Blinded to plight of public (Part 2)

YOUR newspaper report titled "23 years on QCC still not a success, says minister", (The Brunei Times, August 21, 2007) which coincidentally highlights your concern over those "many stumbling national issues" under your title "Make SMEs engine of growth, says His Majesty" (The Brunei Times, July 16, 2007), and "Public service clients demand more reforms" cries your headline(The Brunei Times July 22, 2007), make us to continue to wonder why is it that those straggler Little Napoleons have such a pathologically deep-seated antipathy towards business risk takers/entrepreneurs and their SMEs?

It has been so embarrassingly mesmerising to have been told by the Supreme Head of the nation that "Among the greater challenge facing us is our readiness to own up to our weaknesses, as well as taking immediate action to remedy them." (The Brunei Times, February 23, 2007: "Shoring up the 4 pillars of the country.").

And again as was reported in the The Brunei Times, July 16, 2007: "Make SMEs engine of growth, says His Majesty": "The monarch also told all relevant parties to begin appreciating the contributions of SMEs and to start pulling together to tackle any problems they may face and called for the removal of all hurdles hindering achievements or delaying efficient service. His Majesty thus ordered all agencies that still retain tardy regulations or processes to immediately improve their outlook directing his attention onto the civil service, the monarch called for its processes and mechanisms to be constantly reviewed and revised, particularly those directly related to customer service. His Majesty reminded, once again, that its main aim is for an improved customer service, one that has been long-awaited and able to reduce the public's burden..."

The words are mild, but the moral directive is very strong. The main thrust of this titah had in fact already been launched in His Majesty's Birthday titah in 2006: namely, i) the civil service is the facilitator of development; and ii) members of the civil service to pull up their socks, (The Brunei Times, July, 16, 2006: "Sage advice to heed") As we understand it there must be no more foot dragging in the implementation of policies and to rectify flawed and sluggish processes, rules and regulations, to focus the outlook of those bureaucrats to proactively assist the birth, growth and flourishing of SMEs in this ever-changing cut-throat competitive world.

Then, from the national top academia, this concern and directive of His Majesty was once again echoed by: "A University Brunei Darussalam lecturer (who) has said that the private sector needs to overcome the barrier of slow processing within the government if it is to play a more significant role in accelerating Brunei's economic growth. The progress of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) have been hampered by the issue of bureaucracy within the government. The private sector needs a helping hand from the government to make it more convenient for them to conduct businesses in the country, subsequently contribute to the nation's economic growth" (The Brunei Times, July 26, 2007: "Overcome red tape to be more productive")

This independent assertion by the lecturer was impartially highlighted by your editorial titled: "Bureaucracy must help SMEs", (The Brunei Times, August 1, 2007). In fact your earlier editorial "Time to improve our civil service" had highlighted this bane of our socio-economic progress. (The Brunei Times, October 9, 2006).

These concerns and directives for efficiency and pro-business within the civil service have their socio-economic-religious-political prescient advice and reminders in the Hadiths of our Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) in his various Hadiths such as: "Poverty may lead to apostasy";

"A beggar who continues begging will be resurrected on the Day of Judgment with a face devoid of flesh";

"Nine of ten of (halal) income come from (halal) business";

"In later times the Ummah must build up its wealth, the economic power, to uphold and strengthen its akidah/religious affairs in this temporal, secular world as well as for the Hereafter".

This last Hadith was excerpted from the editorial of Berita Harian (Malaysia), July 30, 2004, titled "Usaha tingkat ekonomi sebahagian jihad". It elaborates: "Nabi Muhamad (saw) bersabda maksudya 'Pada akhir zaman kelak manusia harus menydiakan harta utok menagakkan urusan agama dan urusan dunianya' . Islam sentias menggalakkan utuk meningkatkan taraf ekonomi mereka, tetapi mesti dalam batasan Syariah yang di benarkan. Kedaifan ekonomi umat Islam sebahagian nya adalahberpunca daripada kegagalan merek mengamalkan Islam sebagai satu cara hidup yang lengkap dan sempurna."

Thus it is vital for those overzealous Little Napoleons to immediately diligently heed the advice and directives as a sincere ibadah, because in the context of socio-economic-religious-political sovereignty, poverty is the mother of subjugation and socio-religious ills. In fact the reality of these Hadiths is akin to what is found in the socio-cultural-economic foundation of the Chinese: "Facai zhifu shi guangrong de" (To get rich is glorious). Being "glorious" in this context is not to be arrogant, ungrateful, not to indulge in excesses, but to be able to live in measured moderation, to be able to pay zakat-fitrah, as is reminded by the Holy Quran; such as:

Surah Al Baqarah,2:Verse 201: And there are men who say:

"Our Lord! Give us Good in this world

And good in the Hereafter

And save us

From the torment

Of the fine! "

Surah Al Madidah,5:Verse 87:

"O ye who believe!

Make not unlawful

That good things which Allah

Hath made lawful for you,

But commit no excess

For Allah loveth not

Those given to excess."

Surah A' Raaf, 7:Verse 31:-

"O children of Adam!

