INTRODUCTION

As the country’s economy advances and as our society becomes more affluent, courtesy, noble
values and ethics seem to be taking a back seat. One important aspect of the 11th Malaysia Plan that
should be addressed is enhancing social development based on noble values, which can help
strengthen human capabilities and the role of family institutions in achieving a balanced society. The
noble values, the good attitude had a lack practice among the youth of Malaysian as the negative
behaviour syndrome as reflected in problems like road bullying, breaking traffic rules, littering and
being disrespectful to the elderly has clearly proven that we are still far from being courteous and
polite. Let’s take a look of concept of youth and moral value first.

Youths are the engine room of societies. They are the drivers of any developmental trend and
activity in society and major determinants of the extent of growth and development in any given
society. Youths are usually very energetic and are always willing to go the extra mile if need be to
achieve what they believe in and hold on to. The Oxford Advanced Learner‟s Dictionary (2010)
defines youth as “the time of life when a person is young especially the time before a child becomes
an adult” .

Youths are usually referred to as young persons but judging from the above age brackets,
specific ages cannot be given for a person to be identified as a youth. In line with Mabogunje and
Obasanjo (1990) in Oyebamiji (2008), youths will be identified as young persons who manifest the
following behavioral characteristics:

 A strong desire to move up the ladder;

 A tendency to be idealistic as a result of the values passed into them at earlier ages by role
models in the society;

 An eagerness to live to this role models and

 Frequent frustrations and anxiety as this idealism confronts the cold realism of daily existence.

In addition, youths are very energetic, excessively ambitious young persons who desire to
change things or situations overnight; as quickly as possible and in the shortest possible time frame.
One of the behavioral characteristics stated above is that of a tendency to be idealistic. Youths are
actually very idealistic as they are taught right from childhood to value “unchanging” ideals such as

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justice, fairness and equality; brought up in a culture that promotes ideals and “idea of permanence”.
These ideals are taught them in form of moral values which they learn as they grow up.

We cannot begin to analyze what moral values are without first having an understanding of what
morality and moral education are. Morality is derived from the Latin word mores which means
“manners” or “morals”. In the words of Aminigo and Nwaokugha (2006); morality is “an accepted
code of human conduct in a society”. Morality entails “having laws that will regulate dealings of
men who can choose to abide by these laws because they know it is good sense to do so” (Uyanga
and Amingo; 2010). Being moral or being morally conscious means adopting standards or principles
to guide ones‟ actions and conduct in society. Moral education is a programme of study which
teaches the pupil about behaving in accordance with what is good while rejecting the bad. It is a
holistic approach to stimulate character building and moral development (Okoh; 2003). Moral
education should lead youths to develop from a stage of anomie; often characterized by pre-morality
to a stage where an individual is not forced to be moral and is personally convinced on standards that
ought to guide his/her conduct in society. Moral values are taught in moral education as certain
acceptable, valuable and cherished qualities that are worthwhile in developing a sound character.

Osaat (2004) in Ekpiwre (2008) defines values as “ things considered worthwhile, desirable,
right and good and thus craved for and applied on a daily basis to enhance existence by the people”.
Values determine people’s identity and cultural continuity. Moral values are essential values that
determine individuals perception of morality and moral consciousness in society. Moral values
include truthfulness, patience, obedience, honesty, integrity, hard work, responsibility, respect,
tolerance, loyalty, public spirit, freedom, respect for human life and dignity of persons. Others
include justice, fairness and equality. Moral values are taught to be imbibed by members of the
society to enhance character development and promote good moral upbringing and moral health in
individuals. As Amingo (2003) argues “moral health is manifested in individuals when a person
becomes capable of understanding the principles of moral conduct and is committed to behaving
morally in his dealings with others”. Principles of moral conduct can only be effectively understood
and practiced when moral values are strongly adhered to by individuals in a given society.

