TOPIC: Social ills among the younger generation

Chairman:
Bismillahirrahmanirrahim and a very good evening to Madam Nadiah Yan
bintiAbdullah our beloved lecturer and the audiences. In this very beautiful
evening, I am not alone because we have four special guests who are experts
in this topic. I am so gladtoday because we have the honourable Deputy
Prime Minister who is also our Minister ofEducation, Tan Sri Muhyiddin
Yassin here today. Our second guest is the President of theNational Anti-
Social Ills Agency, Miss Janet Lee. Our third guest is the Police
Inspectorfrom Bukit Beruntung, Mr. Chin Boon Tek. Not forgetting our last
guest today, Mrs.Renugah, an ex-drug addict which is currently an engineer
at Dewan Bandar Raya KualaLumpur.
Ladies and gentlemen, today we are here to discuss about the topic
“Social Ills amongthe Younger Generation”. Firstly, I would like to explain
about social ills. Actually,social ills among the younger generation is not a new
phenomenon. Indeed the extent ofsocial ills among humans can be traced
during every period of time. The examples ofsocial ills are bullying,
delinquency, gangsters, vandalism, illegal racing and child abuse.There are
many factors that cause social ills and they bring many negative effects to
oursociety and nation. Without any delay, let us move on to our topic today.
So, I would like to get the opinion from our President of the National
Anti-Social IllsAgency. Can you explain to us what are the factors or the
causes of social ills among theyounger generation?

Miss Janet Lee:

Thank you Mr. Chairman. Good morning to all of you.
Ladies and gentlemen, one of the factors of social ills among the younger
generation isparental neglect. The new culture of society has created the
need for pursuit of materialwealth, often unethical and sometimes by
unscrupulous means. Moral values are totallyirrelevant in this pursuit. In
their quest for wealth, many parents have forgotten orneglected their roles
to their children. It is so sad to note that many of them do not knowhow to
be good parents or good role-models to their children. As a result, over the
years,we witness a decline in moral values especially among the younger
generation. Many ofthem had become rather selfish, rude and highly
materialistic just like their parents.Moreover, the youngsters will become
worse and worse in order to attract their parents’attention so that their
parents will care more about them and love them more.

Mr. Chin Boon Tek:

Mr. Chairman and Miss Janet Lee, sorry for interrupting.
Actually, I have my own opinion regarding this point. Before I elaborate,
I would liketo ask all of you some questions. Can parents be solely blamed for
the social illscommitted by their children? Can they be blamed for their
quest for wealth? In today’sworld, despite paying all forms of taxes, one has
to pay a hefty sum for even basicessential services like health, education,
housing and transport. These can go intohundreds of thousands of ringgit.
How can parents earn this amount of money withoutsacrificing the time
spent with their family? Unless the government can find ways toreduce this
burden of the parents, if not, children will be continued to be neglected.

Chairman:
Thank you Miss Janet and Mr. Chin Boon Tek.
Before we continue, I have a question for our Deputy Prime Minister and
Minister ofEducation, Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin. Do you agree with Mr. Chin
Boon Tek thatparental neglect is not a factor that will cause social ills among
younger generation? Ordo you have another point of view?

Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin:

Thank you
According to the findings of the research, “Teenagers’ Dilemma” that we
conductedlast month, peer pressure is the main factor that causes social ills
among teenagers. Afriend is the closest person to teenagers and they have a
great influence in a teenager’slife. It is because teenagers meet their
friends almost every day in school, during co-curriculum activities, tuition
class and others. So teenager will think that their friends canprovide
solutions to their problems. This is where the problem creeps in. If they mix
withfriends who know what is right and wrong, they are safe. When choosing
wrong friends,surely they will choose wrong ways to solve the problems. So,
teenagers must be carefulwhenchoosing their friends.
Mr. Chairman:
Thank you most honourable Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin.
Now, my question to Mrs. Renugah. As an ex-drug addict, what is your opinion
regarding the factors of social ills among the younger generation?

