Dewasa Bernegara Part 1

I’ve been back for more than 4 months but I still cannot accept how Bruneians, especially parents, actually live. They don’t seem to value their lives and their children’s. I’m referring to the use of safety belts in the cars of course. Everyday, everywhere I see children jumping up and down in the passenger seats. What is worse, I always see parents who actually drive with a child on his/her lap. Once, I actually saw a car swerved in the middle of a road and when I looked at the driver, it was a man holding a crying BABY!

It looks like the law on child-seat and safety belts fall on deaf ears.

Some people blame it on the implementation of the regulations. They say the police are not doing anything about it so why should we. I say: when accidents happen, those policemen won’t lose their lives but you and your children will.

Some people say the child-seat is expensive. I say: more expensive than the lives of your children?

Some other people say their children refuse to sit in the child-seat and/or wear safety-belts. Since they don’t want to upset their children then let them do as they wish. I say: You don’t love your children!

I’m ashamed and saddened by the way we Bruneians see and live life. After 25 years of independence, do we deserve to be called ‘Dewasa Bernegara’ when we do not even want to be responsible for our own lives and that of our children? When we still need other people to look after our lives? When we still embrace the old-skool mentality of law-breakers as opposed to law-abiders?

Oh dear.

Salaam.

Islamic Banking in Brunei

This morning on the way to our children’s school we listened to ‘Pedoman’ (Nur Islam Channel) and the topic discussed was Islamic Banking. The good Ustaz was explaining the virtue of the system and so on and so forth, which reminded me of my fourth year Islamic Economics course that I took ages ago.

Although I can’t recall 95 percent of what I had learnt during my early twenty’s, the one thing that I still remember is that the system is based on ‘profit and loss sharing’ and the prohibition of ‘riba’ (interest).

Now, a few days ago, I bought a car and took a car loan from one of Brunei’s Islamic finance institutions. I am no expert in Islamic banking so I asked the loan officer to explain to me the difference between the car loan offered by them and those offered by the conventional banks. Well, his answer was simply we’re Islamic! Well, that didn’t answer my question, I pointed out to him that the monthly payment for the loan was exactly the same as the monthly payment that I would need to pay if I were to use a conventional bank. It was only a matter of preference!

I did not want to press the poor guy partly for the fear of rejection of my loan application and partly I knew it was not his fault in the first place. I actually asked the same question to a number of that particular bank’s staff whenever I visited it and I always got the same answer. It makes me wonder whether the bank has ever given its staff a training course on Islamic banking. I feel sorry if it hasn’t and I think it should.

Anyway, somebody please explain to me how Islam are the Islamic banks in Brunei? Frankly, I don’t see the difference between them and any of the conventional banks, in terms of their operation. They may not be involved in the financing of any of the unislamic activities such as gambling, entertainment etc. but I think in terms of profit and loss sharing- which is the basis of the system, they only share the former but never the latter, which to me makes them no better than any conventional bank.

So, please prove me wrong.

Salaam.

Still Alive

Finally, the broadband is now up and running. Thanks for still dropping by. Will write soon (although the choice of topic is now quite limited).

Salaam.