Some Students Waste Time Politicising Issues

The writer believes that a beautiful camaraderie
 makes life a wonderful journey.

It is obvious that people are, of late, obsessed with sharing false information on social media as well as pointing fingers every time issues are raised. What makes an issue become harder to solve is when people politicise it. 

Some people are careful when discussing political issues as their actions and opinions may put them in trouble, but others find it interesting to play the political card.

We need to realise that not everything is about politics. Issues on environment, economy, education, race, religion, health, security or crime, should not be made worse by insensitive individuals who assume that politics is the root cause of the problems.

Politicising issues is a social ill and it can become a cultural habit if nothing is done. With children and teenagers becoming involved in juvenile cases, it is feared that these schoolchildren are influenced and infatuated with politicising issues. Without parental supervision, these children may misuse the Internet. While connecting with their peers, or perhaps, strangers, they discuss political issues, mix other issues with politics and share immature and irrelevant opinions, forgetting their homework and revision.

In school, they lose focus and interest in studies, as they fall in love with politics. This will not only pose a risk to their academic performance, but also cause them to influence others to join their political, instead of academic, discussion.

Many students prefer to read news reports from unreliable sources like blogs, Facebook and Twitter, without realising that there may be a twist in the story. This will lead to misunderstanding and misinterpretation. These students take wrong actions, including spreading rumours, while intending to keep their schoolmates updated on current issues. When these insensible teenagers add political flavours into their sharing of information, it may cause others to develop prejudiced, curious and furious feelings. Consequently, they may resort to wrong conclusions.

Schoolchildren should be selective, careful and smart in processing information they read. It is true that they need to be mindful of what is happening in the country and around the world, but they should not over-generalise and complicate issues, let alone, politicise them.

At work, those who politicise issues waste time making speculations and assumptions. These workers are always eloquent when convincing others regarding the cause-and-effect of issues but their smart-alec attitude may annoy their rational, wise and positive-thinking colleagues. Such “chatterboxes” abandon their main responsibility which is improving the quality of work to ensure better productivity and work performance. 

As former United States president Abraham Lincoln said: “Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak out and remove all doubt.”  

To politicise issues is to put our peace and harmony at stake. Thus, it is important for us to think carefully before we judge and share our thoughts, because once we are addicted to spreading intriguing, yet false facts about issues, we will live as, not peacemakers, but troublemakers.

Courtesy of New Straits Times

11 February 2015