Once again a Pakatan ruled state is in the limelight for the wrong reasons. This time the focus is on a row that has erupted between 2 component parties within Selangor’s ruling coalition over a proposal by PAS to ban the sale of alcohol in the state. At least, that’s how the media has generally portrayed it.
What I was eventually made to understand was that the proposal was to restrict the sale of alcohol beverages (ie. removing it from the shelves of sundry shops/grocers, and convenience stores) and improve the enforcement of the ban on alcohol sale to minors as well as Muslims.
To be honest, I was really irked by the way the whole affair has developed. Are we really that polarised that even a matter like this has to degenerate into an affair where lines are drawn between the different ethnic and creedal communities?
I am pretty much a believer in the creed of caveat emptor. We have allowed the state to “protect” us so much that it borders on the absurd. Imagine an MP getting a visit from a constituent seeking the former’s help in counselling the latter’s domestic worker because she tends to wake up late in the morning!?
Back to the alcohol issue – I believe the dangers of alcohol abuse is quite well documented. The social, health and economic costs of such abuse is evident in our society. So what ought to be addressed is, perhaps, not the sale of alcohol itself but the public health perspective of this matter. I am sure that even PAS and DAP can find common ground there and work on a joint proposal.
A lot that ought to be done to tackle this issue has not even been mentioned. Here are some possible pro-active and more positive approaches that perhaps can be considered:
- Public Education Campaigns On Substance Abuse
Yep .. ethanol IS a form of narcotic. Incidentally, so is nicotine. As a smoker and an occasional imbiber of alcoholic beverages (mainly during Holy Communion nowadays) myself, I can attest to the fact that it is way easier and much more socially acceptable to drink in public than it is to smoke in public .. go figure. - Positive Campaigning To Encourage Responsible Alcohol Use
One model, albeit somewhat controversial, would be the one advocated by the organisation Choose Responsibility - Formalised Training of Community Health Workers To Address The Issue of Substance Abuse
The state can organise formal vocational training for community workers and volunteers to engage these issues. Programmes and curriculums do exist (more on this below) - Encouraging The Establishment Of Alcohol Rehabilitation and Drug Detoxification Centres
The state and the private sector can cooperate in the establishment of more centres that provide alcohol rehabilitation programmes to complement existing social services and help contribute to the local economy as well - Enforce Penalties Against Sellers Who Do Not Verify The Age Of Buyers
This really ought to go without saying and does not need any legislative changes. The laws on this already exist. Go enforce it already!
All of the measures above (I’m sure many others can think of more) would probably do much more in addressing the real problem that is alcohol abuse instead of criminalising and marginalising the victims. I doubt that removing alcohol from the shelves will work. It might even backfire and encourage criminal activity instead (does Al Capone and the Prohibition era ring any bells?). The people who are proposing and opposing such measures should consider – are they really interested in helping deal with a social problem or do they just want to punish offenders (or on the flip side, let them get away scot free).
Vocational training programmes in social care and community services usually engages community health issues like mental health, alcohol abuse, drug abuse, child abuse etc. That is true both in the United Kingdom as well as Australia (do a search in the NTIS database for syllabus and programme details) where our vocational training system is modelled after.
Maybe its time the Department of Skills Development (or the state counterpart if federal cooperation is not forthcoming) start including these sectors into the National Occupational Skills Standard (the whole social services sector and many more are totally missing from our NOSS!?) and embark on a campaign to train civil society and NGO workers. This might even be a good opportunity to retrain workers in these sectors as more jobs get lost with the ongoing recession (substance abuse and economic hardship does have a verifiable co-relation).
Pakatan ruled states have a wonderful opportunity to model a different way of doing things right now! It might actually be a good idea to get a few problems solved rather than creating new ones.
Originally published in bobjots : redux. Edited and republished with permission
December 3rd, 2008 at 5:55 am
The trouble is, far too many proposals and decisions made by our politicians are for political mileage and not to accomplish anything really beneficial to the people they have sworn to serve.
One can say that PR politicians should be doing better than the BN ones in this respect. But the entire question of properly serving the people is unfamiliar ground. For one thing, as the writer of this article rightly pointed out, the people have got into the habit of expecting help over some really ridiculous issues. For another, our political culture is one of posturing and fishing for votes.
For 50 years, a political culture has been cultivated where the elected representatives are only expected to look after trivial things like blocked drains and overgrown vacant lots. And to make this “looking after” business a media circus. Members of the press have also been trained to seek out and report such trivial matters and not critically examine the real issues.
Our elected BN representatives have no experience with participating intelligently in debates on legislative matters. They can only vote in agreement to whatever proposal is on the table. And the opposition reps have got into the habit of causing a ruckus because nothing else they do is effective.
9 Months is hardly enough to develop a corps of intelligent and articulate elected reps, whether in Parliament or in the State Assemblies. The baby is just learning to walk. Lim Guan Eng’s team in Penang has probably been the most successful, although he too was initially guilty of some serious faux pas.
PAS, on the other hand, is struggling with schizophrenia – the result of two competing philosophical heritages. And whenever there is internal dissension, politicians seem too want to outdo each other with foolish statements. Ditto for PKR, although many of the multiple personalities seem to have died out, leaving just a few, the three most prominent being Anwar worshipers, those ex-UMNO but still UMNO in the heart and those who really should be in PAS.
Those sensible leaders in PR have a huge task ahead of them. HRH the Sultan of Selangor has given some excellent advice about what our politicians should prioritise. Let us pray that we don’t have to wait for too long for a better breed of politicians to be cultivated.
December 4th, 2008 at 1:12 am
I have to wonder though .. can civil society and the Church take the lead in this areas as well. We can pretend it doesn’t exist or get all moralistic about it. Neither is going to solve the real issue .. families broken up by alcohol and drug abuse, people’s health destroyed, recovering addicts unable to fit back into society due to prejudice, et al.
December 5th, 2008 at 8:12 am
Bob, you have the right of it. Instead of pondering moral or philosophical aspects, we should look at how we can help.
Broadly, there are two categories of substance abusers – the educated and wealthy who indulge as a lifestyle and become addicted, and the poor or uneducated who resort to substance abuse as an escape. Of course, there are many sub-classes, but this response is not about that. It’s about how we can help.
The rich and educated… who can help them? Unless a person is able to recognise that he has a problem, all the good intentions will be to no avail. But for what it is worth, counseling can be offered. Friendship even, if that is what they need.
But our focus should be those whose lifestyle is rooted in the drudgery of eking out an existence and numbing the mind in order to escape the cares of life. The first line of attack is education. It may be too late for many of the adults but the children can be saved, if they can understand the dangers of substance abuse. While the church and civil society can do much, their reach does not extend far enough. Our education system has to recognise that Moral Education is more about lifestyle education and less about passing exams.
However, no matter how good the education is, if there is no escape from the social environment, lifestyle habits will be hard to break. This is the real challenge. What can we do to help people pull themselves out of the quagmires their families are stuck in? I honestly have no answers.
I can only think one possible solution that can attack part of the problem – very low-cost supervised hostels for students so that they can live away from the constraints and bad influences of a poor home environment. These hostels need to be sponsored, staffed… deserving residents need to be selected and screened. A challenging task.
This can be followed through with low-cost accommodation for young working adults, again enabling them to escape the negative effects of home without burning a large hole in their pockets. The logistical challenges are similar.
My ideas may be totally unworkable. But hopefully they are a start, and better ideas will come in.