Coping strategy on social ills needed
Monday, December 10, 2007
IS THERE anything that Brunei Darussalam doesn't have when it comes to the challenges of social ills? Drug abuse, alcoholism, sexually-transmitted diseases, unwanted teen pregnancy, HIV and Aids, even incest cases Though may be in a much lower level than that found in other countries, both Islamic and non-Islamic states, they are there nevertheless. In fact, statistically, our lower figures of vices may in fact be bigger in ratio than that found in other countries. All serve as reminders that something very wrong is taking place, threatening the fabric of the social life as we know is promoted by Islam.
"The Bruneian society is veering further away from Islam," one scholar noted recently when asked for an assessment of the greatest challenges facing the abode of peace these days. "This happens especially among the young Muslim below the age of 25," she said. "There are children and their parents who do not know how to read the Quran, for instance. Our children are taught they should say their salat but at home their parents do not practice it."
The scholar named the Internet and TV as the culprit that disseminates values that contradict Islam, and desensitises the Muslim society toward violations. But when asked about what preventive measures, as well as coping mechanism, are being implemented to guard the society from further destruction caused by the social ills, the scholar was able to name attempts that can be only described as "half-baked."
The Islamic Da'wah Centre, for instance, is said to hold courses for people about to get married for three days. Imagine having to prepare for one of the most serious tasks of a person's life, namely to become a wife and a husband and future parents, for which one will be held accountable in the hereafter, for only three days! Meanwhile, the messages that destroy the sanctity of family and marriage life (sent through movies, TV programmes, reading material) flood one's mind to a point of brainwashing day in, day out, for years and years.
There have been attempts by Universiti Brunei Darussalam to introduce longer "courses on life" such as pre-marital counselling and parenting skills, lasting up to six months, but they flopped or never even took off the ground.
Most Bruneians learn parenting skills from the way their parents brought them up, certainly not enough given the current onslaught of destructive messages delivered by various media. "There are parents who may care about whether the children succeed in the future ( i.e. getting high-paying jobs) but not about whether they will succeed in the hereafter," the scholar said.
Further, they deal with social ills in ways that remind us of how fire-extinguishers work — we create rehabilitation centres for drug abusers, for instance, but pay less attention to efforts to prevent the problems from occurring in the first place. Take, for example, the bad habit of hosting lavish wedding parties. This has often forced young Muslims to wait for years before they are finally able to afford to get married. Hence the under-reported the cases of khalwat and even children being born out of wedlock that we hear of from time to time.
The most important conclusion that we can derive from the scholar's assessment, however, is this: we need a large-scale, even national-scale, strategy on how Bruneians should deal with the threats of social ills. No piecemeal or fragmented, half-hearted approaches, please.
We need an understanding about what how to build a family, which is the smallest unit a Muslim society, and how to protect its sanctity. More importantly, because Islam tells us that the most fundamental job requirement of being a parent is to save one's self and one's family from the hellfire, we need an understanding about the dangers facing our society and how to deal with them. We need an Islamic approach throughout all of our life stages, not only when we are about to get married or when our children are turning into teenagers.
"The Bruneian society is veering further away from Islam," one scholar noted recently when asked for an assessment of the greatest challenges facing the abode of peace these days. "This happens especially among the young Muslim below the age of 25," she said. "There are children and their parents who do not know how to read the Quran, for instance. Our children are taught they should say their salat but at home their parents do not practice it."
The scholar named the Internet and TV as the culprit that disseminates values that contradict Islam, and desensitises the Muslim society toward violations. But when asked about what preventive measures, as well as coping mechanism, are being implemented to guard the society from further destruction caused by the social ills, the scholar was able to name attempts that can be only described as "half-baked."
The Islamic Da'wah Centre, for instance, is said to hold courses for people about to get married for three days. Imagine having to prepare for one of the most serious tasks of a person's life, namely to become a wife and a husband and future parents, for which one will be held accountable in the hereafter, for only three days! Meanwhile, the messages that destroy the sanctity of family and marriage life (sent through movies, TV programmes, reading material) flood one's mind to a point of brainwashing day in, day out, for years and years.
There have been attempts by Universiti Brunei Darussalam to introduce longer "courses on life" such as pre-marital counselling and parenting skills, lasting up to six months, but they flopped or never even took off the ground.
Most Bruneians learn parenting skills from the way their parents brought them up, certainly not enough given the current onslaught of destructive messages delivered by various media. "There are parents who may care about whether the children succeed in the future ( i.e. getting high-paying jobs) but not about whether they will succeed in the hereafter," the scholar said.
Further, they deal with social ills in ways that remind us of how fire-extinguishers work — we create rehabilitation centres for drug abusers, for instance, but pay less attention to efforts to prevent the problems from occurring in the first place. Take, for example, the bad habit of hosting lavish wedding parties. This has often forced young Muslims to wait for years before they are finally able to afford to get married. Hence the under-reported the cases of khalwat and even children being born out of wedlock that we hear of from time to time.
The most important conclusion that we can derive from the scholar's assessment, however, is this: we need a large-scale, even national-scale, strategy on how Bruneians should deal with the threats of social ills. No piecemeal or fragmented, half-hearted approaches, please.
We need an understanding about what how to build a family, which is the smallest unit a Muslim society, and how to protect its sanctity. More importantly, because Islam tells us that the most fundamental job requirement of being a parent is to save one's self and one's family from the hellfire, we need an understanding about the dangers facing our society and how to deal with them. We need an Islamic approach throughout all of our life stages, not only when we are about to get married or when our children are turning into teenagers.
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