My Ramadhan Evaluation

Three weeks have passed since the holy month of Ramadhan began on 11 August 2010, and during that time Muslims around the world have fasted every day from dawn to dusk.

Beside not eating and drinking fasting people should control their emotion, sexual desires and always be wise in whatever they say and do. Beside that, certain percentage of our annual income should be contributed to help poor people.

In Indonesia, this holy month has been marred by the sea border incident between Indonesia and Malaysia that led to anti-Malaysia protests by group of people claiming to be defender of sovereignty using vulgar and irrational methods, which are absolutely against the spirit of Ramadhan, e.g throwing human feces to the Malaysian Embassy in Jakarta and demanding for war.

But thank goodness, religious groups who used to love violence seemed to be rather calm this time.

Further, there were protests against corruption related matters, like President SBY's granting of remission to corruption criminals including the father-in-law of SBY's eldest son, and the announcement of Corruption Erradication Commission (KPK) about politicians who were named as suspects in Bribery case. 
Besides, there was the bloody clash between citizens and the Police at the town of Buol, Central Sulawesi Province, caused by the mysterious death of a Police detainee.

Furthermore, there were the natural disasters i.e. eruption of Mount Sinabung in North Sumatra, and the heavy rain falls that inundated many places, including parts of Jakarta. 

On the personal front, although I always fast i.e. not eat and drink everyday, however I have not been so successful in fulfilling my other Ramadhan obligations e.g controlling emotions, words and acts.
The difference is that every time I did it, I immediately aware of my mistake and therefore able to apologize to people who I thought might have been hurt by what I have said and done.

Now that we still have three more days of Ramadhan, before Eid Ul Fitr on 10 September, and starting today I am taking my Hari Raya Lebaran holidays until 14 September, I hope that I would be able to improve the quality of my fasting.