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Mats Boleh! Part 2
Bitched on: Thursday, February 02, 2006
Time: 2/02/2006 01:36:00 PM
Time: 2/02/2006 01:36:00 PM
Halo again, before you continue reading this entry, I suggest you read Part 1 first.
continued...
I heard this joke from a cheena good friend of mine,
What do Superman, Garfield and a smart Malay have in
common?
Ans: They are all fictitious characters...
Got the joke, I sure did... (but I can never get the row row your boat to dayung sampan joke, I mean that's a Peranakan song. Now, who has the last laugh huh?)
Anyway, back to the topic, I found one of the fictitious characters while I was surfing the net.
The smart Malay one. From what I gathered snooping in his blog, he was from RI, have loads of scholarships, Chinese-Malay mix (oh... that explains it!) and served as a 3rd Sergeant in the Army (let's call him Libertas). If you do want to read more intelligent arguments about the Malay dilemma and situations we are facing, I strongly recommend his blog entries (though bombastic they are)! Mine are just shallow and tongue-in-cheek. haha...
Libertas had written about the divorce rates among Malays in Singapore and the possible reasons as to why. Also, he mentioned something which is closer to home, early teen marriages and unwanted pregnancies (you put them together and you have 'shotgun marriages'.. Tadah...*applause)
One of my relative faced that situation. And guess what...(*drumrolls) he got a divorce 3 years after the marriage. And he is my age! 21! This is no laughing matter, cause the couple have a child who has to bear the brunt of a shattered home (what is more worrying is that, researchers found out that the problems with juvenile delinquents may have stemmed from broken families). hmm... And the cycle continues...
These unwanted (unplanned, I say) pregnancies stem from teenage premarital sex. Why can this problem still arise within our Malay (Muslim) community? Considering the way Islamic law punishes illicit sexual relations. Our Qur'an clearly spells out the related law;
" The woman and the man guilty of unlawful sex (adultery or fornication), flog each of them with a hundred stripes; let not compassion move you in their case in a matter prescribed by Allah if ye believe in Allah and the Last day; and let a party of the believers witness their punishment ". (24:2)
Of course these punishments are no longer relevant in our modern country (who cares rite?... rite...just wait till you die and go to hell).
Then why are teens tempted to taste this forbidden fruit?
"For youth who are sheltered by their parents from any significant contact
with the opposite sex, a chance encounter can result in a total loss of moral
judgment," said one person.
So true. Especially among Malay families in Singapore. (more on Muslim Youth and Sex) Other reasons (given by Libertas) include parents who marry off the children of the (often large) family "would lessen the burden on the parents economically and emotionally".
My cousin was my age when he got married. That was barely 2 years ago and he now has a 1 year old baby and his wife is heavily pregnant with another.
Also I had men from 3 Guards who are married with kids in tow and barely earning S$300 a month.
Libertas wrote,
"Sometimes I find it hard to fathom why some Malays marry at such an early age, not knowing what it entails being married to another and staring a family. I simply cannot imagine why they would want to get married when their incomes are still relatively unstable, or that they don't even have a home to begin with, or a tentative plan for the future for their family."
Exactly...
To make matters worst, this cousin of mine owns a car! (what? where the hell did he get the money from?) Another problem us Malays are facing are financial problems stemming from our spendthrift ways.
(look at me for example... haha)
"...is it a result of the attitudinal 'carpe diem' mentality of the Malay, to kais pagi makan pagi, kais petang makan petang, which gives no thought to their financial future? ...
With the emergence of the New Poor, fueled by the various 'buy now pay
later' schemes, Malays seem to have formed the bulk of this new social
grouping, leading purely hedonistic materialistic lifestyles of Plasma
screen televisions and room-to-toom air conditioning with a big fat zero in their bank accounts."
Again... spot on...
Wait I am not done yet...Wanna hear more? Tune in to Part 3...
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