Tuesday, June 17, 2008
FROM time to time we come across media reports that seek to convince us that the society is changing and not always for the better. In March this year, a special forum discussing the challenges facing the nation in shaping the nation's youth revealed that the sultanate is facing many social ills.
Datin Hjh Adina Othman, the Director of Community Development, Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sports, said in the forum there were four main reasons that led youths to be easily engaged in inappropriate activities, including a lack of spriritual strength, unstable family institutions, challenges from their environment and economic problems. The main social ills that youths tend to be involved in were free sex, drug abuse and domestic violence. She said that the highest number of babies born was in 2003, in which a total of 626 babies were borne by youths under the age of 19 years. Out of these alarming numbers, 302 were born outside of wedlock. By 2006, this number decreased to 138 births. She stressed out that despite the statistics showing a decrease, the number is still considered high and things need to be done to prevent it from increasing again.
Meanwhile, divorce rate for young couples (below the age of 30) had shown an increase of 40 per cent from 2002 until last year. "The issue is the multiplier effect that will be experienced by these children," she said, adding that most children (74 per cent) who are currently under the care of welfare homes came from broken families.
Alarming indeed, but according to at least one study, the actual figures of children being born out of wedlock could be much higher. Siti Zaliha binti Haji Salim, Deputy Dean of Faculty of Syariah and Law, Islamic University of Sultan Sharif Ali (Unissa), told a seminar in Indonesia's Pontianak city in 2006 that in 2000, a total of 500 children were born out of wedlock; the number increased to 501 in 2001, decreased in 2002 to 488, rose again to a whopping 880 in 2003, and dipped slightly to 830 in 2004. Overall, however, a total of 3,199 children were born out of wedlock within five years! Interestingly, however, according to the Syariah Court, the total number of illicit sex crime cases reached 123 in 2000, 144 cases in 2001 and 142 cases in 2002. The figure shows, she argued, that only a small portion of those violations was processed in court.
Zaliha also studied the history of the incorporation of syariah into the local legislations initiated in the 15th century by Sultan Syarif Ali, and continued by the succeeding rulers. This "Islamisation" process took a long time, indeed, but still the end result was not the real Islamic laws, she said. "It's actually an experiment to implement the syariah law and traditional laws become a part of it," she said.
Amongst the reasons for this situation, she argued, was the watering down of the Islamic laws implementation during the British era, confining the scope of the syarak implementation only to areas related to personal worship and family laws. "The arrival of the British and its intervention into the administration narrowed down the scope (of Islamic law implementation)..."
She cited the enactment of the so-called "Muhammadan Laws" in 1911 as well as the incorporation of some foreign laws from Malaya, Singapore and Sarawak into the local laws as part of the drive to reduce the scope of the Islamic law implementation in Brunei Darussalam. She noted the alarming increase of syariah criminal cases, especially illicit sex cases, and attributed it to the inadequacy of the laws being implemented today — as the result of the watering down of the Islamic laws here.
Certainly this is only one study and more studies should be conducted to assess the situation better; nevertheless, it deserves to be turned into food for thought today.
Datin Hjh Adina Othman, the Director of Community Development, Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sports, said in the forum there were four main reasons that led youths to be easily engaged in inappropriate activities, including a lack of spriritual strength, unstable family institutions, challenges from their environment and economic problems. The main social ills that youths tend to be involved in were free sex, drug abuse and domestic violence. She said that the highest number of babies born was in 2003, in which a total of 626 babies were borne by youths under the age of 19 years. Out of these alarming numbers, 302 were born outside of wedlock. By 2006, this number decreased to 138 births. She stressed out that despite the statistics showing a decrease, the number is still considered high and things need to be done to prevent it from increasing again.
Meanwhile, divorce rate for young couples (below the age of 30) had shown an increase of 40 per cent from 2002 until last year. "The issue is the multiplier effect that will be experienced by these children," she said, adding that most children (74 per cent) who are currently under the care of welfare homes came from broken families.
Alarming indeed, but according to at least one study, the actual figures of children being born out of wedlock could be much higher. Siti Zaliha binti Haji Salim, Deputy Dean of Faculty of Syariah and Law, Islamic University of Sultan Sharif Ali (Unissa), told a seminar in Indonesia's Pontianak city in 2006 that in 2000, a total of 500 children were born out of wedlock; the number increased to 501 in 2001, decreased in 2002 to 488, rose again to a whopping 880 in 2003, and dipped slightly to 830 in 2004. Overall, however, a total of 3,199 children were born out of wedlock within five years! Interestingly, however, according to the Syariah Court, the total number of illicit sex crime cases reached 123 in 2000, 144 cases in 2001 and 142 cases in 2002. The figure shows, she argued, that only a small portion of those violations was processed in court.
Zaliha also studied the history of the incorporation of syariah into the local legislations initiated in the 15th century by Sultan Syarif Ali, and continued by the succeeding rulers. This "Islamisation" process took a long time, indeed, but still the end result was not the real Islamic laws, she said. "It's actually an experiment to implement the syariah law and traditional laws become a part of it," she said.
Amongst the reasons for this situation, she argued, was the watering down of the Islamic laws implementation during the British era, confining the scope of the syarak implementation only to areas related to personal worship and family laws. "The arrival of the British and its intervention into the administration narrowed down the scope (of Islamic law implementation)..."
She cited the enactment of the so-called "Muhammadan Laws" in 1911 as well as the incorporation of some foreign laws from Malaya, Singapore and Sarawak into the local laws as part of the drive to reduce the scope of the Islamic law implementation in Brunei Darussalam. She noted the alarming increase of syariah criminal cases, especially illicit sex cases, and attributed it to the inadequacy of the laws being implemented today — as the result of the watering down of the Islamic laws here.
Certainly this is only one study and more studies should be conducted to assess the situation better; nevertheless, it deserves to be turned into food for thought today.