In the recent past, Malaysian leaders had taken joy in deriding the West for its social, moral and economic decline. Recently, however, Malaysia has found itself facing the prospect of social and moral decline even before reaching the status of a fully developed nation as in the West.
Clearly, something has gone wrong with the entire development process, particularly with the Vision 2020 of being a fully developed nation "infused by strong moral and ethical values".
Vision 2020 said that there could be no fully developed Malaysia until "we have finally overcome the nine central strategic challenges that have confronted us from the moment of our birth as an independent nation".
The fourth strategic challenge is to establish "a fully moral and ethical society, whose citizens are strong in religious and spiritual values and imbued with the highest of ethical standards".
Although Malaysia is already one-third way into the 30-year programme of Vision 2020, the country is still quite unprepared to address many of the nine strategic challenges and in some cases, had even slipped further behind - as evidenced by the mushrooming of social ills affecting the youths in the country.
This is most saddening and there must be a great soul-searching in the country as to why Malaysia has not been able to harness the power of the world's great religions to impart good moral values to our citizens and youths, when Malaysia has the unique distinction of being the confluence of these great religions.
In fact, there still seems to be strong resistance to the proposal that the channels over radio and television should be opened up to all religions to allow healthy programmes imparting spiritual and moral values of good living by all religions to be broadcast.
DAP welcomes the statement by the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Dr. Mahathir Mohamad last month that the government was prepared to co-operate with anyone, including the Opposition, in addressing social problems and the DAP offers full co-operation to the Government to address social ills affecting youths as we have always held that these social ills must be regarded as national problems.
It is important however that the government should not find glib answers to the social ills affecting youths by blaming first the teachers and later the parents - when in actual fact, all quarters concerned whether the government, the education system or the parents must collectively accept responsibility for the mushrooming social ills in the country.
The Selangor Mentri Besar, Tan Sri Muhammad Muhammad Taib for instance had announced the setting up of a foundation by the Selangor Government to be called the Yayasan Ehsan Selangor to tackle social problems in the State.
How could any strategy by the Selangor Government to tackle social problems in the state have credibility when the people in general regard Muhammad Taib himself as an example of a �social problem�, especially with his inability to give proper and satisfactory explanation about his RM2.4 million cash caper in Brisbane last December?
It is rather disturbing that there is a tendency to �pass the buck� to find a easy solution to the social ills affecting youths, as by passing the whole blame to the parents - as if by creating a new problem of �parental ills�, �social ills affecting youths� is immediately resolved or become less serious.
Another matter of concern is the ill-considered, panic and even inane proposals to address social ills affecting youths, like the two proposals emanating from the Ministry of Youth and Sports - the RM500 million national social service programme for the 400,000 Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia (SPM) school-leavers during the three months they are waiting for their SPM results and the proposal to make the national social service a prerequisite for getting the SPM certificate and to bar those who refuse to take part in the programme from proceeding to Form Six.
Many Malaysians must have recoiled with disbelief and even disgust when reading these proposals coming from the Ministry of Youth. Such proposals are most retrograde and shocking and Malaysians must have wondered whether the problem the Ministry is trying to tackle are youths with social problems or youths without social problems.
Malaysians can ask two further questions: whether the Youth Ministry is trying to resolve or create new social problems for youths; and secondly, whether the Youth Ministry is not one major cause for the escalating social ills of youths, both because of its lack of imagination and failure of the Rakan Muda schemes.
The Youth Ministry�s proposals to make the national social service compulsory for Fifth Formers will not address the problem of juvenile delinquents, who are most likely to play truant and who would not be bothered by their inability to get their SPM or to proceed to Form Sixth.
It would be the youths who are not juvenile delinquents and not social problems, but disagree with the need for them to go through the three-month national social service meant to address the problem of social problems affecting youths, who would be aggrieved and penalised by the draconian regulations withholding their SPM certificates, and creating in the process a new generation which will be alienated and antagonised by a government which do not understand the problems and aspirations of youths.
It is shocking that the Ministry of Youth could deviate so completely from the subject of national concern - the delinquent youths - and to think of rules and regulations for the youths who are not delinquents.
In fact, if the whole concept of national social service is meant to rectify the failure of character education and building by instilling good values and discipline among delinquent youths, then recognition and appreciation should be accorded to youths who are not delinquents by exempting them from such a reform programme.
The focus of character education and building should be the period when the students are in school both at the primary and secondary level, and not when they are seventeen and have finished Form Five.
In fact, there should be a general recognition that the battle of character building of the young generation of Malaysians is already lost when youths leave school without the values to be good citizens and productive members of society and it is dubious that such failure of character education and building could be undone by a three-month national social service.
If the government is prepared to come out with a budget of RM500 million to address social ills affecting youths, the allocation should not be disbursed by the Ministry of Youth or any other Ministry but should be used to launch a nation-wide community movement to promote values of good citizenship among the young generation by mobilising the co-operative efforts of home, school and the community.