OUR FEAR YESTERDAY A REALITY TODAY

“Brunei prays for Y2K problems to stay away”.

I almost fell off my seat laughing when this headline appears among thousand other search results as I 'googled' for information on how Brunei deals with the threat posed by Y2K (millennium) bug to our computer system and our information technology 15 years ago.

The Y2K bug was supposed to hit the world computer system as we enter the new millennium and reduce all technology to a smouldering puddle that will leave the entire planet in chaos.

The information I was looking for was on how much Brunei spent on mitigating the impact of the hyped-up millennium doom-and-gloom scenarios. And of all things this result “Brunei prays for Y2K problems to stay away”, appears among many other titles.

So I laughed not because of the headline but because it's amusing, or rather my computer or Professor Google is trying to amuse me.

You see I am supposed to share the following article which was published in Borneo Bulletin's Weekend edition Kopi Talk Shop column. It was about our national identity and our concern as a community on how it came under threat as the nation marches towards globalisation with the rest of the world. Nothing to do with how much money we spent on dealing with the Y2K threat.
 

So here we go. I’ll just stick to the issue of national identity.

We’ll just leave the issue on how much money was spent on hardware and software to fix the problem when in the end nothing came out of it. The world that was supposed to come to an end is still here.

 
We are still here happily computing, surfing the internet, ‘Facebooking’, ‘WhatApping’, video conferencing and so on. But what remains is the same issue of globalisation and its threat to the national identity, culture and tradition.

The difference is, ‘our fear yesterday is a reality today’.  

15 years ago...  

BRUNEI ‘BELACAN’ FACTOR

We in Brunei marked our 16^th national Day anniversary this year with a theme focussing on national identity and the need to strengthen it.

It was fitting indeed as our National Day anniversary this year came at the start of the new millennium that is supposed to bring along a glut of great challenges and opportunities.

In this new era, the so called globalisation process driven by the rapid evolution of information technology (IT) is slowly stripping down the geographical boundaries and merging different nations into a borderless global village.

Information technology is revolutionising the way we do business, the way we trade, invest and interact with each other.

But with this rush of the so-called IT era sweeping the world, we are also witnessing a revolutionary change in our way of thinking, our mindset for better or for worse.

Never mind all the good things that can happen to us as a result of this rapid IT development and the globalisation process, what clearly worries us and our leaders is all the adverse effects these can have on our community.

We are not just talking about what damages IT and globalisation can do to our business sector. These can actually be addressed effectively by making some monetary adjustments. 

But what worries our nation is the adverse influence of IT on our society.

IT development is not only transcending geographical boundaries but it can also strip down the social fabric, erode cultural and religious values of a community.

This is already happening in many developed and developing countries.   

Brunei is at the crossroads and the path we are taking leads us towards the mainstream of globalisation process. So for us in Brunei, as we continue with our march into the new millennium, we must not allow ourselves to stray from our spiritual, cultural and social values and our national identity.

However, to uphold and strengthen our national identity as Bruneians, we also need to understand what it means to be a Bruneian.

But unfortunately, in today’s modern environment, the younger generation in particular tends to mistakenly identify itself with other alien cultures and values.

Even some families have misplaced their family prides. Misplaced in a sense that they have were overzealously proud of their adoption of alien values dictated by this materialistic world.

As one of my friends at an interesting session of our Coffee Shop Parliament the other day observed that some Bruneians, it seems, have lost their real identity as Bruneian Malays.

He said in an era where life begins with ‘e’ – e-commerce, e-style, e-prayer and so on – we are slowly witnessing the erosion of self-esteem and identity as Bruneians among our younger generations.

“Susah…susah… udang sudah jadi belacan! (it’s very sad the prawn is now only a paste),” he lamented, referring to how some people have lost their self-esteem and identity in this IT rush.

He said an ‘udang’ will always be an ‘udang’ no matter what one did to it, except when it is pounded and reduced to ‘belacan’.

“We can fry it, and yet it will be called a fried prawn, or we can make a curry out of it, and yet it will be called a prawn curry. So you see my point, the identity of the prawn is only lost when we make a ‘belacan’ out of it,” he added.

Although everyone laughed at the analogue, his message hit home. Everyone agreed that it is indeed important to do something now to ensure that the Bruneians don’t become ‘belacan’ like the ‘udang’.

The other day I became witness – or to be more precise an ‘e-witness’ – to our young people or ‘e-community’ e-chatting over in a ‘virtual chat room’ at a site on our information superhighway.

They were chatting satirically about what it means to be Bruneian. Their definition or rather their perception was provocatively revealing in a sense that their positive views on what it takes to be a Bruneian leave much to be desired of.

If their aim is to make sure the Bruneians erased all the negative traits that distinguish us from the other nationalities, then they deserve all the plaudits.

