Oh Meritocracy, where art thou?

The other day I read a posting on Rogue Economist's blog touching on the issue of meritocracy and it sparked an emotional stirring in me, enough for me to get on again to contribute a little of my thoughts on it and also share our experiences with meritocracy, or rather lack of meritocracy in our current system - both government and private sector alike.

Meritocracy is both a politically and socially sensitive issue in our country - in fact in any country of diverse ethnicity. For Brunei, like it or not, as Rogue Economist puts it "has yet to prove that it's a nation of meritocracy, where people are rewarded for their contribution (regardless of the age) and not for their length of service or worse, for certain 'birthrights''.

Her words are poignant and important, especially now when you have more educated Bruneians than we have ever had since the discovery of oil back in 1929. Only 50 years ago, Bruneians were not well educated, and we would be hard pressed to find a Bruneian who could read or write. But today, we have literacy rates of well over 90% and more and more tertiary education graduates are joining the work force everyday. While we do not speak out in public about these issues, we know glass ceilings exists along age, gender, social status and racial lines for most people. And if there's one thing about educated and truly competent people, it's that we all want to be judged based on our competence as well as our ability to deliver and perform. So is meritocracy something our Bruneian society can and is ready to embrace and accept?

"Meritocracy defined: The concept of meritocracy is defined as attributing employment or promotion to objective personal merits of competence, qualification, performance and aptitude without any subjective consideration such as race, colour, ethnic or religious belonging or political affiliation" (source: International Development Research Centre)

Meritocracy has been likened to the progeny of democracy, i.e. meritocracy is an important part of an inclusive society and that 'while it (meritocracy) recognizes the value of full participation within society, it also advocates the importance of including meritorious hierarchy into the social and political landscape. It is a system that states that society should be structured around human ability rather than wealth or aristocratic privilege' (see here for source and more thoughts on meritocracy by the author).

Most of us know that aristocratic privilege is still a strong factor in Brunei's labour market, and that many very competent people without the right 'attributes' be it gender, race, father's name or title, have been either excluded or sidelined for more 'suitable' candidates. But unless at some point in our country's development, we, or rather, the people in power and leaders show sufficient character to level the playing field for all Bruneians, competent people will continue to be sidelined and demoted to nothing more than bit roles and extras in Brunei's economic development stage.

The one other thing true about educated and competent professionals is this: we don't wait around if the system discriminates against us - as competent people do, they just find greener pastures to move on to, sometimes very reluctantly, as believe it or not, most of us educated and competent Bruneians do want to help our country grow. This is something for all of us to think about - that if meritocracy is an important part of our ability to move forward as a country and society, then if not now, when? When should we accept meritocracy as our future system, and allow competence, ability and performance to become a yardstick for each and every individual in our country?

Will you buy a $20 pack of cigarettes?

Thank you for NOT smoking

Recently Bruneians have had a significant policy issue to deal with in their daily lives. First and foremost, the Tobacco Order has unleashed a flurry of exchanges between citizens and government, through media portals such as brudirect.com, and Borneo Bulletin. The issue isn't just confined to us only too. In today's article in Borneo Bulletin titled Yudhoyono sued over tobacco treaty, the article reported that 4 NGOs are suing the Indonesian president for failing to protect the welfare of Indonesians - amidst the increasing cost of food and fuel, cigarettes remain the cheapest around the region and its net effect is increasing tobacco related health issues, further pushing millions of Indonesians into poverty.

While Bruneians aren't exactly in the same situation, we nonetheless should take heed from this scenario - Bruneians will continue to spend on relatively cheap cigarettes while destroying their health, amidst potentially increasing prices in food, and other material goods - in fact today's Borneo Bulletin already highlighted the increased in CPI in the past 3 months. The Brunei authorities have done everything they can to make the Tobacco Order work, setting up task forces and putting up signs. But 2 very critical component of any effort to reduce tobacco consumption alludes the authorities political will to enforce: 1) pricing, and 2) placing disturbing pictures of the effects of smoking on packaging of cigarettes to discourage smokers. As most develop nations progress in their anti-tobacco drive, these measures have been taken up.

So why did the authorities not introduce higher pricing for tobacco as part of the Tobacco Order? Given that we can safely assume that increasing the price of cigarettes will, with almost 100% certainty, affect the sale and consumption of cigarettes, we can only guess as to why pricing hasn't been adjusted upwards. Perhaps it is to placate the smokers in our society, or perhaps adjusting the pricing of cigarettes is more politically sensitive and therefore requires a more measured approach and intervention. Note: yes we do hear the counter argument that increasing the price may just encourage smuggling and the black market for cigarettes, but regardless of this occurring, increasing price will have the net effect of reducing ease of consumption of tobacco for younger Bruneians as they are less likely to take up smoking if they cost alot and approaching the black market for a pack of cigarette may just be too inconvenient for any youth to contemplate.

The second step in which Bruneian authorities can introduce into the Tobacco Order is to require importers to include 'gory' pictures of health effects of smoking (we need to confirm whether this is already in the Order). Most countries have these graphic warning labels, and personally we can attest to its successful effect of stopping you right in your tracks when you reach to buy a box of cigars, you also get a picture of someone's cancerous lungs on display, or a picture of an aborted foetus - not a pretty sight, yes we know, but neither is dying from lung cancer due to smoking. WARNING: click here, here and here to see sample of these pictures but you have been warned, they are EXTREMELY disturbing.

