“That’s the duty of the old, to be anxious on behalf of the young. And the duty of the young is to scorn the anxiety of the old.”

― Philip Pullman, ‘The Golden Compass’

COMMENT | Apparently, there is a “specialised programme” for youths in the works to replace the National Service (NS) and National Civics Bureau (BTN) programmes.

Youth and Sports Minister Syed Saddiq Syed Abdul Rahman, who has the uncanny ability to mimic a forward-thinking technocrat on one hand and parrot an old-style alliance politician on the other, is upbeat that these new initiatives would produce “multi-talented” youth leaders.

First of all, you cannot create leaders. You can mould them, fill them with what you think good leaders are made of, but mainly you are creating clones to further ideological agendas.

Genuine leaders are forged when committed people come out of the experience of pursuing causes they think would improve the state of their country and its citizens.

In other words, you can create politicians but no way can you create “leaders".

Do we really need another two government programmes with no objective agendas at a time when the diplomatic corp is being told to tighten their belts?

The idea of revamping these programmes is not new. With the BTN course for example, the Harapan regime's position has been disjointed. While some states, including Kelantan, have stopped sending people to this BN-era programme, the political elite of Harapan have always been interested in revamping these programmes.

My stand on this issue is clear – “Do you really trust this new administration to reform this institution? Do you really want your tax ringgit spent on an organisation whose function is to instil a sense of patriotism in the civil service or students or whoever they target?”

Instead of spending money on these new programmes, why not use the funds where it counts?

There is a big divide between rural and urban schools. The quality of education is dependent on a whole host of issues but shouldn’t the youth and sports minister be the vanguard for reforms in the way how young people in this country are educated, and more importantly place an emphasis on achieving some sort of parity in the way how urban and rural young people spend their formative years?

Let us take the issue of sex education, for instance. United Nations Population Fund Malaysia country head Marcela Suazo (photo) said that the lack of sexuality and reproductive health education for young people is of great concern.

Let us be honest about this. The people who are ensuring that there is a lack of sexuality and reproductive health education in this country are the politicians and religious cabals, who have influence over them.

Just so you know, a recent survey by the National Population and Family Development Board found that one in three people aged between 13 and 24, who were engaged in sexual activity, did not know a girl could get pregnant from their first time.

And when we do talk about sex or attempt to coop young people in these sex education programmes, we get howlers, like when last year the Health Ministry asked young people to make videos about three subjects - sexual reproduction, cybersex and gender dysphoria – and the videos must outline the issues and consequences of these topics.

I wrote about it, here with an example I thought was relevant but obviously our moral guardians thought otherwise, even though I was merely quoting a Jakim education video - “Jakim said to change one’s sexual orientation, one must intend to do so for God’s sake instead of being forced and repent one's homosexuality, in addition to leaving activities that would lead to same-sex relations. It also urged a repentant homosexual to fulfil his sexual desires through marriage, or subdue such desires by among others resorting to fasting.”

Non-partisanship? Nonsense

So all this talk about moulding young leaders is just horse manure. So are the claims of non-partisanship.

When it comes to religion and race for instance, is there a chasm of ideological differences between mainstream Malay power brokers?

Hence, issues such as culture and identity would never be open to exploration because these so-called non-partisan partners would have to toe the line of the official narratives of the state and not create programmes that would encourage independent thinking and creativity.

Of course, reforming the education system and complimenting various programmes which could be tailored on a state level to encourage young people to explore their identities, work in various communities and generally have fun while discovering the diversity in their ecosystems, takes too much time, I suppose.

Much easier to waste money on programmes with no real agendas but would make good headlines as to how the government is taking care of young people.

Indeed, we have so many problems when it comes to our education system especially in the early years of schooling, that it makes no sense to have the BTN and NS programmes, when in the formative years of identity formation and communal integration, young people are bombarded by the toxicity of an ill-formed education system and subject to the whims of the political elite and their religious cabals.

What is happening to Fadiah Fikri, for example, demonstrative of how the state treats young people.

Are young people especially in their secondary and tertiary level education in Malaysia free to speak their mind or are they continuously told that racial and religious sensitivities trump any kind of intellectual discourse?

School subjects are filtered through racial and religious lenses. Young people are taught by state-sanctioned instruments that they cannot mix freely amongst themselves because this may go against religious dogma or they risk contaminating their culture with foreign elements that would destroy their community.

I mean, how are these youth programmes going to change the outlook of religious school graduates and how exactly do these initiatives justify the existence of discriminatory practices that have divided young people by race and religion?

These are important questions and "enforced mingling" may sound productive but it in no way addresses the issue that young people have.

This ludicrous idea that these youth programmes, no matter the pedigree of its creators, would somehow erase the indoctrination and flawed education system young people go through, is systemic of mainstream politics. That is, instead of solving the serious issues affecting young people, it attempts to slap on a band-aid and claim that something is being done for a potential voting block.

I would really love it if Syed Saddiq carries out an audit of the Youth and Sports Ministry to discover what the previous administration was up to when it came to all these types of projects.

I know this will never happen because young people are dangerous. God only knows what would happen if you encouraged independent thinking in them or broke down the barriers in their formative years of schooling.

I do not know even where to begin with a new BTN programme except to say, that the last thing a new Malaysia needs is another federal-funded indoctrination programme. Isn’t the Kool-Aid enough?

S THAYAPARAN is Commander (Rtd) of the Royal Malaysian Navy.

The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of Malaysiakini.