The first challenge is the family itself. The family institution could be the first victim of
economic progress, with children not getting enough attention and guidance from their parents who
are busy pursuing their careers, leading to the emergence of various social ills among our teenagers.
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When modernization and economic development take place, the time spending among family
member become less due to the parent spending most of time earning money. The family member
become less in communication, the parent will miss out a chance to see their children development
since they will send their children under daycare centre. So the responsibility to teach their children
are under other people, not the parent itself. In modern societies, there are least three major contexts
in which childhood socialization takes place: families, peer groups, and out-of-home contexts such
as school. Parenting variables have typically accounted for 20% to 50% of the variance in child
outcomes (Conger & Elder 1994, Reiss et al 1995). Parents must focus on the quality of family life
and take steps to instil in children basic moral values needed to build the foundations of a strong,
stable and cohesive society. Strong human values, along with strong families, are key to building a
peaceful and stable community which will lead to a strong and stable nation. The need for this has
never been greater. I believe that instilling good manners, moral and noble values should start at
home and kindergarten and reinforced in primary school. By the time children reach secondary
school, the values they have learned should be set in their mind.Busy schedules should not be an
excuse for parents not to inculcate basic moral values in their offspring. Children learn through
observation and imitation. As parents are usually the role models for their children, what parents
should do is to practise courtesy and noble values as part of their daily lives. That is why we need to
strengthen the family institution as the core of a healthy and stable society in the fight against social
and moral decay. The power of the family is much greater and more meaningful than the might of all
the enforcement agencies we can muster to tackle social problems.

Malaysian also have Ministry of Women, family and Community Development that responsible
in family institution. The Ministry have counselling & psychology department where the family
institution can refer too for any advice. Counselling programme for family institutions and the
promotion of noble values are in great need today. One of the effective ways to help children develop
their moral behaviour is teaching them by example as proposed by Fittro (1997). The family which is
the base structure of every society must begin to right their wrongs with regards to restructuring their
value systems because most youths learn from the elders in their families and if truly there has to be
a positive change in society, the family must play its role as the major primary agent of socialization
in the society. The parent should show a good behavior for the children to follow. How the child
behave will resemble their parent behavior.

The second challenge is globalization. Border less world may result in a foreign culture getting
into the country easily. The negative influence of foreign culture may easily get into a country and
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influence people, the younger generation in particular, can cause difficulties to inculcate the spirit of
being a good Malaysian among them. The younger generation now is complacent with the progress
of ICT technology, the development of which is supposed to be beneficial in order to improve the
application of the values and spirit among the younger generation. The impact of technology such as
the Internet with the ability of providing a world without boundaries has allowed foreign folktales to
conquer the Malaysian animation market and has made young Malaysians forget about their local
folktales that are so rich in moral values and ethics. Mukti and Hwa’s (2004) study revealed that
more children are now into western folktales such as Cinderella and Snow White compared to local
folktales like Si Tanggang, Bawang Putih Bawang Merah dan Mahsuri. Some of the foreign products
contain inappropriate content that is not suitable for the moral development of young Malaysians.
Alcohol and tobacco can be seen in many of the scene produced by the five gigantic companies of
Walt Disney Co, MGM/United Artists, Warner Brothers Studios, Universal Studios, and 20th
Century Fox (Adam O. Goldstein, Rachel A. Sobel et al. 1999). Without providing a clear message
of a scene’s plot, this can contribute to children’s initiation into smoking behaviour, as children are
still developing cognitively, and they cannot distinguish between good and bad behaviour shown by
the characters.

Education in virtual environment (EVE) technology is considered to be one of the most

powerful tools for enhancing the teaching and learning process. For example is Hikayat Land is the
Malaysian virtual folktale land that uses collaborative virtual environment technology (Second Life)
in order to enhance teaching and learning of moral values in an enjoyable way. It has been carefully
designed, based on the KANCIL Model. Learning of moral values through virtual environment
would help in increase a values and spirit of a good Malaysian if youth take the moral stories behind
what they see through the internet. As parent also, you should play a guider to the children to show
them what they should see or watch from the technology source since not all they watch will show
them a good example, some will show a violence act. Teacher also should play a role in classroom as
there is a part of learning where teacher will address what are the moral values behind the topic they
learned on that day.

