No country is a stranger to social ills that plague a number of youths in society, and that definitely does not exclude Malaysia. Many nations have tried different measures to help curb these issues, and this recent proposal from a local politician caught some attention.
Yesterday (6th December), Wangsa Maju Wanita Umno division chief Datuk Noor Aieni Mohd Ali made a proposal that received an overwhelming amount of support from delegates during the Wanita Umno assembly.
The Wanita Umno leader reportedly proposed to impose a curfew on people 21 years and below in efforts to reduce social ills among today’s youth.
She suggested that people under 21 should not be allowed to go out in public alone between 10pm and 5am daily without the supervision of an adult. According to the New Straits Times, Datuk Noor Aieni stated at the assembly,
“I urge the Women, Family and Community Development Ministry to formulate a plan on how the law can be amended.”
“This will ensure youths and children are under the supervision of parents and not get themselves involved with ‘rempit’ activities, gangsterism, drug abuse, loitering around public parks and doing immoral activities.”
“The family institution has to be strengthened. It may be difficult to be implemented but this is the best way forward to guide the future generation from social problems and to raise them as competitive individuals in a challenging globalisation era.”
Meanwhile, a lot of Malaysians have been discussing the possibility of imposing curfews on youths for quite a while on social media, and it seems like quite a number of them support a move like this.
Some also brought up Iceland as an example, a country that famously managed to reduce incidents of underage drinking among its youths from 48 per cent in 1998 to 5 per cent in 2017. Whoa, that’s impressive! One of the measures this country took was imposing a curfew for youths, among a number of other initiatives.
Hmm… what do you think about the possibility of having a curfew for youths in Malaysia? Do you think this could produce similar results to Iceland? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below!
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