Upon reporting for duty with The Borneo Bulletin at Brunei Press Sdn Bhd premises in Bandar Seri Begawan on 3 Dec 1997, I found out that our editorial staff, namely sub-editors and editors were mostly expatriates. We even had one reporter, an Iban from Limbang, whose wife was a Bruneian Iban from Temburong.
Our GM who looked after the general administration was a Singaporean whereas the employment agency QAF that looked after personnel recruitment and human resource management was headed by a Malaysian lady, whose spouse was a Bruneian. On the editorial side, our editor-in-chief was a Sri Lankan whose deputy was also Sri Lankan, a single lady actually – there was also a Thai male who became our deputy editor-in-chief just for about two months but resigned to take a better offer with The Bangkok Post back in his homeland. One of our sub-editors came from India whereas we had one from Pakistan, two from Singapore, one from Manila, Philippines, one from London whereas the rest of us were from Malaysia, namely two from Kuala Lumpur, one from Sabah and two from Sarawak. Only one editor, the City Editor was a local but he was more of a writer and regularly needed my help in finetuning his writeup. It was okay with me as he was very generous in many ways, especially for being the first cousin of then Brunei’s Minister of Communications whose resources were seemingly limitless. In later years, the company took a few interns from among UBD undergraduates as part of their practical training. One or two of them joined the company after graduation which was part of the preparation towards becoming a truly independent newspaper, a slow and painful process. By 2002, it was still seemingly an improbable success story.
Bulletin’s sister daily, the sultanate’s sole Malay language daily newspaper Media Permata also employed a lot of Malaysians and Singaporeans for its editorial as well its reporting staff. Other than that, our team of DTP artists also included some members from the Philippines, Malaysia and Singapore too. Plus the locals, they represented half of Southeast Asian nations. Even those in the printing department were not all locals. There was one Chinese lady from Miri among them. I remember her well, one Miss Lau, a rare breed who could only celebrate her birthday once in four year, namely during a leap year – for obvious reason. The management threw a birthday party for her on Feb 29, 2000 which also marked the petite single lady’s 15th anniversary with Brunei Press.
The company’s dependence on expatriates was not an isolated phenomenon. In fact even in the government ministries and departments, the country then was still heavily relying on foreigners. For example, the Sri Lankan owner of the Mercedes 280 that I drove for Jambai the mechanic was an employee with the Finance Ministry. He told me about some negative stories about his local colleagues who would come to the office 30 minutes late and left very early under the pretext of fetching their kids from schools and sometimes never reported back for duty in the afternoon.
“If this goes on, the country will never rid itself of expatriates or else it can’t go forward,” said the Sri Lankan who must have held a high post in the ministry though driving a Merc was not a measure of high post or seniority in Brunei bureaucracy for even a few of our Brunei Press junior colleagues, including clerical staff and reporters were driving Mercedes to work. For that matter Mercedes, BMW, Jaguar and Audi were common vehicles in the sultanate.
In the construction, service and hospitality industries, the country also depended so much on foreign workers. Apart from the Thais, also taken to work in the construction sites were Bangladeshis, Indonesians and Myanmar nationals. There were also Malaysians as well as Filipinos who held posts such as supervisors, managers and engineers. Employments such as cooks, helpers, servers and others in kitchens, restaurants and hotels also do not bode well with the locals, thanks to the sultanate being a welfare state which benefits I do not wish to specify here. On this I salute the Sultan’s generous policy in giving back to society. Even the main hospital, RIPAS (Raja Isteri Pengiran Anak Soleha) Hospital in BSB has under its employment a big number of foreign nurses, doctors, dietitians and other professionals. I had to pay B$1,504 for two-night stay at RIPAS to discover this.
A few years later I befriended a worker, a security guard actually, under the paylist of the Development Ministry. Born Babai from Sedabai, Pui in Kanowit, he served in the army for a number of years and was married to a Bidayuh from Bau – they must have met when he served in Bau during his army days. Babai and family were converts with him taking Wafiuddin as his Muslim name. His job was to look after all the items inside the compound of the ministry, including a dozen or so of discarded Mercedes Benz, including the 5-series model. Babai said, “The sultanate does not send these cars for repairs despite a few are only slightly damaged or misfunctioning,” he told me in between our tennis games at the few tennis courts available within the compound. This was also where I played with Brunei No 1 player and beat him in three sets.
Through Babai I came to know a few of his other colleagues in the ministry who were lodged next to his barrack in the another location just a few minutes’ drive from his workplace. Among others, he introduced me to two of his colleagues who were part of BSB’s rubbish collecting team. So my puzzle about the identity of the Iban-speaking rubbish collectors on regular trips to our flat in Kianggeh, BSB, was solved. These guys used to accompany the rubbish collecting truck that made at least three trips weekly to our flat at around 5.30am. They spoke clearly in Iban with some sense of humour at times. On a number of occasions I would laugh by myself while listening to their jokes at such early hours.
According to Babai, his convertion to the Islamic faith made it easier for him to secure job with the government departments not to mention other privileges and perks, including easier loan applications and others.
“My immediate wish is to be allocated a piece of land to build my own house not far from BSB,” he told me once, adding that was part of the promises prior to his convertion. As of 2002, about five years after his convertion, there was still no positive news about such piece of land to my knowledge. Nevertheless I hope his family members were accorded such privilege after 2002 as lately I heard he had died for some years already. Such a hard working and kind hearted man surely deserved what were promised. I pray for his kind soul to rest in everlasting peace.
He was among the many individuals dedicating their services for the good of the sultanate whose monarch is known to be generous with his subjects. For example, now that it is Ramadan, I am very sure the Istana Nurul Iman is always full of his subjects joining him for ‘solat terawih’ or ‘terawih’ prayer in the evening. During my time there, each individual (Muslim) who came for ‘terawih’ was entitled to B$10 per night. So a family of five would get B$50 and if they were there for twenty times during Ramadan that family would take home B$1,000 to celebrate Hari Raya. Such generosity certainly endears the Sultan to his people.
However, the privilege was only extended to Brunei citizens only. There were attempts by Indonesians and Bangladeshis to go there for ‘terawih’ but were refused entry. I am not sure whether Malaysians and Singaporeans were accorded the privilege. But during Hari Raya all were allowed entry. My Filipino friend Tony and I lined up for almost three hours in 1999 for Hari Raya visit to Istana Nurul Iman and hoping to shake hands with the two queens only to end up shaking the monarch, his brothers and sons. The queens, Raja Isteri Pengiran Anak Soleha and Pengiran Isteri Mariam and their daughters only greeted the female line of visitors. I had the chance to shake hands with Mariam when having a show at her palace, the Istana Nurul Izzah.
There will be a third series on the sultanate in the coming week.