The third challenge is mass media. Mass media nowadays a full with nonsense message. The
TV channel, the movies that showed in the television does not bring any good values for the viewer.
Most of the movie showed in the television showing about love life and it all about drama. Somehow
the movie like Si Tanggang, Bawang Merah Bawang Putih are rarely found where the viewer can
learn and get something precious behind the stories. Judging from the behaviour and attitude of a
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large number of Malaysians today, I have serious reservations about the effectiveness of our
on-going campaign to promote courtesy among the people and make it a way of life. On going
campaign about the values showing the values will give the awareness to the youth. The contents of
the mass media should be friendlier to users as well as publishing program that can generate the spirit
of a good Malaysian in a multi-ethnic society like Malaysia.

Nowadays, a newer media is categorized under electronic media which covers social websites
such as blogs, You-tube, Facebook, Twitter and usage of short messaging system (SMS). With the
existence of intermediate media (publishing media and electronic media), messages can be channel
towards a wide range of people. The distance between the sender and the receiver is no longer a
barrier because information can be channel and received from mass media in matter of seconds.

Social media is an important tool to keep families, relationships and friendships closer in this
digital age. However, courtesy and respect for others are thrown out the window when some
Malaysians behind the keyboard spread malicious remarks, derogatory statements, slander and
insults via social media. Having a campaign to promote courtesy and noble values (pic) is important
but what is even more essential is to put into practice in our daily life courtesy and the noble values
we are promoting. Leadership by example is essential for the success of the campaign. The civil
service, for example, should promote courtesy among counter staff dealing with the public. Basic
civilities and courtesies such as responding to calls and replying to letters from the public must be
practised by all those in authority. The success of any courtesy campaign must start from school
where courtesies and noble values must be taught. In this connection, Moral Education in school
should be reinforced to emphasize the importance of learning and practising the 36 noble values.

Other than that, mass media is an information network or web that is topped with speed of
changes in today‟s technology. Psychological media can be defined as searching for understanding
regarding how people see, interpret, use and respond through media. In applying it, psychological
media can identify its potential benefits and probable problems as well as increase building the
media. Learning psychological media exist as an academic and professional discipline due to social
and commercial demand to apply psychological theories and media impact research as well as media
technology which is growing well through the academic as well as non academic field. Psychology is
the fundamental to understand the effect towards individuals and integrated media technology group

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in our community. This field covers all angles of human experience-including thoughts and actions
influencing media in activities, events, theories and habits.

Youths are major determinants of the level of development in any society. Without youths, there
can be no sustenance of society as no society can be self-sustaining without its human components of
which the major workforce is the youths. Realizing this, young people ought to know their
importance and worth in society and begin to value themselves as purveyors of the fortune and
progress of any society. Youths must be committed to imbibing moral values and upholding them
through life as these values will shape the ways they think, speak and even act. Moral standards can
rise in contemporary societies if the zeal of youths brings about the restoration of moral values. To
uphold moral values, youths must be disciplined and resist immoral behaviour that will eventually
culminate in loss of moral compass. Youths can be the agents of change in their societies by
accepting to live by moral codes and become “lights in perceived darkness” to show the way forward
for nations to become truly prosperous, developed and functional.

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Oxford Advanced Learners Dictionary (2010). International Student‟s edition (8th ed). Oxford
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Reiss D, Hetherington EM, Plomin R, Howe GW, Simmens SJ, et al. 1995. Genetic questions

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Samsudin A. Rahim dan Latiffah Pawanteh (2009). Media Penetration and Cultural Identity Among
Young Adults in Malaysia. European Journal of Social Sciences. Volume 11.No 2.

United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. A Vision of Youth Ministry. Washington, DC:

USCCB Publishing, 1970.