Secret Recipe

I have the privilege of attending a training course on Economic Development in Singapore and today was actually the second day. I must say I’ve been enjoying it and so far have learnt a couple of ‘development tricks’.

Now, we (at least, I) often wonder how did Singapore do it? From Rags to Riches. From Zero to Hero. From Third World to First World. What are the secret recipes or the brilliance of it? Well, the answer is NOT so secret or complex at all! In fact, it’s all about simplicity.

We know for a fact that Singapore has no natural resource and uses its human resource to develop the country into what it is today. But it doesn’t mean Singaporeans are different from any other people in the world. What actually make Singaporeans appear to be superior (or cleverer or more hardworking) than Bruneians, for example, are simple basic rules that they live by.

1. Do Not Make Life Difficult: Especially for a small country where human resource is limited. We don’t have many people to handle too many regulations/jobs/complexity. Take Ease of Doing Business as an example. In Singapore, there’s only 1 form to fill and takes less than a day for a business application to be processed. Does this mean the Singapore government is not being vigilant i.e. by letting any Tom, Dick and Harry to set up whatever business he wants? Does this mean the business can be set up anywhere and anyhow it wants it to be? So how does the government ensure that any business is properly set up? The answer lies in no. 2 and no. 3.

2. Treat People as Humans with Brains: Normal human being should be able to think rationally and generally will abide by the rule. Not forgetting, almost everyone wants to do well for themselves. So a genuine businessman should follow whatever regulation there is.

3. Implementation is Key: No matter how perfect a policy is designed, without implementation, it is guaranteed to fail. So in our example of setting up a business, any businessman that does not follow the regulation, must be punished and treated according to the law. The implementation act is the perfect deterrence of any wrong-doing.

4. Think Ahead: Singapore policymakers are trained to think ahead, see the bigger picture, and to do something now in preparation for the future. This act of pro-activity as opposed to re-activity, to me, is the secret recipe to the Singapore success.

All of the above appear to have been applied to all sorts of policies including the administration such as the appointment of leaders and top management, the budget allocation and so forth and so on.

So to conclude, Singapore did not and perhaps never adopted any complex policy after all. All they did was applying the commonest sense in all of its development policy. And this continues until today. And it works.

Salaam.

Melayu Mudah Lupa

Our Malaysian friends held a farewell dinner for us last night. After the delicious beriyani and rendang, as usual we talked and discussed about the current issues. Last night’s discussion was interesting as it revolved around the ‘malay dilemma’ topic. At the moment, as you and I know, the racial tension in Malaysia is quite pronounced.

There were two camps last night. One opinion was that it is the malays’ right to be given the privileges given the fact that it is the malay land and therefore, the non-malays should not have any right to demand what is not rightfully theirs. And the success of the non-malays is seen as the result of some ‘conspiracy’ against the malays which include the policies that seem to be in favour of the non-malays or rather disfavour the malays.

Another opinion however believes that it is actually the malays themselves who are not utilising the privileges and opportunities that are given to them to their great advantage. The fact is ‘Melayu Mudah Lupa’ (Malay Forget Easily – the title of Mahathir’s book). We forget why we are given those privileges. Believing that they are our rights, we don’t value them anymore. As a result, we don’t work as hard as the non-malays (who have to survive) and the non-malays have emerged to be more successful, cleverer and wealthier.

And for this reason, we believe that there should exist a healthy competitive environment for the malays to prove that they are as good as or in fact better than the non-malays.

In Brunei, Alhamdulillah, we still live harmoniously together. Partly I believe is due to our small population and partly due to our ideology of ‘Melayu Islam Beraja’ (Malay, Islamic, Monarchy). As a result, the competition between the malay and the non-malay in Brunei is less severe or almost non-existent. This however does not mean that the Brunei malay is immune from the symptom of forgetfulness. In fact, we even take many things for granted. Take the ‘Ali Baba’ syndrome in the business sector for example. We want to be rich easily and quickly. Instead of genuinely running a business, we sell or rent out our permits and licenses to foreigners. As a result, the number of Brunei malays who have become true entrepreneurs that we can be proud is less than the ten fingers in our hands as compared to the number of business establishments (especially ‘kedai runcit’, barbershops and tailor shops).

Another example relates to the work attitude of the Brunei malays. The five-tea-break-a-day routine becomes the culture in the government sector. The attitude of ‘karang tah’ has lost the government millions of dollars in terms of productivity and even revenue-generation. As a result, the government sector, which is the first employment choice of any Brunei malay, is slow, inefficient and backward so much so that it can take weeks to send a letter within one tiny district, and months for the results of a few applications. (Come on! What is our population again?)

I totally concur with Dr. Mahathir who said “it is not race or ethnicity but the culture which determines the performance (of the people)”. So, to succeed we must change our culture. It is difficult, of course. To hope that we Bruneians will realize and change ourselves is probably a big wishful thinking.

Therefore, we have to create an environment that can change our perception of our rights of being Brunei malays, our perception of running a business and our perception of work – ‘work to live’ versus ‘live to work’ for our family and our country. We must look towards work as the true reward and take pride in our work, for without pride there may not be progress. This kind of environment may involve monetary reward but the reward should not outweigh the satisfaction of the achievement being made.

We have been blessed with oil and gas. We forget that this will not last forever. While the current generation probably cannot change, the next generation needs to change. We have to ensure that the next generation understands their purpose in life (which sadly is not understood by the current one). It is not an easy task but it has to be done.

Salaam.

Not Likely to Change

Apparently our local youths still think that it is their given birth right to work in the government sector (here for full news). Oh perhaps, their life is still full of roses that having no job is better than having a low-paying job in the private sector.

