What happened to Bruneians? (Again)

I read the many comments on my previous posting of what happened to Bruneians. Interestingly enough, yesterday noon when I was at Athirah, someone approached me and said 'minta duit pengiran'. He was a young man, looks fit and somehow does not strike me as someone who is unemployed. But looks can be deceiving and he asked me for money because he thought I was someone. I was with my son today and I saw him again but this time he did not ask for money. Yesterday I had a tie and today I only had a tee shirt. Anyway, what bothered me was this 'begging' is not the first time.

In the 1990s, I remembered when I used to park at the Customs wharf when I used to work at MOF which was at IBB building. I used to walk from there to IBB which is about a 10 minute walk and I used to be accosted by a man, a nicely dressed elderly one (guessing around 50+), who always called out 'Pengiran, minta duit'. He usually gets a couple of dollars from me and the few other people he stopped. I saw him the other day while I was in town. I think he still does his 'begging'.

When I was at MOF, at the new building, the first week I reported for duty, there was a man who urgently wanted to see me. He told me some sob stories about him not being given welfare despite the fact he earned it. I fell for it and gave him some money. Later on I found out that, he does it to all the new guys who got promoted. I think you would know who he was. He actually did his sob story a few years ago and he was actually given a boat and an engine so that he could do his moto tambang and for him to earn money. You know what he did? He sold the boat and the engine.

There has been too many people who I have met. When I was the TAP head honcho, there were many who wanted to withdraw their savings sooner and they all had sob stories. I probably have more than my fair share of listening to sob stories than other people, sometimes that it becomes too easy not to believe all of them. But I am sure some are true. It's just that I can not tell them apart after a while. It does not answer the question - are some Bruneians so hard up or they just want some free money?

I am not trying to say that there are no poor Bruneians. There are. That's why there is this effort of a zero poverty policy. Eradicating it requires not just efforts but for us as a society to balance our priorities. There are a number of people who are contend to do nothing but to earn welfare. This is proven in many countries and don't come and tell me some b***sh*t stories that there are none here.

We have to go back to basic. What do we want? I remembered one man who told me that 'kita sanang, gaji basar, keluarga kaya, apa kita ingaukan?' I told him straight. I told him 'you think I started with keluarga kaya and gaji basar? When I was small, my father used to tell me, my toys were made up of sawn up pieces of wooden planks in a basket. We were not rich but we were comfortable and contended. There was no tv. We didn't have one until almost everyone else had one. I went to a hostel and was given $30 allowance a month. I made do. When I came back from England, I drove a second hand car to go to work and I started off just like every other officer from a B2 level. I knew a house was important. I built one just as soon as I could afford it with government loan. Until today, I have never owned a Mercedes, BMW or any of those fancy cars. I guess my priority is different.

So, my question still stands - what happened to us Bruneians? Have we become too materialistic that we worry more about other things? Have we no shame anymore that some of us are openly begging? Or is out welfare institutions failing out and unable to help anymore? We have JAPEM, Yayasan and Baitul Mal. Surely if you are a deserving case, you will get assistance.

We have not always been like this. I remembered writing about it 2 years ago that in 1962, the Brunei Annual Report pointed out that "... it is necessary to point out that the Malay, Dusun, Murut and Iban social structures are such that applications for assistance are rare, members of the family considering it their responsibility to take care of relatives who are in need..." and "... there are also a number of Chinese charitable organisations which cater for destitute members and in particular, arrange for funerals and give assistance to dependents of sick members of the various Chinese communities..." Can we go back to those years?