Social ills,not parents alone to blame

Political climate not parents alone to blame

Of late there has been lot of public discussion blaming parents for the increasing social ills in the country.

Definitely parents bear part of the blame, but our current social problems and increasing crime rate is largely due to the very materialistic and consumerist attitude of our society. Society now puts material wealth above everything else in classifying the social status of an individual.

Gone are the good old days when status in society was based on education, profession and contribution to society. A division one government officer was placed in high esteem even though they were paid a meager salary. Today the situation has changed, it is the material wealth that matters not the educational or professional status or good character.

This has created the need for the rapid pursuit of material wealth, often by unethical and sometimes by unscrupulous means. Moral values are totally irrelevant in this pursuit. In their quest for wealth, many parents have forgotten or neglected their roles to their children. It is sad to note that many of them do not know how to be parents, let alone be good parents.

Over the years, we witness a decline in moral values especially among the younger generation. Many have become rather selfish, rude and highly materialistic. There is disrespect for the elders, whose invaluable life experiences are brushed aside.

Can parents be solely blamed for improper development of their children? Can they be blamed for their quest for wealth? In today’s world, despite paying all forms of taxes, one has to pay a hefty sum for even basic essential services like health, education, housing and transport. These can go into hundreds of thousand of ringgit.How can one earn this amount of money without neglecting the family?

The main cause of this unfavorable situation is the misguided policy of rapid forced industrialization to achieve a developed status within a short time frame. In the enthusiasm of rapidly becoming a developed country, we started to privatize all our services, including the basic essential ones like health, education, housing and transport, thereby making the beyond the reach of the ordinary man on the street.

This has made it mandatory for parents to leave the children,uncared, to earn the money to provide the all important education, housing and health care for them. Unless the government can find ways to reduce the burden of the parents, children will continue to be neglected resulting in a further deterioration of ethics and morality. This does not augur well for the future on the nation.

Dr.Chris Anthony