Youth programmes, including Rakan Muda, to be re-evaluated

KUALA LUMPUR: All major youth programmes, including Rakan Muda, will be evaluated to assess their impact and prevent wastage of funds, said Youth and Sports Minister Datuk Ismail Sabri Yaakob.
He said the ministry had carried out numerous programmes and spent millions, but there was no impact on youths.
“Sometimes we just syiok sendiri (feel good about ourselves). Having a crowd of youths attend a function does not mean it is successful.
“I want a report on the impact of each major programme to see if it is beneficial,” he told reporters after Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi launched Youth Day celebrations at Bukit Jalil stadium yesterday.
Ismail Sabri said it was important to take a new approach for youth programmes and get young people involved in the planning of their programmes.
“Young people are more creative so we have to allow them to come up with programmes they like - not what we like. Times have changed. We can’t force them to do things they do not want to,” he added.
Ismail Sabri also announced that from June, the Rakan Muda programme would be expanded to include another element, Rakan Cyber, in keeping with the digital age.
He said the ministry planned to set up youth cyber centres in every district because the Internet and blogs were how youths communicated with each other these days.
To counter negative and skewed blogs , he said, the ministry wanted to create blogs that gave accurate information to the young and allowed them space to debate and discuss issues.
On the Rakan Muda programme, he said so far only 200,000 of the nine million youths in the country were part of the programme and there was a need to engage youths even more.
Ismail Sabri also announced that from June, all registered youth organisations would get a grant of RM3,000 each to carry out their programmes.
He said some 4,000 registered youth organisations with the Registrar of Societies and another 50 registered with the ministry would be eligible for the grant.
In his speech, the Prime Minister applauded the enthusiasm and energy of Malaysian youths, and called on them to strive to be the best in all areas as they were the leaders of tomorrow.
He also gave out achievement awards.
K. Rasa Selvan, 39, who is actively involved in a number of Hindu youth organisations, was named Male Youth Personality while the Female Youth Personality award went to 36-year-old teacher Noor Lina Mohd Yusuf.

http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2008/5/16/nation/21272672&sec=nation