Mrs. Renugah:
Thank you.
Based on my experience, lack of moral values will cause social ills. The
world isgetting busier today. Everybody is wrapped up on his or her own lives
and 24 hours tendto be not enough. There seems to be little room left or
priority for moral values. Theinability to differentiate what is good and bad
is common among most teenagers. Most ofthem lack moral values and do not
have good foundation in religion. This can beovercome if the support system
pays just a little attention. So, a teenager who has beeningrained with good
moral values since young will stay away from social ills.
For your information, stress or pressures is also the causes of the social
ills amongyounger generation. Stress or pressures of life is just like a Sword
of Damocles. It is adouble-edged sword. Too little of it you are seen as lazy,
too much of it will get us tensedup. Teenagers become stressed because
they think that they have a lot of responsibilityand also have to compete
with others who are excellent in education and work in life. So,when they get
stressed, they do not know how to cope with it in positive ways such
asmeditate, exercise and so on. However, it is sad to note that they resort
to commit socialills to handle their stress.

Chairman:
Thank you Mrs. Renugah.
Ladies and gentlemen, I think the information provided by Miss Janet, Mr.
Chin BoonTek, Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin and Mrs. Renugah are true and prove
that teenagerstoday are involved in social ills due to factors such as parental
neglect, peer pressure andlack of moral values. These social ills will bring
more negative effects in many aspects.So, I would like to give the
opportunity to Mr. Chin Boon Tek to further clarify this matter.

Mr. Chin Boon Tek:

Thank you Mr.Chairman.
Social ills indeed bring many effects to those involved in this problem.
Firstly, thiscritical problem brings effect to a teenager’s life and future. As
we know, social ills likesmoking, taking alcohol and drugs, fighting, illegal
racing, free sex, rape and robbery arethe issues that are serious and
worrying. These will destroy one’s life and future once ateenager is involved
in these negative activities.The main focus of the younger generation is just
to have fun and get entertained. They like to hang out with their friends and
waste their time just for entertainment without any other purposes in their
life. With the curiosity and encouragement from their friends, theyare
willing to try something new to them such as take drugs and involve in illegal
racingwhich are against the laws.
Once they get caught and found guilty, they will be put in prison. With
this, they willhave a criminal record and it is hard for them to find a job
after being freed from jail.This is because people especially employers will
not trust them and the employers willalso doubt their abilities to perform
well if they are employed.
Besides that, they will be the first suspect if any misdemeanor or
misdeed were tohappen. There are fewer opportunities and less support for
them by the society. As aconsequence, they will be disappointed and get
involved in the negative activities again.Other than that, their parents will
feel sad, disappointed and embarrassed.

Chairman:
Excuse me Mr. Chin, I would like to pose a question here.
I am very interested with the point that you have told us regarding
familydisappointment. Can you explain to me and our audience, how the family
will feeldisappointed with their children’s actions? Can you share with us?

Mr. Chin Boon Tek:

Of course. Mr. Chairman. I will explain about it.
Family will feel disappointed with their children because they will be the
topic ofdiscussion by their neighbours, relatives and society in general.
Parents will be blamed bysociety as irresponsible because they do not teach
and guide their children.

Chairman:
Thanks for the explanation and now Mrs. Renugah can you explain more about
the effects of social ills?

Mrs. Renugah:
Thank you.
 Ladies and gentlemen, social ills like fighting, taking drugs and alcohol
also bringharm to the school. A student involved in the negative activities
will also try to persuadetheir friends around them to be involved in those
activities. Moreover, social ills such asrobbery, rape and illegal racing will
disrupt the peace of the neighbourhood and peoplewill live in fear due to
these social ills.

On top of that, social ills also bring negative effect to our nation.
Nowadays youthslike to follow and imitate their idols. If the idols have bad
habits like multi-relationships,smoking, taking drug and alcohol, the youths
will also be like them which they think ascool and they will be out of date if
they didn’t follow these habits. These will make themlose their own
personalities and aggravate the image of our country. Youths will becomethe
leaders of our country and if this younger generation has loss their values,
our countrywill be destroyed when they become the leaders in the future.
The development of ourcountry will be hindered and war may occur because
of the inability of leaders to controland lead our country. As a result, our
country will be colonised again by other countries.

