KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 4 (Bernama) — A Malay maxim says, “melentur buluh biarlah dari rebungnya” (Literal translation: Bend a bamboo when it is still a shoot).
Idiomatically, the saying suggests the upbringing and education of a child from young age. Like a bamboo stalk, a child is easier to guide in the early years.
The early years – childhood and adolescence – are the crucial stage in moulding the character, habits, principles, and the mind of a person. Parenthetically, the attributes shaped during these years are difficult to change or get rid of.
The problem is, many children and teenagers are too naïve to distinguish truth from falsehood. At the same time, the youngsters need role models in building their character and thinking, and in leading them on a path of righteousness.
Most young people are gullible and are easily influenced by the images, incidents and characters that they see every day, including and especially in the media. Presented in catchy and captivating content packages, the negative characters, elements and messages portrayed daily by the media will most likely be absorbed, and ingrained into the youth’s personality.
For example, many TV programmes tend to depict the bad characters as those enjoying good life, while the good ones suffer; and the corrupt winning the game while the honest becoming poor losers. These ideals are supplied daily in dizzying doses to the extent that the young viewers will actually believe that it is how life should be.
A NEGATIVE PERCEPTION
Undoubtedly, such misleading portrayal of the world is ambiguous to the viewers, and is bound to poison the young minds.
One may say that reading one or two naughty stories or watching one or two off-colour movies will not make a person bad. But one or two, even if not daily, will add up to slowly create a notion that being bad is all right and is something to be excited about.
Slowly but surely, readers or viewers will become accustomed to the idea that fights and violent acts are the best way in resolving problems; alcohol drinking are exciting and not harmful; and sexual acts are not bound by any rules.
These seemingly attractive mind pollutants will then grow like cancer, eating up healthy parts of the soul, and before long, the mind of the affected youths will be adulterated with negative thoughts and impurities.
Quoting Nicholas Johnson of the “How to Talk Back to Your Television Set” fame: “All television is educational television. The question is: what is it teaching us?”
Words and phrases that are indecent and vulgar; and images and acting that are improper or obscene, when taken for granted may breed chains of unacceptable behaviour.
While it is the parents’ obligation to monitor what their children are watching and saying, it can become a great challenge when the children’s growing-up environment is inundated round-the-clock with a plethora of media, from terrestrial and satellite television and the Internet to the iPod, films, mobile phones with various clever capabilities, video games, and the list goes on.
CREATING A HEALTHY ENVIRONMENT
Malaysians in general, as a race that upholds the principles of religion, should not leave the younger generation to the dictates of foreign ideas, whether directly or indirectly. This is, of course, not saying that everything foreign is bad. But regardless of religion or creed, Malaysians should be aware of the nation’s goals and aspirations, and not let undesirable elements get in the way.
We shoulder the heavy responsibility of bringing up our children in a healthy environment. Traversing today’s unpredictable and shameless world of media, we must ensure that our children are only exposed to contents which have positive and constructive values.
Media contents and creative output in whatever forms that we allow our children to consume are like air, water and food that we feed them with – unhealthy ones will upset the body system.
The early years of our children are a golden opportunity to win them over, to nurture their tender spirit to lead lives that are enhanced with politeness and courtesy, in line with the fifth principle of the Rukun Negara (national ideology).
Having said that, even though the Malaysian media practitioners have taken various successful steps in fulfilling their social responsibilities in fostering a peaceful plural environment, we should not be contented. This is because we are now in the face of the upsurge of global digital revolution where the contents, ideals and concepts are pretty much monopolised by the West.
This global wave will drown our race, unless we stand up to uphold our dignity, increase our contribution and fuel up our moral dynamism in strengthening our identity, one that puts religion as its basis.
The writer is a Senior Fellow/Director of Centre for Economics and Social Studies at the Malaysian Institute of Islamic Understanding (IKIM).
— BERNAMA
