The new Malaysian Youth Council (MBM) leadership is expected to continue promoting the concept of moderation to help ensure the various factions in this country do not get entrapped by extremist activities.

Youth and Sports Minister Khairy Jamaluddin said the ideology of extremism which comes in various forms was a threat to national unity and should be handled in a consistent manner.

"In this country, we are faced with extremism from various angles, some ultra orthodox, ultra conservative, ultra social and ultra liberal. We want our youths to be in the 'middle class'.

"The MBM leadership have always maintained its stand on unity and moderation.

"If this is the conscience of our youths brought on by MBM leadership all along, the new leadership must continue with the same approach to make sure youths in Malaysia are not geared toward extremism," he said at MBM 63rd annual general assembly meeting today.

The meeting was officiated by Prime Minister Najib Nazak who is also MBM patron.

The three-day meeting also saw the election of the new MBM executive committee to replace the previous leadership.

In reaching out to youths to join youth associations, Khairy said MBM and the ministry should act as facilitators for youths to run their own programmes, instead of being the main organiser of such programmes.

He pointed out that only 20 to 30 percent of youths belonged to an association in the country.

In addition, he said the process of cadreship should also be intensified to pave the way for more young leaders in youth associations.

- Bernama