Chairman:
Thank you.
Now we know that social ills happen due to many factors and bring many
effects to ateenager’s life and future, family and society and also the nation.
Let us proceed to TanSri Muhyiddin Yassin to share and tell us about the
solution for this critical problem.

Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin:

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Ladies and gentlemen, for your information, there are ways to solve the
social illnessamong the younger generation. The most effective ways is to
strengthen and improve therelationship between family members. By having
a strong bond between the children andtheir parents in a family will greatly
reduce the social ills that exist in the society.
Children will be able to understand the circumstances that happened in
the society andneeded to be solved by them under their parents’ advices.
This will make them aware ofthe things happening around them and train
them to be independent and immune to allsociety problems. By cutting off
the initial trigger of illness, the rate of social illness isexpected to be
lowered. With this lowered, the other kind of activities held among thesocial
illness will also be reduced due to the lack of participants.
My beloved audience, secondly is by having a strong religious background
which canget rid and reduce social problems. It has been proven that most
of the religions in theworld promote peace and love among mankind.
Friendship is a vital element of anyreligions. For example, the church is a
place to meet others that share their beliefs andgive them a strong
platform to build friendships.
Other than that, spiritual growth within them will be strengthened and
confirmed.They will explore their spirituality and their faith in order to help
them find answers tothose difficult questions and help them understand
their purpose in this world. Spiritualgrowth is a very personal adventure.
More than that, mental health religion has been shown to improve a person’s
mental as well. This can also lead to a reduction of socialills by counseling
them with the reinforcement of their beliefs. Through religion,
theyoungsters can learn how to respect elders too. Thank you.

Chairman:
Thank you Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin.
Miss Janet, as the President of the National Anti-Social Ills Agency, I
think that youmay have other points regarding the solution of the social ills
among the younger generation.

Miss Janet Lee:

Thank you. As you said, I have few points that provide the solutions to this
problem.
The government should take care of these problems before it ruins our
country’simage. The implementation of laws and regulations should be
reconsidered andstrengthened so that society will take note of the
importance of regulations in the country.The idea is not to cause fear among
people but to make them understand their roles in thesociety, to help in the
development of the country. For example, the government shouldset the
minimum age of citizens who can buy alcoholic drinks. Apart from that,
thegovernment should frequently carry out campaigns and encourage
teenagers toparticipate. Campaign such as Anti HIV or Anti Aids is essential
for teenagers as well asadults so that they will know the details and the
ways to prevent this Sex TransmittedDisease (STD).
Another way to solve the social ills among the younger is the role of
friends. Friendsplay important roles in a teenager’s life. Friends can advise,
love and are close to them. Ifthey have any problems they can share with
each other. Parents also should know theirchildren’s friends because friends
will be with them most all of the time. Teenagers alsoshould know how to
choose a friend. Through this way, I think social ills can beeliminated in our
society.

Chairman:
Thank you again Miss Janet. Today, from this special forum I think we have
obtainedmany information about social ills among the teenagers. Finally, I
would like to inviteMrs. Renugah to provide a conclusion in this forum today.

