Let's Kill Our Children

Every year, we lose our children on the road. Every year, we attend the funeral, express our deep condolence, and share the sadness in social media. We feel like losing some of them are acceptable, related to religious belief we have. It’s destiny. Let it be.

However, have we ever thought that we contribute to their ‘killing’? Have we ever thought that we somehow contribute to their fate? We let them ride motorbikes although we know that they do not have driver’s license. We buy them motorbike although we realize that it is against the law. We claim that it is for their own sake, to facilitate them, although it is actually an excuse to our weaknesses. 

Let’s say, we can not afford to give them more money to use public transport to school. We always say that motorbike spends less money than bus or taxi. By riding motorbike to school, we spend less than a dollar a day. On the other hand, taking bus or taxi spend more than a dollar a day. If we go to school by bus, we need to pay for the fare at least a quarter at once. Then we need to get motorcycle taxi to reach the school and it spends another quarter. So, to get to school and then get back home, a student spends at least a dollar. This calculation does not include the pocket money for lunch, which is our duty to support them with.

Excuse is excuse. More students living around the school ride motorbike to school although there is motorcycle taxi ready for them. How can they get the motorbike? Don’t their parents tell them about the law? Don’t teachers tell them that they are breaking the regulations? Who facilitate them with the motorbike? Where are the policemen? Have all lost our awareness?

Children are nation’s generation. They are the future of our nation. The power we have now will be taken by them someday. Therefore, let us not let them break the law. They are under seventeen and they do not have driver’s license. That is clear enough for us to stop them wandering about the street with the motorbike. Never facilitate them in riding motorbike on the street and to school. We need to draw something up now to reduce the law breaking done by students and it should involve school authority, parents, and the police department.

Malang, 27 August 2015