I recall an incident many years ago, when I was much younger than today. A former classmate of mind was questioned on his ambitions by a teacher. He pondered on it for close to a minute before smiling said, "Government" with a smug look plastered all over his face. "GOVERNMENT". That was all he said. We live in a country where "industry" means a choice between the government or private sector. It doesn't matter which part of civil service he's employed in. And the sad but is - most people here share his views.
So what is it that makes employment with His Majesty's Government so sought after? In my opinion, it can be narrowed down to two specific reasons
1. An iron rice bowl
2. Non-accountability
Iron rice bowl
His Majesty's Govenment generally does not make it a habit of firing it's employees, excluding cases of serious misconduct. In most cases, they are "transferred".
Non-Accountability
I am employed in the private sector where the bottomline rules all. Profit keeps food on the table and the bottomline is the key. KPIs are put in place to ensure everyone and everything is in it's place in the right time. Or rather, that's what KPIs are meant to do. Take a quick trip down to any civil service office and look at the work flow they have. Nothing is in it's place and noone knows who is supposed to do what. Let me not mention the many coffee and tea breaks they are "entitled" to have.
The question that comes into mind is - Is the government employing them for the sake of employment?
Wednesday, September 19, 2007
Sunday, September 9, 2007
Come and visit us, sometime.
I have spent days pondering upon this article , striving to reach a completely objective opinion, free of scepticism. But the statements such as the following make that quite a feat.
"We were just toying with the idea of hosting it next year. It was not officially endorsed by the Tourism Board. We called 2008 as celebrating Brunei 2008-09." - Sheikh Jamaluddin, CEO, Brunei Tourism Board
Let's tear this apart for a while, shall we? I, for one, am of the impression that one "toys around with ideas" in initial planning stages. But can we reasonably accept this excuse, yes, EXCUSE with three more months to 2008? There are only two logical possibilities here:
1. Visit Brunei Year really, honestly wasn't pipelined with 2008 in mind. We, the overzealous public, blew it out of proportion. But even if we did, is it not his department, which ultimately equates to him, to have corrected us from the very beginning?
2. 2008 was a target year.
The good people at the Tourism Board did not achieve that deadline. This is somewhat acceptable. Sometimes things don't work out the way we want them to work out. What is NOT acceptable is that Mr CEO decides that it's time for damage control, his course of action - tell us that it was never "officially endorsed" anyway. This, afterall, is the very same chap who blatantly expressed his "disappointment" in the failure of the highly publicised Brunei Marathon. The concept of accountability seems to elude this man time and time again.
Having said that, however, I understand that his position is not an easy one to be in. Selling Brunei as a tourist destination is not exactly the easiest job in the world. The KNK campaign seems to be a good idea. It was the beginning of something interesting, a paradigm shift in thinking. Because someone had a eureka moment when he/she thought, "Hey! How can we sell Brunei to foreigners if we can't even sell it to ourselves?" So began an ambitious project to educate us locals on things that we may not even know about our own country. It is a good idea and according to the folks at the Tourism Board, this is just the beginning, a small piece of the big picture. We are going to get foreign tourists sooner or later.
But the bigger picture brings with it bigger setbacks. Are we ready to handle tourists logistically? Conventional "places of interest" are in a disarray.
The Brunei Museum, according to Mr Brunei Resources is in a sad state. Public transport is as reliable as the weather forecast for 2023 when we "achieve $356 million in tourism industries". This is not a chicken and egg situation where we wonder if tourists or readying ourselves should come first. The answer to this question is a simple one. Fair enough, this may be a job for other departments in other ministries of His Majesty's Government. But does the Tourism Board not have a stake in this? Is there anything on this end considered and acted upon? Or is it "not their department"?
There are many questions of this sort that need to be answered with candor by the Sultanate's sales team. I am no expert in tourism development, nor do I claim to be the right person to ask questions. But if a layman like myself can see loopholes in their plans, shouldn't our experts?
"We were just toying with the idea of hosting it next year. It was not officially endorsed by the Tourism Board. We called 2008 as celebrating Brunei 2008-09." - Sheikh Jamaluddin, CEO, Brunei Tourism Board
Let's tear this apart for a while, shall we? I, for one, am of the impression that one "toys around with ideas" in initial planning stages. But can we reasonably accept this excuse, yes, EXCUSE with three more months to 2008? There are only two logical possibilities here:
1. Visit Brunei Year really, honestly wasn't pipelined with 2008 in mind. We, the overzealous public, blew it out of proportion. But even if we did, is it not his department, which ultimately equates to him, to have corrected us from the very beginning?
2. 2008 was a target year.
The good people at the Tourism Board did not achieve that deadline. This is somewhat acceptable. Sometimes things don't work out the way we want them to work out. What is NOT acceptable is that Mr CEO decides that it's time for damage control, his course of action - tell us that it was never "officially endorsed" anyway. This, afterall, is the very same chap who blatantly expressed his "disappointment" in the failure of the highly publicised Brunei Marathon. The concept of accountability seems to elude this man time and time again.
Having said that, however, I understand that his position is not an easy one to be in. Selling Brunei as a tourist destination is not exactly the easiest job in the world. The KNK campaign seems to be a good idea. It was the beginning of something interesting, a paradigm shift in thinking. Because someone had a eureka moment when he/she thought, "Hey! How can we sell Brunei to foreigners if we can't even sell it to ourselves?" So began an ambitious project to educate us locals on things that we may not even know about our own country. It is a good idea and according to the folks at the Tourism Board, this is just the beginning, a small piece of the big picture. We are going to get foreign tourists sooner or later.
But the bigger picture brings with it bigger setbacks. Are we ready to handle tourists logistically? Conventional "places of interest" are in a disarray.