Mrs. Renugah:
Thank you so much Mr. Chairman.
Introduction

Assalamualaikum and a very good evening to Madam Nadiah Yan Binti

Abdullahand all our fellow friends. My name is Tengku Syed Azan as the
chairpersononthis undergraduate forum would like to welcomes all of you to
pay a full attentionto the topic that we need to discuss today. InsyaAllah, in
this honourable eveningwe will together try to discuss and make a clearance
about one of the majorconcern to our country nowadays which is a social ills
among the youngergeneration. I am truly believes that this problem is not
just appear in our countrybut it spreads in almost of the country in this
world. First of all, I would like tointroduce our panels that I invite together
with me to elaborate more deeperaccording to the topic. Our first panel is
Madam Anna Yuenna Binti Bujang, she isa counselor from SMK Tasik Proton
and we very auspicious in this eveningbecause we can bring together our
ministry of youth and sports Dato’ Seri Faeizahbinti Murith. How do you do
Dato’ ? our next panel is Dr Norhidayah bintiRuslan, she is a psycologistfrom
Open University and the last over there is missFadhilah binti Abd
Khadirfrom SMK Tunas Bakti,
Since the last few decades, it is observed that Malaysia is facing a number
ofsocial problems like rape, sexual harassment at the workplace, increasing
divorcerate, drug addiction among youth and such other problems. Although
we couldcheck the problems through some of the educational, legal and
political measuresto certain extent but more consistent efforts are needed
to address this problemsand to overcome them.
Ok for the first round, I would like to ask Madam AnnaYuenna how do you
find about this problems and, what isthe factor relate to it ?
Thank you very much Madam
Anna,
Dato’, now we know that the social ill among the youngergeneration become
increase. So, how do you seen thisproblem in the contact of society and can
you explain alittle bit about your ministry which is one of the ministrythat
strive to vercome this problems ?
Your pleasure dato’
Dr Norhidayah as a psychologist in one of the popularuniversity, what is your
opinion about this issues and canyou stated any statistic according that ?
Thank you for your brilliant
explaination,
Together with us here is, Miss Fadhilah as one of theofficer that manages a
Tunas Bakti school. So, can you tellall of us what is the major role of Tunas
Bakti school anddescribe a few information about that ?
Thank you Miss Fadilah, I thoughtthe explaination that has beengiven by her
can give us all a clearinformation what actually TunasBakti school it is.
I hope all of you are clear with what we have discuss over here, for your
reminder we havediscuss about the factor relate to this problems by Madam
Anna, we got a view from our ministerand psychologist and everybody have
clear about the Tunas Bakti school. Am I right ?
Now, we move to the next agenda of the undergraduate forum.
Back to Madam Anna again, you have stated that a factor about this problem
before which isparents, environmental and anything else. In this world, any
ills have their own medicine to curedright, so what can be done to cure the
social ills among the youngest generation ?
Thank you Madam Anna for the explaination,
Dato’, from our discussion before we know that the empowerment from the
governments was the pulse and themajor organization to prevent this
problem, so what are theway that have been done by the ministry to prevent
thisproblems and what are the effect to the younger generationfrom that
program ?

Ok, we already clear about the role that has been played byTunas Bakti
school, now can you tell all of us what are theprogram or activities that has
been held by your sideaccording to reformatory the children or youth that
hasentered there.
Thank you for your addition according to our topic, I wish to just
continue our discussionthis evening but the time has not enough for it, and I
am truly believes this topic is really need along time to discuss because the
spreads of its in our country at an unprecedented scale.However, Malaysian
political leaders, educationist, religious scholar, legal experts have not
onlyshowed a serious concern about the problems but also taken some
remedial measures to curbthese problems.
Besides the government authorities, the general public also concern
about the spreadingof this problems. It is same to us, we also need to pay
attention about this problems. This istogether major role. For the conclusion,
I would like to highlight that there is a many major typeof factor of this
problems but now we just have to pull all of our gains and cooperate each
otherto empower our action. Besides that,some opinions and statements that
has beengiven to theaudience and some idea about the general ways of the
remedies for social ills should not be takeeasy. It is for our goodness, if you
not in it you out of it.
Once again, before I stop this forum I would like to thank all of my
panels because yourpleasure for this evening. Hopefully all the thing that
what we discuss today can make all of youmore concern about your life and
your future to be. This problems should be curb earlyaccording to ensure our
country destiny become reality. For Madam Anna, Dato’ Seri faiezah,
DrNorhidayah and Miss Fadhilah, thank you for your cooperation once agains.
I would like to stop our discussion today by all of us give our panels a full of
appreciation clap. Thank you