Why foreign workers needed (Part 6)

THE Education Minister's advice: "Equip students with business skills: Minister." (The Brunei Times, August 10, 2007) is only to be lauded. And now the Vice-Chancellor University Brunei Darussalam has stated similar opinion, (The Brunei Times, September 19, 2007). However, it must always be borne in mind that business theory can only be explained and taught, but can never ever be "experienced".

Experience, in this context is the process of feeling the reality of twists and turns, the blood, sweat and tears, pains and fears of failures and sleepless nights. Being actually hit by a bullet.We can never ever "transfer" , "feel" these agonising pains and pressures to the students in the classroom .

Experience is the greatest teacher. Some even asserted that in business you must always anticipate; if you react, you are already dead! In business, an army of lions lead by a sheep will always be defeated by an army of sheep lead by a lion" (Arab proverb). But the destructive element on the part of "controlling authority" is not about the sheep and the lions: it is all about the destructive power of those Little Napoleons versus the hapless citizens.

How do we "teach" the students this bureaucratic induced painful, financially debilitating experience? How do we "teach" the agonies of indefinite wait for a necessary approval? How do we "teach" the agonies of being ambushed not due to one's fault but due to bureaucratic arbitrary exclusivist interpretation of laws, and due to their lack of essential due diligence-interdepartmental-cross counter-checkings? How do you deal face to face with overzealous Little Napoleons barging into your premises without any Government identification? How do you "experience" to the classroom the paralysing cross-purposes, conflicting decisions between departments under different ministries, and even under the same ministry, and the consequential pains being inflicted on the applicants/the citizens?

The reality of the pains of sufferings can never ever be enacted in the classroom. How do we "transmit" to the classroom the pains and the crushing disappointment and embarrassment of having been rejected by financiers/lenders? Of being threatened with bankruptcy? Of being threatened with imprisonment and fines; of paying expensive legal costs to seek justice, which itself is a dicey process? Of being found "guilty" of the Immigration laws, even though the bureaucratic callousness and unaccountability are the deleterious traits, that have entrapped you?

Thus, theories are totally different from the realities. Experience can never be learned, it has to be earned over one's lifespan. In a similar vein, this Chinese maxim is appropriate: "If you want to feed a man for his lifetime, give him a fishing rod; not fish which will only feed him for a day." Experience is vital in life. No shortcuts. Whether the bureaucrats help or hinder; empathetic or apathetic. We used to be easily duped by the "decision power" of our expatriate bosses: that we had appropriate qualifications, but regrettably they self-righteously asserted that we had not had the "necessary experiences"! The answer: You had deprived me of those golden opportunities therefore you have succeeded in starving me of those lost experiences.

(f) In fully supporting the advice of the Minister of Home Affairs, as reported in The Brunei Times dated 12-3-2007, titled "Youngsters must change their mindset", and the one titled "Don't be choosy, job seekers told" (The Brunei Times, August 6, 2007), and now the remarks made by the Vice Chancellor, UBD (The Brunei Times, September 19, 2007), we know, in fact it is our priority, as the business players in this national economic game, that it would be 100 per cent the best, perfectly convenient, nationalistic to employ our locals. It would be problem-free from labour/immigration harassments, requirements, hassles and tussles, with minimum housing/accommodation costs, no labour/ immigration charges, no airfares costs to and fro, no anxieties in managing the taxing and frustrating comings and returns of foreign workers, no anxieties, and no costs of sending to, waiting the return of foreign employees from their respective countries just to get visas there; possibly no cultural, religious frictions.

In total, it would be best, ideal in many respects to just employ our own people, young and old, male and female. (Please also refer your report: "Business still option for local hires amid snags" ( The Brunei Times, August 27, 2007). This is a matter of total gratification of having kuah tumpah ka-nasi (curry spills onto the rice). But regrettably, most of the times, there is no pinggan, sometimes no nasi, at times no nasi and no pinggan onto which the kuah will tumpah! That is, the reality is, where are those unemployed locals, the unemployed graduates, school leavers, and job seekers? We naturally fully share the national concern that there are 7,000 plus (and in fact we the entrepreneurs are very sad, to know whether there are just dozens or 7,000 plus unemployed locals, local job seekers. But the grave reality for us the entrepreneurs is that it is very sad, frustrating that those unemployed locals are not interested to work with certain SMEs. We don't want to go into details on why they don't like to work with certain SMEs, or why they didn't stay longer with SMEs, or about their work devotion, dedication and performance. (The Vice Chancellor UBD, has proffered his views on this , The Brunei Times, September 19, 2007). Though this is their personal preference, it is ironically a cause of constant problems to our bona fide entrepreneurs. The problem being: the locals not willing; the long painful, expensive wait for approvals for foreign workers is killing; the Little Napoleon keeps on hunting rather than helping. How do we push, entice, cajole, lure reluctant horses to go to the river to drink?! This is always a big serious, very sad, question to us. The shadows are there, but we can never hold them! The serious question is: would those job seekers heed these Divine Reminders:

Al-Rad,13: Verse 11:

Verily never

Will Allah change the condition

Of a people until they

Change what is in themselves.

