WHY MOST YOUNG PEOPLE BREAK THE LAW AND ETHICS

Crime is around us. We should be concerned at the number of crime happening now adays. We should be shocked that some or most? Of the criminals are young people. The chief of central java police department said that most of 5000 “preman” villains rouges in central java are young people. Young people should be known as the backbone of this country. Young criminals are just small part of the whole. However, their behavior causes concern because it could influence others.

A few years ago we were shocked reading a crime story. A young student of “pesantren” conspired with the wife of the leader of the pesantren.¹ He killed the chief and buried him in the leader’s room. He told the other students that the leader was meditating. It was two years before the murder was discovered. The motivaton was sex (the student and the leader’s wife were in love) and wealth. We were also always shocked reading about the rapes of teenagers from newspapers or watching televisions. The rapists admitted that they did it after watching a pornographic film or books. A fight between students of two different high school also always happens in Jakarta and other towns. A son who burns their parents for their parents reject the son’s demands, such as money, motorcycles etc.

These are just a few examples. However, they show us how young people can do anything to get what they want. They are not afraid of breaking the law and ethics. In fact they are not afraid of killing people. In some cases, they even killed members of their own family.

Now, the questions are: Why did they do that? What made them brave enough to break the law and ethics? Why did they kill members of their own family?

There are many factors that have influenced them. Some say that cultural shock happens when someone goes to another country. However, people living in their own country can also experience cultural shock. In this case, everything can be transferred easily, including culture. Televisions series or movies are examples of how culture is transferred. The movie often show or teach-how to solve problems by killing, bombing, slaughtering and so on. In some action films depicting mob life, a man heartlessly kills his own family just to get what he wants: power, women and wealth. Movies or films also strongly influence young people to have sex.²

Another factor is the lack of parental attention. We live a business age where most working parents put their careers above everything. A few of them have one day (Sunday) to stay at home with their family. Most of them, do not event have a single day to be with their families. They think money can take the place of attention. They give their children as much as money as the children need. It makes it easier to get pornograpnic leaser-disc cassettes or books. The next factor is unstable character of the young people themselves. They are easily influenced. The “pesantren” case shows this. Prestige is also another factor. Young people want to be the best of everything. So, they easily disregard the others’ rights.

The factors above are related. If we want to avoid breaking the law and ethics, we mustn’t lost sight of them. All the factors above are nothing if we belive that breaking the law or ethics are bad and sinful. There are some ways to prevent us from doing the evil actions. We must belive that god never sleeps. God is always watching us. He will punish us at the judgment day with punishment that is endless. Besides performing the pious ones, we are also hoped to be more creative in this life, such as: joining the English conversation club, sport club, handicraft or home-industry training etc.

We are the backbone of this country. We do not want to let our ancestors down. We cannot let them cry in heaven seeing the country they struggled for shattered because of our recklessness. We all belive we can do that.³

¹ “Pesantren” is islamic school (islamic boarding school) of koranic studies for children and young people, most of whom are boarders. Jhon. M. Echols And Hassan Shadily, An Indonesia –English Dictionry (Jakarta: PT. Gramedia, 2002), P. 425.

² According to the data (1995) collected by a Diponegoro University lecturer and his team said that 6% of junior high school students in Surakarta have had sex. Some confessed that they have sex with different partners. Many reasons cause this, some say that they had sed for money-need, desire, pleasure, pornographic films etc. Further see, Agung, Hello Magazine (Semarang: YWNB, 1995), p. 10-11.

³ Ibid.

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