Checks and balances vital (Part 5)

THE lack of essential due diligence — intradepartmental-cross-counter-checking — for the existence, or the current status, of applications for those necessary licences/approvals is really ruinous to applicants, especially the entrepreneurs, who desperately need a quick supply of foreign workers, (since locals are not forthcoming).

(d) It is really inequitable, unethical to ambush, to pounce on the bona fide entrepreneurs who suffer genuine labour problems due to bureaucratic delays, inefficiencies and lack of empathy and understanding.

Those entrepreneurs have duly submitted their written intentions for labour quotas, licences or approvals, yet they still suffer bureaucratic victimisation by the Little Napoleons of Immigration. "Action shall be judged only according to intentions", Hadith. This advice of the Hadith is totally disregarded due to the lack of essential due diligence.The right hand does not know what the left hand is doing! No wonder the entrepreneurs and the public end up pusing (confused) and pening (tired)! Any disregard of this Hadith is a disregard of equity and justice. Here, we come back to the titah: "Do not just serve, but serve people equally, says HM." (The Brunei Times, August 8, 2007). So to "reduce public's burden", those bureaucrats must urgently implement and interweave their essential due diligence to prevent further injustices on, and victimisation of, those helpless entrepreneurs/citizens. Otherwise, those bureaucrats themselves will continue to be the nation's own worst enemy of socio-economic progress. In the final analysis, we, as a nation, are our own enemy! Cutting our nose to spite the face. Cutting the bough on which we sit.

d(i) This particular Hadith: "Actions shall be judged only according to intentions" has a special essential bearing on the dispensing of justice. Man-made laws are by their nature defective and static. The dynamic passage of time in this cut throat competitive world make many laws quickly irrelevant, sometimes destructive against the accused. A rusty nail is lethal. Those administering justice must be willing and be prepared to accept that no bona fide entrepreneurs would want to deliberately mar their clean legal track record with individuals or the state. But unfortunately, the normal pervasive presumption is that when the bureaucrats prosecute, the accused is assumed to be guilty! What extreme duress that pushes those bureaucratic victims into a tipping point of legal entrapment, against the static law(s)? The dynamic power of those unaccountable overzealous Little Napoleons pushes them into the legal traps. Their unaccountability effectively protects them from any guilt, from owning up to their weaknesses, faults and wrongdoings. (For example, please refer to His Majesty's titah, The Brunei Times, February 23, 2007). And this Hadith may be relevant here: "No injury should be imposed nor an injury be inflicted as a penalty for another injury." Sudah jatuh ditimpa tangga. Out of the jaws of the lion, falls into the jaws of the crocodile.

d(ii) These ruinous actions of those bureaucrats are best highlighted by Profs Neo and Chen. Bureaucrats typically do not possess a dynamic, anticipative, entrepreneural efficiency. "They are slow, stodgy that consistently and, sometimes, mindlessly enforce outdated rules (regulations and laws) and stick to procedures without any care or concern for individuals or business. Dynamism implies continous learning, fast and effective execution, an unending change. Dynamic institutions can enhance the development and prosperity of a country by constantly improving and adapting the socio-economic environment in which people, business and government interact." - Profs Neo Chen, (emphasis added). Saperti kuku dengan isi. Aur dengan tebing. Thus, socio-economic progress is efficiently achieved through constant coordinated efforts of the government, as the trusted, efficient, competent and empathetic driver, with the business community, as the fuel, engine and wheels of prosperity, with the people as the nation, being the benefactors of the resultant socio-economic progress. If the people were to be troublemakers, discontented, then both the government and the business sectors would also be adversely affected. Hence again we are reminded by those Hadiths and the titah on the importance of smooth development of businesses/SMEs and hence economic growth. "Protect your wealth in order not to be a pauper" - Hadith

d(iii) At micro-one-unit business entity level, the total ruinous effect on cost being suffered by an entrepreneur and his company can be fairly accurately quantified: either caused by those bureaucratic delays, inefficiencies and criminalisation; by market problems or by internal mismanagement problems. But at macro-national level, those losses and longterm damages to the socio-economic progress of the country due to those bureaucratic damaging actions, attitude and mentality are really difficult to quantify: because there are lots of non-linear ripple effects and negative attendant consequences, social, economic and political. But the regression can be fast, pervasive and corrosive.

