When I was a teenager, I would dream that one day, I would get myself a good job, then settle down with a beautiful girl as my wife. In the meantime, I would be looking around for Miss Right. I was blessed with understanding parents who would consistently remind me of the responsibilities that I would have to shoulder in the event that I got married.

I remember clearly what my late father said to me: You cannot repay what we have done to you, however much money you would have.

Get yourself a wife, start a family, and that's how we want you to repay us. True enough, my father's wisdom has made us successful parents. Looking back all those years from the time I first started having a family, taking care of my children with the help of my (house)wife, seeing them grow up. It was not easy, but thank Allah the Almighty, we have made it. My salary doesn't permit us to live like the well to do family next door, but enough to see my children through universities.

Now they are themselves married, have their own families, and we as parents consistently remind them the importance of marriage as an institution that would determine the future of Brunei. Much has been said about the stable marriage is one key to providing responsible next generation.

However, as stated by Miskin, our youths get married, only to be divorced sooner or later, with children getting the brunts of the marriage failure. It seems that these youths are ready to jump onto this marriage bandwagon, physically, but not mentally. A number of them getting married at an early age, the reason being that they have steady jobs, but not the responsibilities. Some are lucky that they are living with their parents, and everything taken care of by their parents, such as on food, boarding, etc. It seems that the trend is for these young families to have cars with "full" accessories, such as hifi, sports rims with broad tyres, custom modifications, and so forth. So there goes the salaries, and not for their families. The advance of communication technologies means that it has to be fully utilised, so that mobile phones are a must. ICT a home is another asset where the wrong kind of exposure is readily available. Many argue that this shouldn't be happening, because Brunei practices MIB. Are we?

Look at those cases of youths caught by police loitering around after midnight. Look at the clothes they wear, and if they are Muslims, they should know what "aurat" means. These are just one or two cases where MIB is not happening. Where have the religious values gone? And talking about the next generation of Brunei, where are these youths heading? These youths attended religious schools before, and the assumption is that they know between right and wrong. Who is at

Are they all the time busy that they cannot sit down with their children, talk with them, listen to them, discuss with them, and try to materialize the meaning of quality family time? I don't have the answer, but for me, what my late father instilled in me works.

Comments (2)

Subscribe to this comment's feed

USA Career Institute
written by warrington , November 14, 2009

Crime scene investigation is one of the most challenging fields in today's job market get a degree and get a job check out http://bit.ly/3fyWG4

report abuse

vote down

vote up

Votes: +0

...
written by weapon , November 16, 2009

Please allow me to touch on the availability of ICT for wrong exposure. I think this is an unfair comment when paired with not conforming to MIB.

How can we hold ICT responsible for only the wrong exposure? Or for the matter of having the capacity of wrongful exposure?

Every one of us holds the weapon for possible illicit sexual behaviour. What do we do? We practise self control. We don't go around raping the kids down the block.

Internet has been around Brunei for at least 15 years and we did not see a marked increase of rape cases. So please don't simply suggest that.

report abuse

vote down

vote up

Votes: +1

Write comment

Name

Email

Title

Comment

smaller | bigger

Write the displayed characters

Add Comment