By: Dr Yaacob Ibrahim, Minister for Community Development and Sports and Minister-In-Charge of Muslim Affairs
18 JULY 2004, 9.00 AM
AT SHERATON TOWERS BALLROOM
Co-Chairmen of the Youth Development Network
Mayor Zainul Abidin Rasheed
Mr Zainudin Nordin
CEO, Mendaki, Mr Rozlan Giri
Distinguished Speakers
Honoured Guests
Ladies and Gentlemen
The issue of connecting with youth is an important one in our Malay/Muslim community. We may have heard many times that our youth are our future. But this is indeed true as the figures bear out. With 38% of Malays aged 19 years and below, the community has the highest proportion of youth among Singapore's three prominent ethnic communities. This represents a huge resource. If we make the push to leverage on our youth potential, our community develops and becomes that much stronger. If we don't, we have lost our potential and instead have a massive future burden to bear. It was for this critical reason that the Community of Excellence Leaders Forum efforts led up to the formation of a Youth Development Network.
The Youth Challenge in the Malay/Muslim Community
Youth are often seen as key resource for society. Consequently many nations put in place policies and programmes targeted at developing youth potential. This is a positive approach that recognises the potential contribution of youth. More importantly, it is an approach that recognizes that that potential can only be realized if we make the effort to nurture this potential. Our community must take a similar approach.
Youth issues are not unique to the Malay/Muslim community in Singapore. Similar issues are faced by communities in many parts of the world. For example, studies in the U.S. show that family poverty is correlated with poor performance in studies, dropping out of school, and delinquency. [1] Other studies show that disengagement from family and community increases the risk of young people falling into delinquency. We can learn from the experience of others, even as we seek to define the youth challenge in our community.
To my mind, there appears to be three aspects to the challenge before us. These are nurturing the aspirations of our youth, reintegrating disconnected youth and supporting youth-at-risk.
Nurturing the Aspirations of our Youth
Let me first touch on the issue of nurturing the aspirations of our youth. The social environment that young people of my generation were accustomed to is long gone. My generation now make up the parents of youth. As youth ourselves, some of us made good. We pursued education and this gave us better jobs and enabled us to contribute better. Some of us did not. Missing out on completing their education, they had narrower job opportunities and subsequently were able to generate a standard of living lesser than those who had pursued education. Fortunately, the system in Singapore does not hamper those who make an effort to do well, no matter what their income level or perceived social status. In fact, studies by Mendaki show that low-income is not a barrier to doing well in school. If parents show interest in their children - whether they are 5 years old or 15, and are willing to nurture their children's potential, the children have good opportunities in later life.
Youth is a transient stage where individuals are still finding their way. They have yet to fit in and contribute to the development of society. Hence, the realisation of the potential of our youth would depend upon how the community supports and influences our youth. If we recognize youth as potential for the community, then we must create platforms for this potential to be integrated and hence contribute to the community's overall development. When Mendaki was formed in 1982, many young Malay/Muslims came forward to be tutors to those who needed help. This process helped shape a generation of young Malay/Muslim professionals who later became part of the community's leadership. Hence active participation in the life of the community at a young age helps to turn the potential of the youth into a positive force for development. More importantly, this approach encourages and integrates youth into the community at an early age, rather than leaving it to the youth to find their own ways and decide when they become adults. This process of socialization with the view of harnessing youth potential benefits the community. It benefits the youth by giving them an appreciation of life and helps them forge personal aims that are positive and developmental.
When dealing with youth, there is no running away from having to understand the environment they are growing up in. Today, the environment is influenced by cultures that go beyond national boundaries, as well as a wide variety of subcultures. All these influences shape the worldview of our youth.
For instance, some of us may wonder about the effect that hip-hop culture has on our youth. How should we view this? Is it good or bad? Is it a passing phase that some young people go through or is it a symptom of alienation? Is it a negative influence or can it harnessed to bring across positive messages to our youth? As we explore, we realize it is just not possible to have black or white perspectives on this issue and indeed, on many issues that affect young people. Perhaps, a more useful approach to understanding youth phenomena is to start by finding out how young people themselves view the world, while holding in check our own assumptions and premature judgments. Understanding the thoughts and aspirations of our young people is the first step towards integrating the youth into the community. This Conference is therefore a useful platform that will help us understand the various perspectives and worldviews of our youth. It is only by understanding our youth that we can start finding better ways to engage young people and help them bring out the best in themselves.
Besides listening and understanding more, we also need to broaden our traditional definitions of success and acceptability. These definitions should go beyond the parameters that our generation of parents and our parents are familiar with. Today, there is greater space and wider scope for our youth to pursue their aspirations. So while we rejoice over the fact that we are producing a certain number of top students, be it at PSLE or at the universities, we also rejoice when some do well in relatively newer areas - like sports and the arts. What is important is that our youth take the route that engages their talent. Nor Fidiyana Hashim is a good example. She has been involved in the Malay arts scene, as a child entertainer and later as a TV artiste. With her talent and hard work, she topped her diploma in drama class at the La Salle-SIA College of the Arts. Achievements like these should be recognized and celebrated, so that our youth understand that they are not hemmed in by traditional definitions of success and can succeed even in less traveled paths. Indeed, it is the positive values they develop and their attitude towards life that will stand them in good stead for the future.