To solve this dilemma, here’s a thought. Considering the government sector is already saturated (or so as I was told) i.e. it can no longer employ the whole 6000 job-seekers (and it shouldn’t be!), there should be some mechanism in place that should stop the idea that everyone can get a government job. And at the same time, make people value their private sector job or at least stick to their private sector job until their contract ends (with good behaviour). So I say, increase the level of qualification requirement and make ‘private sector employment’ a pre-requisite to the ‘popular’ public sector job.

Now, with regard to the ‘elaun sara hidup’, I think it’s either we scrap it off OR give to ALL Bruneians, fair and square (after all everyone is doing their bits to develop the country, regardless of the sector, no?)

Salaam.

Liveable City

When I was reading this article, I can’t help thinking about Brunei’s Vision to be among the world’s top 10 countries in terms of GDP per capita and quality of life. So, I wonder whether Brunei (or any part of it) will one day ever make into the top 10 liveable cities in the world. According to Monocle, the ingredients to be a liveable city are:

“a mix of shops and services within walking distance, a good transport interchange within close proximity, green space as part of their residence, a good park with a body of water for a refreshing plunge nearby, independent businesses as a key feature of the community, a sense of security (police on the beat or a Japanese-style police box in their neighbourhood), excellent coffee (Melbourne's Fitzroy and St Kilda and Sydney's Potts Point frequently came up as neighbourhoods that had the ideal mix of restaurants, cafés and street life) and finally a little bit of grit and surprise.”

Judging from the latest result which saw many of the European cities topping the list, it looks like we still have a looonnnggg way to go.

Salaam.

Wawasan Brunei 2035 and National Development Plan 2007-2012

I have not read Wawasan Brunei 2035 (Brunei Vision 2035) nor the new National Development Plan (Rancangan Kemajuan Negara - RKN), which for some reason was not called the ninth. Hence, I cannot really make a lot of comments on the contents of these 2 national books. For everyone’s benefits, there are 3 main objectives to achieve Brunei Vision 2035 and these are:

1) Brunei to be recognized as a highly educated and skilled people;
2) To have a quality of life among 10 top nations in the world; and
3) To be among the top 10 GDP per capita income nations in the world.

I have found some interesting reads regarding Wawasan 2035 including a presentation made by Dr Richard Leete at the Brunei Forum in Singapore and an article featured in the economist.

The most interesting paper I came across however was a paper by Brunei’s National Development Party which can be found here. The 17 page paper, written in malay, highlights a few weaknesses of the new RKN and gives some proposals for improvements. Among the key points are (pardon my poor translation):

1) The new RKN lacks a comprehensive planning structure: For instance it does not show the specific sectors to be developed and their projected contribution to the economic growth. It also does not address the demand and supply aspects of economic development which will give a more realistic picture;

2) The use of GDP per-capita as the measurement of quality of life will not give a true picture. The GDP per-capita is not a measure of income equality. A greater income equality will ensure a higher quality of life. The Plan however does not address the issue of income equality;

3) The lack of detailed data to support some of the strategy such as the reduction of foreign labour dependence;

4) The lack of strategies to achieve some of the human resource development objectives;

5) The Plan does not explain the method of the calculation of the multiplier effect, which will be used as the basis of project selection.

From my point of view, those points are valid, economically sound and definitely not some mere criticism. What they have raised in that paper are very important and should be taken seriously by the relevant policy-makers in ensuring the successful implementation of the current and any future RKN.

Salaam.

The Curses

I'd hate to think that we are cursed. Double cursed. First, there was the Curse of the Resource (in our case, oil). Now, I wonder if we also suffer from the Curse of the Third Generation as explained by Hsu Dar Ren:

"Looking around us, we can observe that many super rich families often discover that their estate cannot survive the third generation.

The first generation often starts out poor, but through sheer hard work and thriftiness and a little bit of luck become wealthy. From being wealthy, many of them then join the class of the super rich as a result of good entrepreneurial skills and judgment. Many of them, however, remain thrifty even when they become very rich.

The second generation very often grows up during the time their parents were struggling to make their fortune. They are better educated and often will be taught by their parents to "fish" intelligently. So when the family fortune passes to their hands, many of them can still maintain the business and some even expand on it. They are, of course, less thrifty than their parents, and will often marry someone from a rich family.

However, the third generation is usually born with silver spoons in their mouths. They are generally brought up in a life of luxury. They are usually not taught how to fish but are pampered with all sorts of expensive "fish" and hobbies. Many of them are sent overseas for education, but it is not uncommon to find some of them just fooling around and living an extravagant lifestyle. They are given everything and because of that, they do not really know how to cope with difficult situations and the intricacies of the business world.

Adding to that, the family wealth inevitably gets diluted among the more numerous siblings in the 2nd and 3rd generations, especially when these generations are unable to do much to expand the family businesses.

So, the wealth that was passed down just withers away. This is commonly known as the Curse of the Third Generation".

Fate, Cursed or whatever you want to call it, as a Muslim I believe:

“…Surely Allah does not change the condition of a people until they change their own condition…” (Qur’an 13:11).

Salaam.

Land Dilemma

I found an interesting article by Brunei’s National Development Party on the issue of land ownership (click here) which reminds me of a discussion I had with a colleague from the Land Department.

I am no expert in the whole land issue/policy but I do not think the objective of ensuring the local ownership of land has been successfully met, in fact I think it actually has backfired. True, it is a sensitive issue. And for that precise reason, it needs a special attention. The Land Code 1909 really is too outdated, and I do think it deserves some amendments that can accommodate the needs of a new century and most of all the needs of the current economy and its future development without compromising the ‘rightful’ ownership. However for now, I reserve further comments.

Salaam.