The Welfare Trap in Brunei

Sometimes my mind wanders. The other day, one of my officers was telling me a story about one of his relatives having 4 wives and 25 children - all living in the same house. I thought that was an extreme example of tolerance about people being able to stay together especially the spouses under one roof. Unfortunately we were talking about poverty, about his relative's children who had difficulty in daily sustainance. Despite our $42,000 GDP per capita, there are people in Brunei who are in the unfortunate category and the Brunei authorities have done their utmost through whatever schemes under the Community Development Department to provide them with financial assistance. However financial assistance can only do so much - they cannot live on financial assistance forever and neither does the authority want to support them forever.

However, I was told that according to one study (unpublished) done by the Religious Ministry which also provided financial assistance through Baitul Mal indicated that if a recipient of a financial assistance is currently receiving assistance, it is very likely that his or her parents received assistance too before that and it is also likely that his or her grandparents received assistance too before that. Is there a poverty trap? One is unable to move out of it. Or is there a welfare trap? One can get out of it but one does not want to do so as it is much easier to remain on welfare.

I have not seen the research neither have I conducted any of my own. But what I do know is that for most of us Bruneians, we were not born of rich parents. In the early days, I know my parents were not well to do and even though we are living fairly comfortably now, I would not consider us in the wealthy category - at most middle-middle class, if there is such a term. I know families who are so wealthy that make us look impoverished and I also know of families who of course would love to be where we are. The question becomes how does one move out of poverty trap?

In the old days, I thought the answer was education. Despite being uneducated, my grandparents knew enough to ensure that my parents were educated and in turn my parents ensured that I too was educated and plus due to some stroke of luck, divine intervention most likely, in providing me the extra brain cells, I was able to be better educated than them. But today, most of our children go for tuition classes that if you don’t send your children to one, you feel as if your children will be left behind. During my time, there was no tuition class for me neither was there any extra class provided at school. All I had was the normal schooling. Nowadays such an education track would leave one floundering behind. My wife was telling me about my son's classmate who attended tuition class at the age of 6. Imagine the cost for a large family. How much would it be? Imagine if you can't afford it – will your children be left behind?

If you are born of normal intelligence and your parents are not well to do enough to send you for that extra tuition classes to make you more competitive - what do you do? Supposing you don't do well in life - do you blame it on nature's poor selection in not providing you with more mental capability for not doing well? Or do you blame bad luck for being born to an under privileged family? But then can you yourself study really hard, regardless of tuition classes or mental prowess to improve yourself and move out? In other words can you overcome nature and be a better person. The whole argument over nature versus nurture is an eternal one. Sir Francis Galton (cousin to Charles Darwin) published a study as far back as 1869 based on responses from 190 Fellows of the Royal Society about their families and abilities. The book provided among the first argument about 'nature versus nurture'.

Is our intelligence engrained in us before we were born? Or can it be developed and nurtured over time? Researchers so far on both sides of the nature versus nurture debate agree that while a gene may increase the likelihood that you'll behave in a particular way, it does not make you do things. That means that we still get to choose who we'll be when we grow up. If that's the case, can we now blame those Bruneians who stayed in the poverty/welfare trap for being unable/unwilling to move out?