Assistant Minister of Tourism and Youth Hamden Ahmad said if youth were consulted and guided, they could make great contributions to society. "Community leaders as well as parents have to play a role in supporting the youth today to find their place in society," he said when officiating at the Intercultural Youth Forum at Camp Pueh last Saturday. Hamden said the future success of the state's confluence of cultures rested with the younger generation. "Already we are competing with so many other cultures emerging from across the globe. We must ensure that they (youth) are well equipped to continue our cultural legacy. It is important for them to find and form their own identity. "Usually they seek peer guidance and views, as well as their parents' views - This is where culture plays an important role to shape their perception on the society and the world as a whole," he said. Hamden pointed out that when the youth had strong cultural foundation, they would be assured of who they were, and they would be able to withstand the challenges in schools. "The challenges would include those from peer pressure, study pressure, and parental pressure," he added. Meanwhile, the symposium organising committee chairman Datu Abdul Ghafur Shariff said the aim of the forum was to get youth to share their thoughts on their view of multi cultural issues. "It also wants to engage them in intercultural bonding and to achieve the confluence among young people," he added. Ghafur said youth would be the leaders of tomorrow and wanted Sarawak to continue to maintain and sustain the unity and harmony among the multicultural communities in the state. "This forum also hopes to get youth to play a proactive role in shaping the direction of thoughts and programmes on local cultures. "Ultimately, they themselves will be the movers and shakers in determining activities and programs that would enhance the appreciation of the state multi cultures not only fortoday, but for the generations to come," he said. Ghafur, also the Deputy State Secretary, expect that the outcome of the forum would be the collated discussion on the strategies for greater intercultural bonding among youth, which would be presented during the Fifth Sarawak Cultural Symposium to take place on June 17 and 18 at Dewan Undangan Negeri. "One participant will be selected from the forum to represent the youth gathered here today to share with the symposium delegates youth's on perspective on confluence of cultures," he said. Also present were Sarawak Development Institute CEO Datu Aloysius J Dris, and permanent secretary to the Ministry of Social Development and Urbanisation Ik Pahon Joyik.