Reintegrating Disconnected Youth
The second broad challenge for us is how to reintegrate youth who are or feel disconnected from the community and society at large, and fall prey to destructive behaviour or habits.
Even though we are beginning to see rays of hope in our fight against drug abuse after having spent many years as a community fighting the menace, we cannot let up on our efforts. At the same time, we should also intensify our attention on juvenile delinquency which results in our young being overrepresented in Boys and Girls Homes.
Addressing the problem of juvenile delinquency requires concerted and coordinated efforts from Malay/Muslim organizations that share a passion in reaching out to these youth. Our community needs to increase its capacity to deal with youth issues. Despite having a large youth base, it appears that our community has not thrown up a new Malay/Muslim voluntary organization that would focus on tackling youth issues. We need to grow more organizations that caters to current challenges. At the same time, existing organizations must re-position themselves to meet the new challenges. Hence, I am glad to see that the Youth Development Network identifying Youth Integration as one of the four areas of focus. The Network has brought together several Malay/Muslim organizations to work out remedial programmes. For example, Yayasan MENDAKI and Muhammadiyah are collaborating to develop an aftercare programme for residents in the Muhammadiyah Welfare Home.
In tackling delinquency, there is a multitude of challenges, trends and issues that we need to be aware of. For example, a Straits Times report last month highlighted how some young Japanese were committing crimes after being possibly influenced by internet online chats and TV violence. Satomi Mitari, a 12-year old schoolgirl was killed by her 11-year old buddy armed with a paper cutter. Her killer had been influenced by TV drama where a papercraft knife was used to commit murder. Such violence make for chilling reminders to us of the dangers that lurk in media and technology for impressionable youths. And this is just one of many issues that parents, youth workers and others who care about young people need to grapple with.
I see the need for our community to grow its capacity and knowledge. One way is through learning from others that have long established themselves in dealing with issues like juvenile delinquency. In this regard, I am happy to note that Teen Challenge will be sharing its experiences at this conference. At the same time, we need to do more research on youth matters in the Malay/Muslim community so that we can understand and address the underlying issues and not just symptoms.
Supporting Youth-at-Risk
The third broad challenge is to support youth-at-risk. I believe that the long-term solution to juvenile delinquency lies in preventive and developmental work among youth-at-risk. When a young person has already turned delinquent, it is often too late to act.
We need to identify and focus efforts on vulnerable youth. While we hear of more and more of our young putting in much effort and doing well in their studies, the Malay community also has a higher proportion of premature school leavers, relative to our other prominent communities. Premature school leavers tend to be more vulnerable to juvenile delinquency. The link is not surprising as it is among those who do not stay in a formal educational system that the precursors of delinquency can be detected.
If we do not address of the issue of youth-at-risk now, support and guide them at the early fork junctions of life, the fallout will cost our community greatly. This is why Yayasan MENDAKI launched the ''Youth In Action'' Programme in February, as one initiative to address this challenge. The programme takes into account the diversity of our youth, and the need to broaden the avenues of engaging them. More significantly, it takes a holistic and co-operative approach, through the partnership of parents, schools and the community. A mentor is identified to assist the youth, the families are taught parenting skills, and the schools are actively involved in the support of the youth.
This is a promising initiative, but we need many more volunteers to come forward so that more young people can be helped. As the different partners ? families, schools, volunteers, community organisations ? work hand in hand to support the young people of in our community, I am confident that they will find their bearings and fulfill the potential they have.
Moving forward
Having mentioned the three broad challenges, allow me to mention briefly the key priorities that we as a community need to move forward in developing our youth potential.
First, we need to help families take ownership and support our young. Families must bond with their teenagers, and take a keen interest in nurturing them as they struggle with issues of their formative years.
Secondly, we need to build capacity within the Malay/Muslim community to deal with youth issues. To do so, we need to embark on research and learn from other organizations like the Project Bridge Centre that have the know-how. We will also need new organizations to rise to the occasion and existing organizations to take up new areas of work as the need arises.
Thirdly, we will need many more people amongst us who have made good progress in their own walks of lives to come forward and give their time to serve the community and help build up the lives of others.
Conclusion
We are at a cross road. Thirty years ago, a generation of Malay/Muslim youth became addicted to drugs. They have wasted their entire adult life and also the community?s resources, time and energy. Today, we see yet another phenomenon of troubled youth within our midst. A quick and timely response is needed before this phenomenon becomes another long term issue that saps the community, once again. We must learn from our earlier experiences.
The gut and gumption of the Malay/Muslim community has seen us through many challenges in the past. With more people and organizations within the Malay/Muslim community coming forward to be part of this noble effort in developing our youth, I am confident we will move steadily towards our vision of a Community of Excellence.
On this note, allow me to thank the speakers who will be sharing with us today their valuable experiences in youth-related work. I wish all participants a fruitful seminar. May this seminar promote more ideas and initiatives that benefit the community and our nation.
Thank you.