Which comes first in an ordinary man's mind when he looks at a group of school girls in their white blouse uniform? Lust or Uniform? According to the vice-president of the National Islamic Students Association of Malaysia, Munirah Bahari, whom I presume is a lady / girl, “The white blouse is too transparent for girls and it becomes a source of attraction”. “It becomes a distraction to men, who are drawn to it, whether or not they like looking at it" she added before saying “Decent clothes which are not revealing can prevent and protect women from any untoward situations”. If I read her correctly, she is saying that the current white blouse worn by school girls for as long as I could remember, is indecent because it is revealing and encourages lustful thoughts. I don't know whether I should laugh or cry. Well, I was laughing in glee this morning celebrating Man Utd's victory but when I read this piece of news, I thought I was having trouble thinking with such little sleep last night.

I could not think of how absurd such a suggestion could come out from Munirah - that the white blouse is or could be a cause of social ills (rape, sexual harassment and even premarital sex) prevalent in this country. Was a proper study conducted which led to such evidence that the triggering factor for such social ills point towards the white blouse which is deemed too transparent? From what I know, the whole of the white blouse is only visible when sixth formers wear them. Those in the pre-sixth forms have a blue pinafore over and above the white blouse. Surely, if Munirah is a lady, she would know the difference between a white blouse and a white baju kurung top. Whereas the white baju kurung top is indeed fully visible, the white blouse is, save for sixth formers, substantially covered by the blue pinafore. But she can't be wrong because in the news report, she mentioned about white blouse. Not white baju kurung top.

Perhaps Munirah and her association ought to go and study why is it that pre-marital sex, rape and incest is prevalent amongst certain communities in this country. Take a visit to the courts - especially in the rural areas. It is not uncommon to find some blokes being charged for rape or incest. It is an open secret. Moreover, just search in the internet for certain keywords with 3gp and a certain race in Malaysia and you will find a whole list of sites with homemade videos of young couples making out and enjoying their video shooting session. Of course, I am not trying to say there are no social ills amongst the other communities but there are. I am just saying that with this community, the problem is more serious that what it is made out to be.

The point I am trying to make is this - the social ills are not just arising from a white blouse which has been worn by millions of school girls in this country. It goes deeper. I have had a couple of discussions with DPPs in court who told me that such social ills could be related to the living conditions of the community. When all in the family live in a one room house, you don't really have a thing called privacy. Why is it that despite efforts to be stricter religion-wise, the young seems to become more liberal and rebellious? Does Munirah seriously think that if all school girls are covered from head to toe in thick denim-like clothing that social ills would drop dramatically? If a man is lustful, he will be lustful regardless of whether a girl is dressed up in revealing clothes or fully covered head to toe. Either way, his thoughts would run wild and that is the problem that we all need to tackle.

And I truly hope that this is not another attempt to force all school girls to "cover up" solely based on Islamic precepts. If that's the case, Munirah should have advocated a covering up of all women in this country as believe me, some women out there do dress far more revealing than these school girls in their school uniform. That would have been a more consistent stance that dressing contributes to social ills as suggested by Munirah. I truly believe that there is nothing wrong with the current uniform worn by school girls and that it should stay that way. If somebody needs a slap in the face, it would be those boys who are unable to control their overcharged hormones and resort to sexual immorality. Deal with the root cause of sexual immorality, Munirah. Not on white blouses please.