Which weekend for Brunei?

When I was in Darjah 1 or 2 (Primary 1 or 2), I remembered I went to school on a Sunday, this was around 1970. I remembered on every Sunday, it would be my father who went to school to pick me up whereas any other day, it would be my mother. So Sunday then was a school day but it was an off day for the government servants. I don't know when school days changed. When my wife was posted to the Ministry of Defence sometime last year, she had to work Mondays to Fridays whereas I am still on Mondays to Thursdays and Saturdays. We only had Sundays as our weekend together. There are other agencies who worked on Fridays as well. Every now and then we would argue which days would make for better weekends. But according to Reuters, the Saudis have decided to change:-

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Saudi changes working week to Sun-Thurs

DUBAI, Monday, June 24, 2013 - SAUDI Arabia on Sunday said it was switching its official weekend to Friday and Saturday, bringing the kingdom's working week in line with other members of the six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council.

Saudi Arabia, the biggest Arab economy, had been the only Gulf Arab state to have a Thursday-Friday weekend after Oman shifted to a Friday-Saturday weekend last month.

A statement on national Saudi news agency SPA said the change, decreed by King Abdullah, will take effect as of this weekend.

According to the statement, this was "for the sake of putting an end to the negative effects and the lost economic opportunities consistently associated with variation based on work days between local departments, ministries and institutions and the regional and international counterparts".

King Abdullah issued the decree following a recommendation in April by the Kingdom's Shura Council, which advises the government on new laws, to change the country's official weekend from the current Thursday and Friday.

Reuters

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Comments

Latte@night said…
Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays obviously. Haha

On a serious note, I am amused why some government agencies work on Friday while the rest works on a Saturday. If some can, why not others? (is there more reasons apart from a religious one?)

Since the royal decree that all businesses are to be shut for 2 hours on a Friday, can we perhaps move all government agencies and schools to be in line as it seems to have no detrimental effects(to the Muslims) in large private companies and the few government departments (notably those in MOF and MinDef).

This would be more in line and conducive for businesses, airlines pricing and such with the rest of ASEAN.
Tuesday, June 25, 2013 7:33:00 AM
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