The world is getting messier by the day. Yet many of us would like to hope that things will change, that fellow human beings will stop being cruel and brutal towards one another.

Well, cruelty is not exclusive to wars. In our daily lives, we see this unpleasant side of humanity being reflected shamelessly and one experience I had was when I befriended a man with Aids. It revealed to me just how afraid and non-committal people are over the Aids issue. The chasm of denial where HIV/Aids is so deep it is a wonder if we can ever tackle the widening gap.

The Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome, infamously brought down to a four-letter word called Aids should paradoxically be our greatest concern but it doesn't seem to appear that way, not even in a caring and tolerant country like ours.

Whilst non-governmental organisations like the Malaysian Aids Foundation and the Malaysian Aids Council are working as hard as they possibly can, running around trying to raise funds, help people living with HIV/Aids and to create awareness on the disease and promote preventive measures, the dedication from the government towards fighting this deadly disease has yet to be proven. Like its people, the government too seems to be in denial of the escalating statistics on HIV/Aids in the country.

As cliched as it may sound, Aids is a disease which knows no boundaries, race, gender or age. In other words, a baby or a grandmother can be inflicted with the Human Immunodeficiency Virus or HIV, the virus responsible for causing the incurable Aids disease.

Huge economic cost

In Malaysia, it has been projected by the Malaysian Aids Council that without effective intervention programmes, three out of every 200 Malaysians will soon be affected with HIV. Should this happen, the total economic cost of the epidemic would be a staggering RM20 billion!

Since the first HIV infection was reported in the country in 1986, as of Dec last year, 51, 256 people have reported HIV +. Of that number, 5, 424 have since died.

Several reasons have been cited for the increase in the rate of HIV infection in our country. They are:

1) The country's chronic drug-use problem.

2) Lack of education and harm-minimising programmes on HIV/Aids due to inhibiting social and cultural conditions.

3) More opportunities for young people to practise unsafe sexual behaviours due to an increasing standard of living.

4) The myth that HIV/Aids is a disease that hits only certain high-risk groups.

The statistics are there. And the factors that lead to this disease spreading quickly in a culturally and traditionally-bound country like Malaysia have been disclosed. Now where does that leave the authorities, those powers that be in conscientiously working at tackling those reasons one by one.

There is the gallows for those caught trafficking in drugs. There is the law prohibiting homosexuality in the country. And there is nothing in place to educate the youngsters about safe sex, about reaching out for condoms and of talking about their sexual behaviours.

Educating children

At one time, there was much talk about the need to educate schoolchildren on HIV/Aids. There were suggestions that sex education be introduced as a subject in schools. The government's 'elders' realised that if sex as an issue was addressed in school, Malaysia would no longer be respected as an Islamic country. The issue then died down.

A few years later, the talk resurfaced and again it was the government who was talking and not those who were actually involved in the HIV/Aids issues. The government was contemplating a compromise, maybe the sex issue could be touched on in the Science subjects if it hadn't

been already. Or maybe a subject on reproductive health could be introduced in schools. Then again the government felt that sex education was an issue that needed much thought and it has since gone into hibernation over it.

The truth is that our country's powers that be seem to have little conscience over a disease which has shaken the world to its core. While the government mulls over whether or not it should be sex education or reproductive health or whether or not children are even taught about safe sex, youngsters everywhere and Malaysia by the way is no exception, are indulging in sexual activities. Just how safely they are doing so is another concern.

So children are left on their own to wonder what the fuss about HIV/Aids is all about. Why bother practising safe sex? Why bother with a condom? And who would blame them when the supporting machinery, besides the over-worked MAC, is not even there.

Even for MAC, it has been heart broken countless times when its approach to talk to youngsters, in particular schoolchildren about HIV/Aids is downright rejected by schools if there is any mention of condoms. There has to be absolutely no discussion of condoms, what more how it works. So, again the children are left to wonder for themselves what is that thing called condom and how and where is it used.

Condoms are the safest bet against getting infected with the HIV. Yet so many of us are not open to the idea of using it. Why?

Little interest

Finger pointing will not improve the already fragile situation we are facing with regards to HIV/Aids. If the government was so excited about its Look East policy, then why is it that the very same government has shown considerably little interest in allowing those who are experts in the area of HIV/Aids to reach out to the target group and deal with them in the best way they know how?

If the government does not have the expertise to deal with HIV/Aids, why not let those who are in the know to do so? Why flex the government muscles in determining what is best for our children? Parents and schools are reluctant to chat with children about safe sex, about HIV/Aids and condoms. They fear doing so is tantamount to giving the children the green light to indulge in sexual acts. The trust and confidence that they have in their young is almost nil.

While the government makes up its mind on whether sex education will ever see the light of the day in schools, it should in the meantime mull over this fact once again that for each reported case of HIV/Aids, five go unreported.

Also, young people between the ages of 20 and 29 make up almost 40 per cent of those infected with the virus or the disease. The MAC, in providing that figures to the media said the 40 per cent concerned could have contracted the virus while in school or college!

JJ RAY started her working career with the mainstream publication. A non-conformist, she realised in the years of her work the barriers that came in her way when she tried, through her writings, to make the world a home for one and all.