The social problems in Malaysia are getting worse to worst nowadays. We should be focusing on children and teenagers in Malaysia as the number of social problems is gradually increasing among them. A social problem is a condition that at least some people in a community view as being undesirable and morally wrong. Everyone would agree about some social problems, such as drug abuse and illegal racing. Other social problems may be viewed as such by certain groups of people.
Teenagers who play loud music in a public park obviously do not view it as a problem, but some other people may consider it an undesirable social condition. Some nonsmokers view smoking as an undesirable social condition that should be banned or restricted in public buildings. One of the most trending and serious social problems in Malaysia is baby dumping. Almost everyday there will be baby dumping cases reported in some states.Official statistic from Royal Malaysia Police(PDRM) shows from 2005 until June 2011,a total number of 472 baby dumping cases were reported in Malaysia which 258 were dead and 214 were still alive. An average of 100 babies are found each year.
They were left in rubbish bins,in the toilets and on the streets, prompting the government to consider treating cases as murder or attempted murder. Baby dumping is the acts of throw away the babies at any places without take care the babies.We can know about this because of this case appears almost every day in local newspapers, we can see that these cases are increasing from time to time. The baby dumping according to my understanding refers to discarding or leaving alone, for an extended period of time, a child younger than 12 months of age in a public or private setting with the intent to dispose of the child. We, as the future leader of our mother land should take all the necessary steps to solve this problem. It is our responsibility to produce the free-social-ills-next-generation because I believe that “Preventing is better than cure”.
From my view,I strongly feel that sexuality education should be implement in the school especially in secondary schools. This sexuality education should be aim to educate students about sexuality, abstaining from premarital sex, and the consequences of unsafe sex . Baby dumping is the results from unwanted pregnancy. To prevent baby dumping, it is therefore ultimately necessary to educate individuals about sexuality. I personally supports age-appropriate comprehensive sexuality education, and recommends that schools and communities provide comprehensive sexuality ducation to all youth and families. I have confidence that Malaysia has a first-world information infrastructure that could be readily exploited to educate the youth on reproductive and sexual health.
Eventhough former prime minister Mahathir Mohamad has said that sex education was unnecessary because students are already getting Islamic and moral education but it is better that we are working on a solution other than doing nothing when we come to heard about newborn babies found in garbage cans, which is a sad matter.I come to realize the essential need of sexuality education by the study conducted Fatimah Abdullah of the Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia shows that young women in their 20s, not just teenagers, abandon their babies, a fact that reflects the severe lack of knowledge about sexuality even among young adults. She also mentioned that most young mothers did not even know they were pregnant even after they stopped menstruating. Her research also showed that some girls could not even distinguish between their urethral and vaginal openings.Thus,from my opinion it is indeed true that we really need to be brave enough to try a new method as an alternative to curb baby dumping. The one thing that keep popping out from my mind to curb baby dumping is why not stop the stigma of having a wedlock baby in the society? If that kind of stigma is stop I am sure that somehow in the future we could hear the declining in number of baby that died or killed after being dumped.
I tend to believe that criminalizing abandonment will encourage someone, who is already in a terrible situation, to make a worse decision to hide the baby.In this case, a mother who gave birth to a wedlock child will have the thoughts on how to hide her baby from the society especially her family . Eventually she will have to kill her own baby to avoid herself from public humiliation. Thus it is essential for us to stop having the kind of mentalities that having a wedlock child is a disgrace. We as the society should remember that it is important to ensure the live being of the baby even if the baby is an illegitimate child because even Islamic jurisprudence or fiqh emphasizes on saving a baby’s life.Society should be considering ways to help unmarried mothers instead of punishing them.
The least thing that could be done is families and communities should strive to increase communication among youth. Increased communication may minimize the shame and secrecy associated with an unwanted pregnancy and make young people more likely to take advantage of supports and services in their families and communities. In my opinion,baby dumping is a serious threat to our community. There should be a ‘think out of the box’ solutions should be carry out to curb this social ill.