The Brunei Museum, according to Mr Brunei Resources is in a sad state. Public transport is as reliable as the weather forecast for 2023 when we "achieve $356 million in tourism industries". This is not a chicken and egg situation where we wonder if tourists or readying ourselves should come first. The answer to this question is a simple one. Fair enough, this may be a job for other departments in other ministries of His Majesty's Government. But does the Tourism Board not have a stake in this? Is there anything on this end considered and acted upon? Or is it "not their department"?
There are many questions of this sort that need to be answered with candor by the Sultanate's sales team. I am no expert in tourism development, nor do I claim to be the right person to ask questions. But if a layman like myself can see loopholes in their plans, shouldn't our experts?
Friday, September 7, 2007
What this about?
Anyone who makes Brunei thier home will understand what I am about to say. Things here are very wrong. there are certain "issues" that we have learnt to turn a blind eye to, starting from anything as fundamental to attitude and work culture to bigger, more complex complications such as government policies that may or may not, intentionallly make no sense.
For years, the general Brunei public are of the opinion that this is the way things are and there is no hope of it ever changing. The silver lining in this bleak picture may be that from observations, of mine as well as people I speak to, there are kindred spirits out there who want a change. Some have demanded such a change in vain, whilst the meeker ones sit around complaining to themselves. Nevertheless, the main point I'm trying to drive across in the past two paragraphs is that we Bruneians are aware of the need for change, regardless of the amount of proactivity we display.
This blog serves not to tarnish the good name of my home. Rather, it serves as a venue for the many opinions that may be deemed too "rude" or "sow cords of discontent". The ultimate aim of all this is that we are able to better see ourselves in a light we may not want. For progress, we, as a nation, must learn to first see that there are certain things we do wrongly. And openly admit that. For only when one learns of one's faults can one learn of ways to improve oneself. If this applies to an individual, and accepted as wisdom, does it not apply even more to a nation as a whole?
As an icebreaker, I quote the following article regarding Visit Brunei Year below and invite honest opinions in forms of either a blog comment or an email to rude.opinion@gmail.com before i dissect it in my next post.
For years, the general Brunei public are of the opinion that this is the way things are and there is no hope of it ever changing. The silver lining in this bleak picture may be that from observations, of mine as well as people I speak to, there are kindred spirits out there who want a change. Some have demanded such a change in vain, whilst the meeker ones sit around complaining to themselves. Nevertheless, the main point I'm trying to drive across in the past two paragraphs is that we Bruneians are aware of the need for change, regardless of the amount of proactivity we display.
This blog serves not to tarnish the good name of my home. Rather, it serves as a venue for the many opinions that may be deemed too "rude" or "sow cords of discontent". The ultimate aim of all this is that we are able to better see ourselves in a light we may not want. For progress, we, as a nation, must learn to first see that there are certain things we do wrongly. And openly admit that. For only when one learns of one's faults can one learn of ways to improve oneself. If this applies to an individual, and accepted as wisdom, does it not apply even more to a nation as a whole?
As an icebreaker, I quote the following article regarding Visit Brunei Year below and invite honest opinions in forms of either a blog comment or an email to rude.opinion@gmail.com before i dissect it in my next post.
Visit Brunei Not Next Year
Bandar Seri Begawan - The Visit Brunei Year (VBY) will not happen next year, but would probably be in 2009 to commemorate the 25th anniversary of our independence or 2010 to coincide with the Asean Tourism Forum (ATF), which Brunei is expected to host, CEO of Brunei Tourism Board revealed.
Speaking to the Weekend, Sheikh Jamaluddin said, "We were just toying with the idea of hosting it next year. It was not officially endorsed by the Tourism Board. We called 2008 as celebrating Brunei 2008-09.
On Brunei's big tourist spending in Malaysia where over $400 million (RM 1.1 billion) were spent during the first half of this year, Sheikh Jamaluddin said this is where the Kenali Negara Kitani (KNK) campaign or know our country is important as a step towards promoting Brunei's domestic tourism.
"The KNK campaign is very important in trying to encourage Bruneians to spend their holiday in the country itself This goes to show the importance of Brunei to attract more foreign direct investment (FDI) to open more supermarkets, departmental stores and more high quality shopping in Brunei."
Malaysia's Bernama reported Malaysia's Deputy Tourism Minister, Datuk Donald Lim Siang Chai, saying recently that Brunei is the third biggest contributor to Malaysia's tourism revenue after Singapore and Indonesia with RM 10.8 billion and RM 1.7 billion respectively.
Sheikh Jamaluddin added tourism is very important for Brunei. If we can bring more visitors to the country, these visitors will create the demand for the shop to prosper in their business. Tourism is a very important part of the nation building.
Talking about the current Brunei Golf Open, Sheikh Jamaluddin said players who come to Brunei for the first time love it. Our job is to market Brunei and it comes in many forms like golfing, familiarisation trips, trade shows and advertising.
During the recent KNK roadshow held at the Ministry of Industry and Primary Resources, it was highlighted that in three years, KNK is expected to encourage Brunei citizens to be tourists in their own country, increase SME growth, increase quality of available products and lessen the dependence on foreign tourists.
Tourism has created 11 per cent of employment for locals and therefore it was important to develop tourism and the need for everyone to know about tourism. To support our international campaign, we want to focus on domestic (tourism) first and we have KNK partners ready to support us. The campaign is a domestic branding to promote domestic tourism, which gives emphasis on programmes, activities and events to promote domestic tourism.
The objective of the KNK is to increase demand and develop domestic tourism, to make Brunei an interesting destination, educate society on the potential of tourism industry, and open opportunities of employment and business. It is hoped that Brunei would be able to achieve $356 million in tourism industries by 2023. -- Courtesy of Borneo Bulletin
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