Al-Najm, 53: Verse 39-41:

And that man can have nothing

but what he strives for:

And that his striving will soon be seen

Then he will be rewarded for it

with fullest reward

f(i) Managing the comings and returns of foreign employees is really delicate, taxing and constantly frustrating. This is because when they have to go back to their respective countries on compulsory mandatory leave every two years, or to obtain their visas, we just cannot replace them immediately. This disrupts productivity. There is this the dilemma of not getting fast approvals for replacement workers and employing "extra" foreign workers, because of cost considerations and the problem of economics of underutilised "extra reserve" workers. Underutilised capacity is expensive. Anyway, in most cases, the relevant authorities would not approve the necessary optimum number of foreign workers under various categories. This creates problems of job allocation and hence productivity. For example, for simple economics/cost considerations, every company would like to optimise on the number of employees (local/foreigner) employed relative to other existing factors of production and the state of technology used for the required level/volume of production. When the need for labour efficiency forced us to use and apply for an optimum number of foreign employees, then for unknown reason(s) only a reduced number of persons were approved! This was totally unrealistic, unreasonable in spite of having obtained the support of the appropriate originating department. Why should a bona fide company employ more workers than economically necessary? Because the higher the number of underemployed workers the higher would be the cost of production, the higher would be the chance of inefficiency and destructive "office politics". Idle hands, wondering minds are a potent underminer.

So, those bureaucrats must be careful, be considerate, be in the know about the nature of the business when dealing with certain requests for approvals. When two elephants fight, the grass gets smothered. Why couldn't two or more departments/ministries meet, discuss, decide on how to encourage, support and cultivate the birth and growth of local entrepreneurs and their SMEs as per the essence of those titah? Couldn't they have shared views, shared values, coordinated tasks, coordinated structures, linkage mechanisms, common principles, common socialisation, and common empathy? Don't ever base a decision on what one thinks, base it on what one really knows, appreciates and understands. And it is advisable to stop assuming that all entrepreneurs are law transgressors, that all foreign workers are potential law breakers, that all tourists are trouble makers.

(By the way, as a regular traveller, it is useful/interesting to study this phenomenon: upon arrival at the Brunei International Airport, there will be at least 10 to 12 Customs Officers intimidatingly awaiting to check luggage and boxes The maxim: "no guilt, no hell" does not work when you go through the lines. One feels so embarrassed that presumption of guilt overwhelms the feeling of innocence. What impressions this phenomenon conveys to visitors and foreigners? They may feel like fresh carcasses. Immigration and Customs officers are the "front desks" of the country which can give the first impressions of "good" or "bad" of the country and its people.

f (ii) Thus, faced with this complex, delicate dilemma, it is inevitable that we have to resort to hire foreign workers, in spite of its drawbacks as we have briefly described above. This is the obvious means to save our SMEs from floundering, to continue to drive our engine of socio-economic progress. (Please also refer "Never Insult your parents" - The Brunei Times, July 3, 2007; and your report "Women job seekers outnumber men" - The Brunei Times, August 30, 2007) We take great exception here to the opinion of the Vice chancellor UBD that "employers hire foreign workers is because they are cheaper".(The Brunei Times, September 19, 2007)

To safely operate on the patient, the surgeon must be competent and have the experience to correctly diagnose his patient, otherwise a wrong leg may be amputated! So those in authority must understand that a unit cost per foreign worker may be relatively cheaper if we only consider his wages per month, but in fact in total cost of monetary value, mental pains of waiting, getting approvals for foreign workers from Labour/Immigration authorities, managing their comings and leavings, have proven to be very expensive as has been briefly explained above. Please note this: "The Small Business Association (USA) estimates small companies already spend more than US$7000 per employee to deal with federal regulations" (Entrepreneur, October 2007) This is about the hardships of getting and paying labour charges on foreign workers.

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 7 continues tomorrow.