Who is a Bruneian?
Tuesday, August 14, 2007
SEVERAL months ago, a Bruneian blog posted a list of characteristics of a Bruneian, which then was circulated quite widely. In "Bruneian according to (a) Bruneian," the writer says how a Bruneian would "miss-call" rather than call or send SMS, park his car as close as possible as to a destination area, go to a "meeting" where actually he would only be "listening", and how Indomie would be his staple food whereas "Ayamku" would be his fast food of choice.
If you are a Bruneian, the writer goes on, "you'd go to someone's wedding and give money using an envelope, putting your name on it, or you think you don't give enough you use a blank envelope". "Motorcycles and bicycles are not your transport, they are your sports". "You like electronic products from Japan. You are in BIG debts and refuse to pay the lenders and yet still drive a CLK and live in a mansion".
"You are loud and speak in melandih way. You spend lavishly on your wedding even though you are broke. You drive to the shop next door even though the shop is only 100m away (except maybe in Kampung Ayer). When you want to get some service from the government agencies, you will find your saudara first".
The list, written with tongue-in-cheek, goes on and forces readers to emit loud snorts of laughter. "If something goes wrong, you will say that one of the datos or pehins is your relative (or at least they know you). You rush to a new shopping mall just to beat everybody else even though it's just another Hua Ho. You like to stare at phones for 24 hours and chat on MSN. You have two handphones — one for DST and the other for BMobile (for one month and then switch off one or the other)".
Stereotypes are never an accurate portrayal of people; their usefulness as an identity is very limited. But the list of a typical Bruneian given in the blog serves its purpose, which is to make people really think: Who is a Bruneian?
But is there any such thing as a typical Bruneian? The answers given to this question may be as varied as those given by people seeking to identify a "typical" Japanese, Irish, Korean, American, Arab, Asian, Indonesian or European. There are millions of Indonesians whose staple food is Indomie, but they are not like Bruneians.
So back to the question: Who is a Bruneian? The Bruneians themselves must respond to this question, and chances are they will find it easy to give a much longer list of things that they think are uniquely Bruneian. A strain similar to the one found in the blog may emerge: namely that Bruneians lead an easy, comfortable, pampered existence in this country so that some people become complacent and bland, and reluctant to learn and better themselves.
Of course the answers might still be stereotypical or even half-truths because there are people living in hardship even in Brunei, and there are hard workers and hard learners among us. However, though stereotypes are not reliable judgment of a people's character, they too serve a purpose, even if only to highlight the strength and flaws so as to assist introspection and self-improvement.
Is it true that comforts and ease hamper learning and cause blandness? We may debate. American Islam's poet laureate Daniel Abdal Hayy Moore said several years ago that "when Russian poets were no longer meeting in secret and mimeographing their poems — passionate poems of both hopelessness and resistance — in fear of the secret police, their poetry started to lose its edge, became bland, without the traction of poetic dissent. Do we prefer oppression, tyranny and mass murder so we can write incandescent poetry? Of course not. But it is an interesting aspect of a culture that becomes benumbed by ease".
If you are a Bruneian, the writer goes on, "you'd go to someone's wedding and give money using an envelope, putting your name on it, or you think you don't give enough you use a blank envelope". "Motorcycles and bicycles are not your transport, they are your sports". "You like electronic products from Japan. You are in BIG debts and refuse to pay the lenders and yet still drive a CLK and live in a mansion".
"You are loud and speak in melandih way. You spend lavishly on your wedding even though you are broke. You drive to the shop next door even though the shop is only 100m away (except maybe in Kampung Ayer). When you want to get some service from the government agencies, you will find your saudara first".
The list, written with tongue-in-cheek, goes on and forces readers to emit loud snorts of laughter. "If something goes wrong, you will say that one of the datos or pehins is your relative (or at least they know you). You rush to a new shopping mall just to beat everybody else even though it's just another Hua Ho. You like to stare at phones for 24 hours and chat on MSN. You have two handphones — one for DST and the other for BMobile (for one month and then switch off one or the other)".
Stereotypes are never an accurate portrayal of people; their usefulness as an identity is very limited. But the list of a typical Bruneian given in the blog serves its purpose, which is to make people really think: Who is a Bruneian?
But is there any such thing as a typical Bruneian? The answers given to this question may be as varied as those given by people seeking to identify a "typical" Japanese, Irish, Korean, American, Arab, Asian, Indonesian or European. There are millions of Indonesians whose staple food is Indomie, but they are not like Bruneians.
So back to the question: Who is a Bruneian? The Bruneians themselves must respond to this question, and chances are they will find it easy to give a much longer list of things that they think are uniquely Bruneian. A strain similar to the one found in the blog may emerge: namely that Bruneians lead an easy, comfortable, pampered existence in this country so that some people become complacent and bland, and reluctant to learn and better themselves.
Of course the answers might still be stereotypical or even half-truths because there are people living in hardship even in Brunei, and there are hard workers and hard learners among us. However, though stereotypes are not reliable judgment of a people's character, they too serve a purpose, even if only to highlight the strength and flaws so as to assist introspection and self-improvement.
Is it true that comforts and ease hamper learning and cause blandness? We may debate. American Islam's poet laureate Daniel Abdal Hayy Moore said several years ago that "when Russian poets were no longer meeting in secret and mimeographing their poems — passionate poems of both hopelessness and resistance — in fear of the secret police, their poetry started to lose its edge, became bland, without the traction of poetic dissent. Do we prefer oppression, tyranny and mass murder so we can write incandescent poetry? Of course not. But it is an interesting aspect of a culture that becomes benumbed by ease".
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