THE nation failed to curb the mat rempit menace. And now we have basikal lajak. The knee jerk response is that this again is because of a lack of parental guidance.
Teachers have failed. Parents are failing. But those in power to steer the social development of values have not failed.
In our maddening dash to develop, we have left the country devoid of social values that can nurture and groom our young.
We took away sports fields, playgrounds and the patches of easily reachable adventure terrain.
So where do these young release their boundless energy? The tarred street outside their homes becomes the only playground.
In a nutshell our political economic engineering these past six decades is the root cause of the mat rempit and basikal lajak phenomena. And this is not going to make our nation a great place on the map of developed nation status.
So can our policymakers stop their grandiose plans and get back to the drawing boards to create a balanced nation development?
You can if political power grabbing, rent seeking, wealth hoarding are bled out of the socio-economic system.
Return the playing fields; give back the rivers and mini-forests and nature’s abundance to the young to go explore, release their pent-up energies and get disciplined.
Return to the young the joy of learning and growing up.
When we stop robbing the young of their time and space to grow up, we would be free of the many social ills facing us.
J. D. Lovrenciear