So will the authorities make the tough call and take the more paternalistic and more committed approach and introduce more effective policies to control the spread of smoking? And if so, when? What we don't want is to see all the song and dance of anti-smoking by various government ministries, but at the end of the day in practical terms, smoking remains unabated and allowed to continue to grab a hold of Brunei's next generation.

Showing our maturity as a debating society

Having had this site up for the past few months, we've had a great time in trying to promote a good sensible discussion over the affairs of our country. We believe, and still do so strongly, that through open discussion and debate of issues, that we could 1) promote our tolerance for differing opinions on issues - a tolerance we feel is unfortunately sorely lacking in our country and 2) to play the devil's advocate on various issues, to spin issues to show the other side of the coin/story and by doing so to give people a different perspective which otherwise may not be apparent. However today our wish to encourage this has been stumped by very irresponsible individuals who used this site to go on some childish huffing puffing which did not add anything constructive to discussions relating to our country's economy or well being.

In light of this, we've changed our tag line to highlight that despite the freedom accorded to us by our government to set up blogs and websites detailing our opinions - from social news to food preferences to sports of all kinds, we must do so responsibly and maintain social decorum. Otherwise we'll degenerate to nothing more than a bunch of intellectual hooligans where the loudest individual is heard even if their words or debate is damaging to our society. The nature of open debate, discussion and analysis will unfortunately mean that some people may disagree with the points raised, but isn't that the whole point of it all, i.e. to show people differing perspectives in a world that isn't simply black and white but contains shades of grays and a thousand other colours? Devolving our discussions into mindless deriding rants of a vilifying nature is uncalled for and unnecessary, and only goes to show that we still have a long way to go to actually reaching a level of social maturity to handle ourselves with respect and dignity when it comes to different opinions, backgrounds etc.

When this site was started, we encouraged everyone to 'Discuss. Debate. Analyse. For a brighter future for Brunei'. Now we would like to encourage people who choose to visit this site to respect our rules and to 'Discuss. Debate. Analyse. Responsibly. For a brighter future for Brunei'.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle - Eggs poached

Not sure what the appeal is, as most of us have never tried a turtle egg before, but as this stories show, it seems Bruneians still have an acquired taste for turtle eggs - a protected species (i.e. the turtle).

The news release mentioned that the eggs were brought into the country for sale, at a value of over $4k. Question is, where are these eggs being stolen from? If we're to protect the species, not only do we have to stop the demand of them in Brunei but also work closely with our neighbours to stop the theft of these eggs and manage sanctuaries for turtles.

I wonder what punishment will be dished out to the local that was apprehended. Will it be strong enough to act as a future deterrence to him and others?

Unintended Consequences - Migrating Smokers

I obey the law and I get punished while others who flog it get away with the $$$$ - the story of Bruneian life

According to today's article by Debbie Too of The Brunei Times, smokers are flocking to smaller restaurants and cafes in secluded parts of town to satisfy their nicotine cravings over a cup of tea/coffee and roti kuning (maybe a murtabak or two). This doesn't seem all that surprising, since there are so many restaurants and Cafes in Brunei and only a limited number of enforcement officers (Anti Tobacco Action Team or ATAT as they call it in Ripas Hospitals). The unintended consequences of this lopsided and non-universal enforcement of the Tobacco order is now directly affecting the businesses of those cafes and restaurants that are forced to adhere to the Order because of their location, and rewarding those who are relaxed and don't bother with the obeying the Tobacco order knowing that they aren't likely to be punished because of their secluded location.

How is the government going to solve this problem? There are a few obvious ways, but it involves the deployment of resources that agencies may not already have. Some possible solutions:

1) Increase the number of enforcement agents or set up a special task force whose full time job, 8 hours a day is to drive around to their specified assigned locations to check up on these restaurants. With the number of restaurants in Brunei, you would need a considerable number of agents, which renders this solution very resource intensive.

2) Get citizens to get involved in the enforcement of the Tobacco Order. Anyone who has evidence of people smoking in Cafes and Restaurants can call the task force who can then come in to investigate. The downside of this is of course person or persons making that call might end up getting threatened by smokers who may or may not already be in a foul mood from their nicotine withdrawal.

3) Stop selling cigarettes in restaurants and cafes altogether, and jack up the prices of cigarettes across the board. You may be able to smoke in those cafes hidden away in the jungle, but if each stick costs you $2.00, you'd think twice before you have a puff.

Either ways, the relevant agencies have a fight on their hands. If they don't step up their efforts to curb this migration of smokers and inadvertently punishing cafes and restaurants obeying the law and rewarding those that can get away with it, this will yet be another example of poor enforcement and citizens thumbing their nose at authorities who are either unwilling or not well equipped to follow through with their policies - what is it we say again in Brunei about N.A.T.O - No Action Talk Only?

If our authorities invested in one of these AT-AT,
Rebel Smokers would be easily wiped out....
(*snigger*our attempt at a geek joke)

Job Seekers told to trust Private Sector - do you agree?

Thanks Observer for bringing this up. On our side, I would have to suggest the Bruneian government strengthen labour policies to protect those who enter the private sector. Currently labour laws in Brunei do not protect private sector employees, and the ILO's Core Labour Standards such as collective bargaining and freedom of association is curbed by Brunei's Emergency laws.

We'll leave it to people to add in their comments. Suffice to say, more needs to be done in the private sector to actually promote it as a employment sector of choice. At this point in time, employees in the private sector are at the mercy of their employers as labour laws are designed in favour of employers. You're fine if you work for the big multinationals as they have their own core set of principles and standards, but go work for any local private sector companies, and you're on your own.

For more info on the ILO and the Core Standards, click here