However ,we may able to visualise these losses and damages, over the years, when we once again ponder on these reports: "Scholar explains why Brunei's economic diversification fails" (The Brunei Times, November 18, 2006); "Brunei's growth is slowest in Asean" (The Brunei Times,, February 4, 2007); "Overcome red tape to be more productive" (The Brunei Times, July 26, 2007); "23 years on QCC still not a success, says minister" (The Brunei Times, August 21, 2007); and your latest report: "Economic growth not fast enough, says VC" (The Brunei Times, September 19, 2007).

d(iv) Coincidentally, this negative situation leads us to touch on the positive news that "Brunei firms have potential to attract angle investors" (The Brunei Times, August 20, 2007). But the qualifying word "potential" fully assumes a prerequisite of very efficient, trusted, pro-business-empathetic bureaucratic machinery and processes: encouraging, welcoming both local and foreign investors/entrepreneurs, and giving the necessary protection to their businesses and investments as well as their personal safety and security needs. For example: "In 2006, the World Bank rated Singapore as the world's easiest place to do business" (Profs Neo and Chen). If it takes agonising, months even years to get the necessary approvals and licences, and layers of cross-purposes pervade, and overzealous bureaucrats are anti-SMEs, then those "angles" will just fly away or don't even bother to "nest" here.

d(v). As has been stated earlier, bureaucratic processes have this paradox: "approving power", and "controlling power". Either way these are formidable powers. They can make you, or break you. Even one of the most successful, flamboyant billionaire-entrepreneur, Sir Richard Branson, has been "grounded" by the immutable bureaucratic "controlling power" decision of USA Department of Transportation,which has refused to allow his USA joint-venture airline to take off. (Fortune, February 5, 2007). Contrast this with the welcoming, eager "approving power" of the Malaysian Government, which has encouraged, approved Sir Richard Branson's investment in AirAsia to form AirAsia X. (The Brunei Times, August 8, 2007). The Malaysians, for that matter the Singaporeans, have learnt in the 1980s that without efficient, effective, trusted and pro-business bureaucratic system and processes, local and foreign direct investments would not flourish. A shrivelling economy is a fertile ground for numerous, endless socio-economic-political, even religious ills. Again, "People want economic development first and foremost. They want homes, medicines, jobs, schools". (Lee Kuan Yew). Again this is the essence of those Hadiths and titah.

d(vi) It is thus an urgent imperative, vitally important for the Prime Minister's Office to closely examine the very damaging effects of the absence of essential due diligence — intradepartmental-cross-counter-checkings — the efficient and effective process of checks and balances, to prevent victimisation due to unilateral action, arbitrary, exclusivist interpretations of laws by one department, by its overzealous Little Napoleons, the "surreptitious economic termites" which undermine the collective national efforts of the government, the business and the people to grow, nurture the economy for the common good.

The essential need to install an equitable check and balance system and process of essential due diligence is termed by Professors Neo and Chen as: shared views; shared values; coordinated tasks; coordinated structures; linkage mechanisms; common principles; informal socialisation to understand each other, to be empathetic. Thus the bureaucrats must be like kuku dengan isi (the nails being the integral part of the flesh) with the business community and the people; and reinforcing each other saperti aur dengan tebing (a reinforcing symbiotic existence of grassy-ferns at the riverbank), not kau-kau, aku-aku, ia punya pasal, kau punyahal, malas tah ku ingau. Everybody is in the same socio-economic boat. If the boat sinks, those bureaucrats will also sink! "It is the manner in which the government, working together with other stakeholders in society, exercises its authority and influence in promoting the collective welfare of society and the long-term interest of the nation," Andrew Tan quoted by Professors Neo and Chen.

d (vii) To those Little Napoleons, the appropriate Hadith may be this: "Smiling in the face of your brother (in this issue your brothers are the entrepreneurs) is an act of charity." And also it is essential to always bear in mind about the vital importance of fair dealing, absence of hatred, not to do wrong, but to spread justice, as reminded in the Divine Reminder, Al-Quran, Surah Al Maaidah, 5: verse 8.

"O you who believe, be upright for Allah, bearers of itness with justice; and let not hatred of a people incite you not to act equitably. Be just; that is nearer to observance of duty. And keep your duty to Allah. Surely Allah is Aware of what you do."

Another Hadith:

"Help him if he asks your help.

Give him relief if he seeks your relief. Lend him if he needs a loan.

Show him concern if he is distressed.

Nurse him when he is ill.

Attend his funeral if he dies.

Congratulate him if he meets any good.

Sympathise with him if any calamity befall him.

Do not block his air by raising your building high without his permission. Harass him not.

Give him a share when you buy fruits, and if you do not give him, bring what you buy quietly and let not your children take them out to excite the jealousy of his children."

In spite of these surfeit of Divine and Prophetic Advice for over 1400 years, we are still inefficient, harassing, increasing the public's burden.

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 6 continues tomorrow.