs to be instilled in the make-up of the younger generation as it will teach them to become more responsible," he said. Those who become volunteers can also be considered the country's assets as they greatly help reduce the burden and expenditure incurred by the country in the areas they are involved in. For example, the 1Malaysia For Youth (IM4U), a youth programme which was inspired and launched by Prime Minister Najib Razak last year, is one good initiative that encourages the involvement of the young generation in voluntary activities on a large scale. "The youth group has fresh and high ideals, as well as a fighting spirit that will not be easily defeated and a powerful sense of activism and growing intellectualism. "The IM4U, therefore, is an ideal platform offered by the government in its efforts to optimise the advantages that the youths have while they are still at a young age, by encouraging them to serve and bring good to the society," Mohamed Maliki said. CHALLENGES IN CHARITY WORK On the different approaches taken towards voluntary activities in Malaysia compared to other countries such as the United States or Britain, Mohamed Maliki said voluntary work in Malaysia is seen as more of something that is done to fill up free time. Voluntary activities are yet to be seen as something basic and have not been given the kind of importance or consistency that they should be given by the young in the country. In some advanced countries, voluntary work has long become a part of the citizens' social fabric, and some have even established their careers in the area. This is yet to happen in Malaysia, and many still see voluntarism as something unimportant. EMPOWERING VOLUNTEERISM At the workplace, young people, given the choice between carrying out an activity for money and a voluntary activity, will most certainly opt for the former due to the lack of advocacy for volunteerism by their employers. Another sad thing is that employers, both from private and public sectors, feel that by providing their staff time off to participate in a voluntary activity, the operations of their respective companies will be affected and the performance and revenue of their organisations will be jeopardised, Mohamed Maliki said. Youths, who face such obstacles, are then forced to fully concentrate on their work at the office and reduce any time or energy allocated to voluntary activities. Amid such limitations, there is a need to review policies at workplaces besides having ad hoc national level voluntary programmes to promote better understanding and commitment from employers towards the agenda of voluntarism and youth development. It will not be enough to just set up associations as there must be a strategy or strong agenda as well as the political will and concrete action towards developing and garnering voluntary potential in youths, Mohamed Maliki said. PROMOTING VOLUNTARY ACTIVITIES He suggested that a mechanism should be created to encourage employers to allow their workers to carry out voluntary work such as providing employers tax deductions, incentives or discounts when purchasing raw materials for their companies. At the community level, the major challenge in promoting voluntary activity is when there is a lack of communication or indifference among people to their surroundings, and therefore, there needs to be better interaction and the action of individuals taking responsibility for communal activities. Interaction will help build cooperation when carrying out activities that involve the participation of a community, and towards this, community leaders, local authorities and voluntary organisations must be urged to organise activities of common interest such as cleaning up gotong-royong style and so on, he said. Mohamed Maliki also said a more relaxed approach should also be taken when engaging youths in voluntary work, as being forced will be against the spirit of voluntarism. As the media plays a huge role in the development of youths, Mohamed Maliki urged the media not to only play up stories related to social ills among youths but to bring up more positive stories that could become good examples for other youths to follow. YOUTH DAY CELEBRATION The National Youth Day celebration is a highly anticipated event among youths. Every year, the event, wherever it is held, attracts thousands of young Malaysians, and indeed, in 2012, the event made a record with two million youths attending the five-day celebrations, making it one of the biggest celebrations for youths in the world, Mohamed Maliki said. MYC expects a repeat at this year's celebrations as well, which has been scheduled from May 23 to 27 at Putrajaya city (the federal administrative centre of Malaysia). This year's event has been given the theme "Festival", to keep up with its fun spirit, making it more interesting and enjoyable for youths. Besides the original segments, which include religion, culture and skills, new content open to students from vocational schools from all over Malaysia would also be a part of the activities during the celebration. During the "Festival", MYC, together with the Ministry of Youth and Sports and Perbadanan Putrajaya, will also be holding the 'My Mega Mind' contest, which is intended to bring out creativity in students as they design a "Youth Friendly Town". -- BERNAMA