KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 22 — Khairy Jamaluddin has called for Budget 2018 to include a social agenda blueprint that strengthens the family institution and prevents social problems among the young.
The youth and sports minister told New Sunday Times (NST) in an interview that strengthening the education system or increasing religious knowledge did not suffice in tackling social problems like drug addiction and broken families.
“Religion is important, but we also need counsellors to speak to our children. We need multiple disciplines to solve the problems,” Khairy was quoted saying.
He reportedly suggested setting up a central agency focused on social and socio-economic issues led by Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi and involving the Home Ministry; Youth and Sports Ministry; Women, Family and Community Development; and the Education Ministry.
Khairy proposed parenting courses and family planning campaigns to strengthen family institutions.
“Some Malaysians face difficulties when they have too many children because they do not think about raising and feeding the children.
“They need to be educated that children must be cared for properly and are not just an element of their ‘rezeki’,” he said, referring to the belief among some that “God will provide” when it comes to child-rearing.
The minister also suggested increasing resources for the National Anti-Drugs Agency’s recovery programme that now views addicts as patients rather than criminals.
Khairy said more counsellors should be placed in “hotspots” schools and called for more childcare centres to be set up to help dual-income families.
“Programmes and interventions must be held, but we also have to give our youth alternatives.
It could be sports, arts, recreation or anything they like. For this, we need sufficient allocation and infrastructure.
“If they have activities to choose from, they will not think about riding in illegal street races or taking drugs,” he was quoted saying.
He stressed that there must be a concentrated effort to solve social ills, noting that such problems have always been looked at “seasonally” when a tragedy occurred, such as the recent arson in a tahfiz school here that allegedly involved young drug abusers from broken families.
