Nazri warns youth who abuse social media in a rude manner
“Being rude and saying vile things are possible because the youth can hide behind the walls of cyberspace and are not saying it face to face. If in a face-to-face situation they would not be brave enough to utter those words.”
Azril Annuar, fz.com
Tourism and Culture Minister Datuk Seri Nazri Aziz raised a red flag over social media websites, like Facebook, being the root cause for rude or uncouth behaviour by youth.
After visiting the National Culture and Arts Department today, Nazri said such websites allow people to interact anonymously while online but he warned that the government will not hesitate to take action on anyone found to have “gone overboard” or broken any law in cyber space.
“Being rude and saying vile things are possible because the youth can hide behind the walls of cyberspace and are not saying it face to face. If in a face-to-face situation they would not be brave enough to utter those words.
“But in this matter, I want to remind everyone that our government has laws and we will enforce those laws if we find anyone breaking the laws that fall under the MCMC or the Sedition Act.
“If we need to preserve our culture by taking legal action against these rude and uncouth youths, we will,” he said, adding that he cannot allow such rude actions or words to “contaminate” the Malaysian culture where such behaviour is alien to local customs.
“Cultural change will happen as time goes by. What was once respected and honoured 20-years ago might not be in practice anymore. This will affect national culture. However, not all old practices and customs are out of date and should be abandoned just because it’s old.
“Some, are still current and this is where parents need to play a role in educating their children,” said Nazri.
He also admitted that “cultural assimilation” between all the ethnicities in the country will be a challenge and also have an impact on national culture.
“However, such cultural assimilation is all right because all cultures is a result of evolution.
“So, 100 years from now the result of the cultural integration in Malaysia might result in a new culture that is accepted by all. These are the origins of cultures and customs,” said Nazri.
