Former Information, Communication and Culture Minister Rais Yatim is of the opinion that extended exposure to the Internet and social media networks is turning Malaysian youths into uncouth, potty-mouthed degenerates.
The ever-outspoken UMNO veteran urged local universities to monitor the Internet habits of their students, as it was their responsibility to keep the youths under their care socially upright.
“In the morning, the first thing that youth do is check their phones. That’s not a problem, but the content on social media is what we must question,” he said at the launch of the Academy of Malay Studies at Universiti Malaya (UM) today.
“We must be cautious through the Academy of Malay Studies about what values we want to leave behind in our education.
“Even other people have said that at this point, brash language originates from the Internet, uncultured language originates from the Internet,” he added, as quoted by The Malay Mail Online‘s Mayuri Mei Lin.
He also stressed that the concept of budi (manners) should be inculcated in Malaysian youths through Malay Studies programmes in tertiary institutions.
“Budi is important, especially to Malays, and it is because of good manners that the Malay civilisation exists. Budi has since been drowned out and it is not formalised or inducted in our education. We must rediscover budi in Malay studies and we should teach it like budi pekerti and budi bahasa.
“It can be said that if budi isn’t a part of education, we will become a wild race, and we’ve already seen that in a few campuses and in the character of some youth as well as adults.”
Rais currently serves as the Federal Government’s socio-culture adviser. Last year, he proposed that Malaysia set up a local alternative to ubiquitous social networking site Facebook to stem the dissemination of seditious remarks online.
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