cara-bi-cara #05:-12/01/2000

The failure to act...

When it happens,whatever bad or catastrophic,everyone from the man on the street right up  to the prime minister/president/king will say that it should not have happened and followed up by a promise that it won't happen again.Now,it has become a cliche' that nobody believes it anymore.Whatever it is,it will happen when the time comes because we never learn to act. Mostly,it is our FAILURE TO ACT rather than our human ignorance.It may also be due to our arrogance;worst still if we blame on God for our own mistakes...

Most of us have short memory,including myself.Let's not go back very far-just five years in time.At the international level,what comes to my mind first is the ethnic cleansing in Bosnia. Thousands died and millions suffered.The ten of thousands who died and suffered in Turkey due to recent earthquakes and lately thousands of muslims were killed in Muluku in Indonesia.Close at home,we have to undergo financial and political turmoils,not to mention a few environmental disasters.It is very disheartening to list them in details...

Now,we are in the year 2000 and yet we still have flash floods in Petaling Jaya,Kuala Lumpur and badly managed solid waste(rubbish) all over Kota Bahru,Kelantan.To my embarrassement and dissappointment, my ten year old son called it Kotor Bahru...

During the last Hari Raya,I took the train back to my kampung-Pondok Beris,Bachok, Kelantan. It really shocked me,to the point of vomitting,looking  at the behaviour of our young people.The moral decay has not only affected the city like KL, but also has gone to the kampung.As everyone else,I close one eye and shut the other-but right in my stomach it is boiling HOT.The next change will be the moral disaster like the West.As they used to say,the writings are all over  the wall-most of us can read them,but everyone is waiting for someone to act.So nothing happens as usual.

But what can YOU and me do?Let's come to our personal life.There are a few things that we can do something about it.Just examine what we have been doing for last year.List them down and evaluate them one by one.We should discard the bad ones and continue with the good ones.However,we should explore somethings that we have not done but should be doing them.For those who are over 40's like me,we also should concentrate on what really matters to us,for time is not on our side.For muslims,we have to be prepared with adequate 'ibadah' for the life in the hereafter.

If we fail to act for ourselves,then it is a real personal tradegy of  our own lifetime.

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