LET'S GET SERIOUS NOW

I promise no more mushy stuff about husbands and tears for now.

We'll talk about sex. No, not morally-sanctioned sex but the rare, mind-blowing kind. The kind, you know, forbidden lovers make with their young and virile bodies under the make-shift tents by the coastal beaches.

From late last month, there's been an initiative by the social services in Singapore to encourage the sexually active, young Malay Singaporeans to abstain from pre-marital and illicit sex. It is also aimed at preventing virgins from ever-being tainted before their dowries are accepted in holy matrimony.

"LEBIH SEXY, KATAKAN TIDAK!"

So, the tagline goes. "It's sexier to say 'No'."

Is it really sexier to say 'No'? Aren't we living in an era where pleasure resides within the temple we call body? What is there to say 'No' to? Say 'no' because my God tells me so? My parents? My teachers? The health scare? The unplanned pregnancy that will be part of a statistic?

I'm pleased that we're able to at least use the three-letter word in public now, without having to subscribe to alternatives like, "hubungan kelamin" or the remote likes of that.

But will our sexually active young ever regard their chastity as sacred and make the change? To abstain from an act that is free of charge (almost) and extremely pleasurable?

I'm really not sure. The hormones residing within these young bodies and minds would probably need a whole lot more to resist the temptation of the evil serpeant. Unless, maybe just maybe, the temple of pleasure has other treasures worth protecting.

Are there self-preserving values worth protecting? Is there a dream that may be thwarted by a love lost in lust? Could there be love other than from that 'one' receptacle? I'd like to think self-esteem, if not, sheer fear would do the trick.

However, gone are the days where Mommy's threats of eternal hellfire, could be heard ringing in your ears the moment nubile skin grazes another. So, that'll leave us with the re-building of self-esteems lost in hurt, abuse, poverty, hate, anger, boredom, ignorance, etc, etc.