Rights or responsibilities??

Well, today I heard something one of my classmates said and it got me thinking. The student was late to school and the teacher asked him why he was late. And his reply was “I couldn’t get up in time”. The teacher very gently advised him not to repeat it and in a very irritated tone he said “This is a free democratic country and I have the ultimate RIGHT to do whatever I want”
There were two things which caught my attention. The 1^st thing was the way he talked to the teacher and the next thing was his attitude. If the youth of the nation who will be the adults of tomorrow feels that since it is a democratic country and they could do “whatever they wish”, our country is surely in for a lot of trouble! Maybe they are also learning from the big picture where the adults are also demonstrating a similar mind-set.

What we see in our society today is totally disagreeable. Right from the top of the hierarchy to the very lowest level, we see people blaming each other. The administrative authorities of the government are blaming the law makers and they say that the problems are in the implementation stage. However, what I feel is that it is futile to find out who is to be blamed. What we need to do today is start taking responsibilities. It doesn’t matter whether the cause of the issues in our society is due to the dictatorship of the last president or whether the current government’s policies are responsible for it. What counts is the solution. Every individual needs to start thinking one step ahead and ask themselves what they could do to contribute to the betterment of the situation as an individual citizen. We all need to be more responsible and respect each other’s rights. If the individuals are responsible for their actions, there would be no rape cases or gang fights at all!

As a young mind growing up in a society filled with crimes and social issues I personally feel really concerned about what kind of future we would have. Today, even the students could only see that they have the right to education so they are just using their right to fill in their time. And unfortunately they fail to realize that they have a huge responsibility to utilize the right in the best possible way.  If not, what is the point of government spending such a huge amount on education??? This is something all the Maldivian students truly need to consider: it doesn’t matter what is happening in the rest of the society. Our business today is to study and serve our nation tomorrow… Even if it is a free country, respecting the teachers and elders is our RESPONSIBILITY.