I'd like to treat this letter writer to HI-T!

AZRUL MOHD KHALIB,
Malaysian HIV/AIDS News Update,
Kuala Lumpur

Was I happy to read the Leters to the Editor
page 28, NST Tuesdya March 6, 2007

>UKM SEX SURVEY

Time for leaders to face up to reality


I WAS amused by the reaction of Selangor Menteri Besar Datuk Seri Dr Mohd Khir Toyo to the results of Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia’s high-risk female youth profile.

His dismissal of the results (he was quoted as saying that the findings were lies and the study was rubbish), is symptomatic of how some politicians and policymakers have become ostriches, with their heads stuck in the sands of ignorance.

Despite this research (which the state government itself commissioned) being only one of many different studies over the years which have examined, among others, the issue of premarital sexual intercourse, his reaction indicates that he, like many others, continues to be blissfully unaware and dismissive of the many challenges faced by young Malaysian women and men in today’s society.

Our young people continue to be deprived of proper sexual reproductive health information needed to protect themselves. Sex education is often deemed "inappropriate, not necessary because we have religion, because it’s Western" and countless other excuses.

Not too long ago, a director-general of the Ministry of Education dismissed the need for this subject because he felt that our students didn’t have sex and so it was irrelevant to teach the topic.

The price we pay for this neglect is the increasingly vulnerable situations faced by young people. Early sexual activity is one. Sexual violence, such as gang rape, which seems to be on the rise, is another.

Even the current framework for sexual reproductive health education, which is soon to be implemented in the Malaysian education system, is, I believe, doomed to failure.

What has been proposed, instead of a single dedicated syllabus, is its integration into other subjects such as science, health and biology.

It is already hard to find one teacher for each school equipped with the necessary skills and the right attitude.

Try training several teachers of different subjects (who must overcome their own prejudices and inadequacies) and you can see that, in reality, the whole exercise will be "lost in translation".

Listening to our politicians and community leaders speak of the need for chastity belts, enforcement of women’s wear covering "areas of temptation" (like hair), and of why women are themselves to be blamed for sexual criminal acts such as rape, I am certainly not surprised that these people have a somewhat simplistic view of the perceived deterioration of values in Malaysian society.

Somehow, boys and men don’t appear very often, if at all, in this view. Rights and responsibilities in issues such as sex education involve both sexes.

The fact that a study was commissioned by the state government to examine only the behaviour of girls is indicative of the mentality that the perceived "deterioration of moral values" and the problems of society are one-sided affairs. The finger of blame is pointed at the targets of this study. Where are the boys in this picture?

I can assure the Selangor menteri besar that the results and analysis are very much true. If he had done his homework, the menteri besar would have discovered the findings of the Adolescent Sexual Reproductive Health 2003 report by the National Population and Family Development Board of Malaysia (LPPKN).

They indicate that the lack of knowledge of sexual reproductive health information among teenagers in Malaysia has resulted in 27 per cent of youth (boys and girls) having had premarital sex.

Young men have been found to be actively looking for sex workers for their first sexual experience, and individuals as young as nine have had sex. The Second National Health and Morbidity Study (1996) found that two per cent of 30,000 secondary school students from 708 schools surveyed have had sexual experience.

Another national study on the reproductive health of adolescents in Malaysia conducted by LPPKN in 1994 found that 20 per cent of young people had their first sexual intercourse at 15 and 18 years old.

Sexual activity among young men and women in Malaysia is a fact. However, our politicians are used to believing their own versions of reality. When they don’t like the results of the research, they change it and the perception of reality to suit their beliefs.

The report of the menteri besar ordering the UKM researcher to "correct" his findings is an example of this disappointing attitude.

More importantly, I was alarmed at the action taken in response to the announcement of the findings. The state government took upon itself the task of "verifying" the results of the research in an effort to prove the analysis wrong.

Government officers were reportedly ordered to contact the respondents of the study to determine whether or not they had sex.

This action represents a violation of research ethics and the confidentiality under which such studies are conducted.

