Looking at Brunei's Past

At my age, I realised that many young bloggers or blog readers do not appreciate a number of Brunei books which are sold on the market. When I was much younger too, I did not appreciate these books that much. It was much later when I discovered the hidden treasures that are in them that I realised just how much I have missed all this while.

This book by Haji Ahmad Arshad is one of them. Haji Ahmad belongs to my father's generation so that would make him much much older than today's younger readers. He was a journalist, he was also a reporter and I remembered in the 1970s when he used to do the reports for the Legislative Council meetings. About a few years ago he had a weekly column in the Pelita Brunei. What he wrote about are fascinating. If he had a blog and written in English, I am sure many would have flocked to it. But he wrote in the Pelita and many Pelita readers are more interested in the job vacancies advertisements rather than read articles in there.

His articles are short but very illuminating about our past. He talked about the time when Kampong Ayer water was still pristine that you can even see the coin that you threw in the water. He talked about his life on Kampong Ayer, about Brunei which we no longer see. He talked about a time which is not too long ago and yet is gone by today. His articles about the past is what I had been emulating in my weekly article for The Brunei Times. I hoped to continue where he had left off.

This book is a collection of those articles that he wrote from November 2001 to August 2003. It's published by Dewan Bahasa and cost a mere $6.40. That, my dear readers, is one hell of a bargain. Buy it. You will not regret it.