While welcoming the cabinet's move to find solutions to the spate of delinquency and disciplinary problems among the country's youth, groups want to remind the government they should first consult their target group before rushing to implement new policies.

"Often in Malaysia, policies are formulated from an adult point of view and how they see the problem, without feedback from the youth. This often results in one-sided policies, because you don't give opportunity to the other side to respond," said Protect and Save the Children assistant director Alex Cheang.

Cheang said cabinet's stated mission to address juvenile delinquency problems is a commendable one.

But it would be more crucial however, to find out whether the present situation is a symptom of other underlying issues, he said.

"To do this, the government must engage the country's youth. Not just the cream of the crop, but juvenile delinquents as well. This issue must be studied," Cheang added.

In Malaysia, he said, adults often consider children as being incapable of thinking for themselves, when in fact the UN Child Convention has long enshrined children's right to participation as one of its guiding principles.

No quick fix

Isaac Stephen, youth coordinator for the La Salle Centre which runs motivational and leadership programmes for school students, cautioned the government against quick-fix solutions to juvenile delinquency and disciplinary issues.

If policy-makers wished to learn from past experience, he said, they would know that rushed through projects like Rakan Muda turned into failures because young people were not properly consulted on programmes that were supposedly meant to help them.

"It is good that they are thinking of setting up a special committee. But let us first conduct an intensive study into present practices and take into consideration all views, particularly the youth."

It would also be timely to review present practices within youth rehabilitation centres, and whether the reform methods and lectures actually worked, he said.

Yesterday, Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi announced that the cabinet will soon be making concerted efforts to tackle these youth problem.

He also expressed his concern for the numerous juvenile delinquency and crime cases as well as the rise in drug use among teens,.

Education Minister Hishammuddin Hussein who has been raising the issue of indiscipline among students in recent weeks has also called for inter-ministerial efforts to resolve the problem.