Wear your beautiful apparel

At every time and place

Of prayer: eat and drink:

But waste not by excess,

For Allah Loveth not the wasters."

Islam clearly recognises the vital importance of material well-being, such as for zakat and be philanthropists (giving waqaf, charitable endowment or trusts). To be deprived of the basic needs of life, to be in a state of dire poverty, to be beggars, is to be in a terrible state. That is why, "Poverty" warned the Prophet (peace be upon him) "can lead to kufr (apostate)"; and that begging is condemned.

In modern context poverty and begging produce numerous socio-economic-religious-political ills. Thus it is vital that those bureaucrats who use their "CONTROLLING POWER" must always recognise, must always bear in their minds those Hadiths. Misuse and abuse of their controlling power can facilitate the spawning of these ills.

"Work for the world as if you will live forever; And work for the eternal life as if you will die tomorrow." So the government/the public sector and the private sector must always work in tandem, not at cross-purposes.

Thus ever very mindful of these potential dire, deleterious effect of deprivations and their concomitant ills, your pondering in your editorial, titled "Search for the right chemistry to hit it off" (The Brunei Times, November 17, 2006) leads you to state that "Many such calls had gone out in the past, but surprisingly, not enough heed has been paid to them." Our interpretation of this statement is that have we had our Little Napoleons loyally diligently, honestly paid heed to those concerns, calls and advice and directives, they would have quickly effectively, efficiently, quickly responded to them as was emphasised by the authorative advice of the World Development Report which directed countries to "remove obstacles for businesses, which create 90 per cent of jobs and pay taxes for welfare work.

A vibrant private sector creates jobs, provides the goods and services needed to improve living standards, and contributes taxes necessary for public investment in health, education and other services." (The StraitsTimes, September 21, 2004) (This is exactly what those Hadiths have always reminded us of since almost 1,500 years ago!).

"Communities need states to protect them, to promote their welfare, to enforce

justice.All have to cultivate economic prosperity so that they can raise tax to pay for necessary public services, such as roads, just like their predecessors millennia ago." ("Good and Bad Power" by Geoff Mulgan).

It is really a truism that to steadily, successfully develop the country, those bureaucrats who hold the paradox of power: "approving authority" and "controlling authority" must be efficient, empathetic, pro-facilitation, supporters of business. Those bureaucrats in this cut-throat competitive world must give priority to, must concentrate their mind, outlook, their energy and intelligence, sympathy and empathy, to their "approving power", the "yes key", their constructive capability.

Erecting their debilitating barriers and hurdles, their "controlling power" so long, so high as to trip entrepreneurs and their SMEs, would only make those bureaucrats the enemy against socio-economic development and progress of the nation.

Prof Adam Galinsky in the Journal Psychological Science, Northwestern University's Kellog School Of Management asserts that "those possessing determining, controlling bureaucratic power dramatically hinders their perspective, and numbs them to the sufferings of other people, and less able to take into account others lack of privileged information. They often don't anticipate what someone else will understand". Thus we feel this could be the reason, the cause, why those Little Napoleons are so oblivious to those national concerns and directives to support, to be empathetic, to nurture the births, the growth, the flourishing of our entrepreneurs and their SMEs. We would equate those straggler Little Napoleons to wellfrogs which can not imagine the depth and turbulences of the ocean; a summer insect which can not conceive of cold snow and avalanches. Are those bureaucrats really inflicted by deep-seated pathological envy or hatred of entrepreneurs, especially fledgling entrepreneurs and their SMEs? (To use our proverb "Katak bawah tempurong" is not appropriate because being under a tempurong (coconut shell) is harmless, docile, but myopic if allowed to do work.) Or do they really have that "teflon" mentality? Menjerus ayer kedaun keladi? Susah orang jangan peduli?

Dr Norman Davis, in his book "On Psychology of Military Incompetence", writes that "they (the military) are inflicted by anti-intellectualism, aversion to feed-back that threatens self-esteem". Similarly Noboru Yoshimura and Philip Anderson wrote: "(We) uncover so rather obvious mistakes (in the Japanese military promotion practice) and ask why they were repeated again and again.

Their conclusion, among others, is that the military evaluated the spirit of officers when deciding who to promote, ignoring whether they possessed necessary skills or an objective understanding of the situation" (Their book:

"Inside the Kaisa-Demystifying Japanese Business Behaviours", Harvard -Business School.) A wellfrog and a summer insect phenomenon? Isn't this what one of the Hadiths always reminds us that we must never ever put a square peg into a round hole! A mismatch of assumption of power and reality of power and empathy, of personal antipathy and national survivability.

Thus, judging from the collective national concern and various continuous advice and directives as could be digested from the contents of your newspapers, they seem to confirm that those Little Napoleons are having pathological anti-business/anti SMEs afflictions infused with an illusion of recalcitrant invincible mentality. Might is right. This has blinded them to the public plight.

Yang Dimuliakan Pehin Orang Kaya Lela Raja Dato Seri Laila Jasa Haji Awang Abdul Rahman bin Haji Awang Karim, DSLJ, PJK was formerly Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Defence

Part 3 of the discourse continues tomorrow.