________________________________________

DESI:

I wish there were more such letter writers in MSM (mainstream media, as defined by Howsy. Who is he? you ask. I would deem thee not among my fave readers! Anyway, surf to howsy.blogspot.com if you are interested in expanding thy mind so that it's not ubder-utilised, noit doing justice to God's unique gift to all of us Homo sapiens on earth. mGf writes a lot on academic and research studies as he's himself preparing to become a Dr. in London (I believe his word he's there pursuing Biology doctoral studies.)

Back to AZRUL, whereever you are, I offer thee a goblet of the bestA tehtarik in Seremban; just drop me a line if you head this way, a sort of 1970s Peyton Place made famous when some smartgas said the future Malaysian astronaut might be introducing the game of Batu Seremban (five-stones) in zero-gravity...

I congratulate Azrul for writing one of the most SENsible letters I have read in a long time in any local English dailies.

If I may add that he might not qualify to be a dentist, he surely qualifies to become a better Menteri Besar and truly make one state a truly developed nation status state. Now it's truly pseudo.

Most times letter writers to MSM are like gramophone record players mouthing inanities echo-ing His Master's Voice. In fact one particlar Sunday columnist's writHings make my hair stand on end, defying laws of gravity despite my CON BF making me a thoroughly energised Homo sapiens on my day of R&R&R sometimes spoiled by such sycophantic gesticulations.

Did I hear someone whisper you want name/s?
Okay-lah, track me down the Furong Maze and pay for tehtarik and nazi lemak for Desi and guest-of-honour AZrul.

Now, here's something to go with afternoon tea after thy siesta. I'm sure you read about a Doc's advice that a 30-minute pm snooze does wonders to thy health?

I just received a call from fella Blogger to join him/her for Hi-T which must take priority; so can I finish my joke/banter later, God willing.


________________________________________________________

WARNING: This is re-cycled stuff. The originator could be any of the med students at a local university once upon a time. If any ER feels the narrator need to be bungkus, seek him/her out there with the Iblis. The Truth as Mulder found out, is out there somewhere.

The foreign lecturer was not too pleased with the passive students' participation at a tutorial. Paused, posed a serious question.

If the foreigners were to come to Malaysia to shop around for "brains" to be transplanted by their citizens with deformed mental faculties, which place would they find suitable for the raw material?

The air was pregnant with discomfort. You can feel it. And silence. YTou can hear it.

After a pause that seemed eternity to the final-year medical students, the Anatomy lecturer offered his own solution to his own question. As is often done at severeal campuses in the country, it was rumoured, so that there would be a minimum pass-rate. The sponsors of scholarships demand it.

The lecturer continued: The shoppers would come to this campus. Among the students they would find some of the best brains for transplant.

You know Why?-- a question he did not expect any of his attentiove students to answer. Another pregnant pause.

Then one spunky lass from Seremban named Anakku Merdeka boldly stood up, announced loud and clear:

"Becuase some of the med students' brains here are so under-utilised!"

PS: I am sure students in the league of letter-writers like Azrul would be welcomed as Permanent Residents by many western countries plus Singapore. I don't know about some dentists and BN politicians. Oh, they might be shopped for their brains, for transfer.

PPS: On the way back from the Hi-T that turned into a dinner with a party comrade -- not a Blogger, I blindmanbluffed thee! -- What party, you there ask? That T-party-lah I told you I was adjourning to! the following came over the air-waves, courtsey of LITEFM.


The Rose

by Bette Midler



Some say love it is a river
that drowns the tender reed
Some say love it is a razer
that leaves your soul to blead

Some say love it is a hunger
an endless aching need
I say love it is a flower
and you it's only seed

It's the heart afraid of breaking
that never learns to dance
It's the dream afraid of waking
that never takes the chance
It's the one who won't be taken
who cannot seem to give
and the soul afraid of dying
that never learns to live

When the night has been too lonely
and the road has been too long
and you think that love is only
for the lucky and the strong
Just remember in the winter
far beneath the bitter snows
lies the seed
that with the sun's love
in the spring
becomes the rose


PPPS: DEsi has wished as he sang along that he had been the poetsy composer.
But when one couldn't compose, one can Paste&Copy to share, yes? Just like one caring Malaysian Azrul shares. Like The Rose.