Lamenting that politically-motivated individuals are sowing seeds of anti-patriotism among today's youths, an aide to Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak's wife, has urged measures to uphold patriotism.

"Maybe it is time that we look again at how the matter is being handled. Patriotism is the most important element for the development of a nation," said Rizal Mansor in a statement today.

The current dearth in patriotism he said, is caused by some who jump the gun and point fingers at the government and security services whenever a security crisis occurs.

"Supposedly our security services failed to get advance intelligence to stop incidents like the Lahad Datu incursion and the latest, the killing of Kim Jong-nam.

"Worse, there are discordant voices linking it to conspiracy theories," he said.

Rizal rues these "uncouth" Malaysians were prone to demonise the government and belittle our security forces, many posting such comments on social media as if the current generation no longer had a shred of patriotism left in them.

"They would rather see the country be made fun of and looked down upon by outsiders, criticising government reactions against outside confrontations as endangering the safety of the rakyat," he related.

Even before we are directly attacked, Rizal said that these few bad apples would rather surrender and become the tools of the enemy.

Rizal claimed that this sentiment that was being spread to the new generations by individuals with political motivation had dulled the patriotism fervour among the youths.

"The current generation are in a 'comfort zone' and no longer appreciate the efforts of security forces like the police and army who put their lives on the line to defend our borders," he said.

Rizal said that this is a far cry from the previous generations who would rather die than resort to such cowardice, even when faced with oppression from our once colonial conquerors.

"They were willing to lay their lives on the line for the country even literally, when it comes to the defence of the nation," he recalled.