At first I found their 100-points list of what defined a true-blood Bruneian rather ludicrous. But on second thought I believed that we should make use of it as a reflection on ourselves and try to mend our ways.

Here are some of the characteristics of a true Bruneian I found on the list: 

• Your stomach growls when you don’t eat rice for a day
• You talk at the movies
• You carry a 16-oz jar of ‘sambal’ to wherever you travel
• You think other Asian countries are poorer than yours
• Your local McDonald’s serves rice and sambal
• You’ve tried passing Malaysian coins in a vending machine or pay phones
  
• You’ve smuggled electronics, CDs and porn into Brunei
• You do your shopping in Singapore, United Kingdom and Miri
• You realised that money is everything before you were six
  
• You think the Liga Perdana is equal to Super Bowl
• You talk loud thinking everybody is deaf but actually YOU are
• Your clothing has brand names printed on it that are visible from 50 feet away
• You’ve paid more than $100 to get your own private car license plate
• Sago (ambuyat) is your staple food and it is a necessity to have loads of it even       when staying overseas
• You act like a rich tycoons in Miri even if your average income is below $1000
• You furnish your home luxuriously even if it means eating rice and ‘kicap’ (soya sauce)
  for the last 2 1/2 weeks begore end of the month
• 'Hutang’ (debt) is your best friend
• You make sure that everything you consume at home is halal but eat everything else  when you are overseas.

If the way they identify their countrymen is anything to go by, we can expect the future generation to end up in worse than ‘belacan’.  

REVISITING MY KOPI TALK SHOP

I found this long forgotten little booklet when I was ransacking my filing cabinet for some important documents this morning. It made me smile when I found it. Sweet memories during my time with the Borneo Bulletin as full time journalist came rushing back as I flipped through the pages.

This booklet is a compilation of my articles published by the Borneo Bulletin. I was then the News Editor of the daily paper.  

My Editor-in-Chief, Mr Rex de Silva created a special column in the newspaper’s weekend edition. He named it Kopi Shop Politics.

The column was introduced in late 1999. Info-communication technology in Brunei was at its infant stage. We didn’t have the luxury of interacting and socialising through Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram, and Skype and so on and so forth. Social media was beyond our imagination.  Smart phone…? No way! It was something we only learned from a futuristic movie. However, there was this so-called chat room application but it never appealed to me.

So with all these new technologies beyond our reach, we introduced this Kopi Shop Politics column.

Through this column we shared with readers the daily gossips, conversation, discussion, comments and debates on anything and everything that took place at what we called ‘coffee shop parliament’.

This was how the column was introduced…

The world would certainly be a peaceful, well-organized place if the people who thought they knew how to run things were in charge. However, these people are currently busy driving taxis and sitting in coffee shop drinking cups of ‘teh’ or ‘kopi tarik’.

A quick peek into a popular coffee shop in Brunei will reveal the absolute truth of all that.

The coffee shops in Bandar, Tutong, Gadong and Muara are the favoured hangout of office workers, retirees and many others who usually get together for breakfast or high tea. 

Heated political discussions are always a part of the menu although it is always just a lot of hot air without any action.

Anyone who feels that free speech and freedom of expression is needed in Brunei should spend some time in a local coffee shop.

Over several cups of ‘teh tarik’ and ‘kopi tarik’ or ‘teh c’ and ‘kopi c’, with serving of ‘cucur pisang panas’ and other malay ‘kueh’, many Bruneians spend hours talking, arguing, debating, commenting on and criticizing anything under the sun. These serious discussions are always spiced with sprinkling of gossip.

Usually, the discussions evolve around the most current happenings in the country and generally the conversations are filled with a great deal of criticism. If these discussions are to be believed, the authorities never get anything right and there is always a lot to be desired.

The coffee shop parliament never runs short of issues to be discussed. Everything comes under the microscopes, from religion, politics and business to crime, sex and housekeeping, no topic is sacred.

(With permission and if time permits, I will share some of the articles here soon)

BUSINESS COMMUNITY TENSE OVER NEW EMPLOYMENT POLICY CHANGES

A friend came to me as I was about to step in the mosque for Friday prayer. It was just few minutes away before Friday mass prayer commences.

He graciously greeted me and handshakes followed. Looking upsets, he then put his arm around my shoulders, pulled me close to him and said, “So what do you think of the new employment order?”

“You know we should protest”, he groaned as my brain busily processed some answers to his first question. 

And as I was about to offer him my opinion, he mocked, “The minister and the officials…what do they know (of our difficulty)”.

“It’s easy for them lah to say this and that, but it is us who will suffer. For them okay lah! What do they have to worry? Anyway they will still get their fat checks every end of the month!!! For us things will get more difficult". 

"Before it was the energy department and its ‘big idea’ and now this”, he moaned and said, “the least they could do was to talk to us first, the business people, prior to making such ‘counterproductive’ decision". 

