W9: Challenges to Sustainable Development

Drivers of Unsustainable Development

This time, I would like to write about drivers of unsustainable development, which is part of the challenges to sustainable development. There are three drivers of unsustainable development:

1) Economic mal-development
2) Unethical social values
3) Environmental debt

Unfortunately, these three drivers are very prevalent in our country. Thus, I want to emphasize one of the three drivers, which I think the most prevalent among our society especially during this pandemic, which is unethical social values. This is also related to the government system in our country.

Unethical Social Values

Lately, since the pandemic Covid-19 occurred, the situation of our country is very chaotic because of the rules and Standard Operation Procedures (SOP) that the government has implemented to reduce the risk of Covid-19 spread. However, the enforced SOP that should be followed by all Malaysians, and the fines imposed on all Malaysians who violate, do not appear to be fixed, in fact giving rise to many double standard cases. The higher-ups or leaders do not seem to concern and emphasize justice in the system of government in our country which causes many double standard cases where well-known and high-ranking people such as politicians, elites, and celebrities get the flexibility to not comply with the rules and SOP set for unreasonable reasons, while the other normal citizen had no chance even if they had reasonable reasons to be excluded. Many cases where the "marhaen" people, who violate the SOP were compounded on the spot without any consideration, while the high-ranking and well-known people were considered and put under investigation first.

Undoubtedly, all these happened because of greed, selfishness, corruption, inequality, violence, injustice, and elitism among the higher-ups towards marhaen people. This matter led to the anger of the Malaysian community and eventually caused the people to lose faith and respect towards the leaders of this country. When this happened, the unity among the people of Malaysia began to crumble and societal values began to fade. Thus, this in turn leads to unsustainable development. This matter led to the anger of the Malaysian community and eventually caused the people to lose faith and respect for the heads of state. When this happened, the unity among the people of Malaysia began to crumble and societal values began to fade. Thus, this in turn leads to the development of unsustainability. This is such a big challenge to sustainable development because unity and understanding among communities are very important in succeeding aims and achieving sustainable development goals (SDGs).

Things like this are very inappropriate to happen. The rules enforced must be fixed and fair to all citizens regardless of status, rank, or popularity. In fact, the fines imposed should also take into account the circumstances of the offenders as all citizens are affected by this Covid-19 pandemic, especially the poor. Hence, 'ihsan', kindness and empathy are very important to ensure harmony in our country. As Allah said in the Qur'an: "Indeed, Allah orders justice and good conduct and giving to relatives and forbids immorality and bad conduct and oppression. He admonishes you that perhaps you will be reminded." (An-Nahl: 90). Then, to face this challenge, we must practice and voice out justice everywhere and in all matters. Start from home by being fair to our family members and then to our friends and people around. In addition, we can voice our opinions to uphold justice by writing to newspapers or any suitable platform, with the aim of spreading awareness to the public to unite to uphold the right to oppose this injustice. This is for the well-being of the community and country, as well as the importance and success of sustainable development.

That is all for this topic. Thank you for your time. See you! :)