"You should write about this issue, quizzed them”, he suggested.

“Okay, okay,” I said while putting a smile on my face.

I sighed with relief as he frees his arm from my shoulders.

Good thing I didn’t have the chance to tell him where I stand in this issue.

Good thing we didn’t have much time to converse otherwise I would be bragging to him that I was at the dinner that evening and that I dared myself to walk up to the minister and to congratulate him personally for the firm move and good strategy in addressing our unemployment and influx of foreign workers issues.

Good thing I didn’t tell my friend that I jokingly told the minister how I fell like hugging him and kissing him right there and then for the good news. I can imagine what will happen to me! 

With my upset friend’s arm around my shoulder and very close to my neck, for all I know he could easily strangle me.

So I was spared from that unpleasant situation.   

However the question of what I thought about the new policy changes in the nation employment sector preoccupied my mind while my ears try hard to listen to the imam delivering his Friday sermon.     

So what do I think of it?

Well I have no objection if it means paving the way in efforts to truly create a fair playing field in the nation job market and a healthier environment for local entrepreneurs to thrive especially in the wholesale, retail, hospitality and restaurant businesses.

I fully support it if it means a better and more promising future for our children, if it could bring to an end to the abuse and discrimination by profit driven employers against our locals. 

I fully support it as it opens up an opportunity to employers to stop giving excuses and instead to start working together in developing the capability and capacity of the local workforce that they have been complaining about and using as an excuse not to employ locals all these years.
           

Unemployment is a persistent issue of concern in Brunei so is the growing numbers of foreign workers in the country. 


In one hand, we have the issue of our local having difficulty to find jobs but on the other hand, we are seeing foreigners thronging the country and ironically with no difficulty at all to find jobs.


As of last year the population of expats and foreign workers stood at 112,378. Their population has the potential to rapidly grow to almost 200,000 if several employers that collectively have 71,282 unused quotas at their disposal decide to make use all of them.

This is one of the loose ends that the ministry sees fit to tighten up quickly. Apparently this is one loophole in the current system that causes the influx of unneeded foreign workers in the country. 


So the final decision has been made, that is to revoke these 71,282 quotas with immediate effect.

At the same time the policy to freeze the issuance of foreign labour quota for posts such as cashiers, driver, supervisors, salesclerk, shop staff, butcher, baker as well as taking steps to freeze foreign labour quota for those in the wholesale and retail industry, hospitality, ict, support services and so on will continue.

The objective is to effectively make available job positions that can be filled by locals.   

According to the Local Employment and Human Resource Development Agency (APTK) of the Home Affairs Ministry, there were 4,414 unemployed Bruneians throughout all four districts with Brunei-Muara having the largest number of unemployed individuals at 2,944 during the year 2011.


At present there are some 6, 130 jobs available but only 36 percent of it were filled by locals while the remaining vacancies were taken up by foreigners.


As the Minister of Home Affairs once said, there were actually plenty of jobs for the 5,000 or so job seekers registered with the ministry.

He has his point for saying that.

Results from latest research on the availability of employment opportunities in the private sector in 2013 indicates that there were 27,827 workers taking up various job positions in the wholesale, retail, hospitality and automobile sectors. 17,000 or 61% of them were foreigners, 8,144 were local citizens while only 2,683 were permanent residents.

In summary, the policy changes have been made to tackle two distinct objectives namely overcoming unemployment by encouraging (or some say arm twisting) employers to hire local workforce and to control the influx of foreign labour by employing only as needed.

Of course another objective is to arrest the mushrooming of ‘Ali Baba’ businesses especially in the retail and in restaurant business in the country.

The changes include a levy on the employment of foreign labour for several sectors. The collections from this scheme will be channelled back to fund capacity building training programs for local workforce in the private sector.  

Other changes are, to limit the issue of new miscellaneous business license identified as branch out with the exception of businesses with the potential to attract local employees and to limit the number of new licenses for conventional restaurants (coffee shops, food outlets) and lastly to not issue licenses to businesses established in residential areas/ villages unless the business is personally run by the applicant or locals.

Undoubtedly, these policy changes have ruffled some business owners’ feathers. It is understandable especially when changes like this pose a threat to their interest.

But least we forgot, the nation today is facing far greater danger than those employment issues and the influx of foreign workers. Poverty, the worrying trend of social problems spreading like diseases from within our society and so and so forth are issues that are now haunting us.

The biggest threat to our survivality is actually our complacency and our indifference towards the future of our next generation and the interest of the nation at large. Whatever happening today to our economy, our business sector, employment sector are actually the consequences of our apathy as a community over the future of the nation and also due to the persevering culture of inertia in the government machinery.  

In a sense, we are actually the victims of our own doing. So to me I welcome any opportunity to remedy these shortcomings that, for all these years have been a hindrance to our progress.