Brunei: an instant-loving nation (unedited version)

Brunei: an instant-lover nation
by Abu hurairah from http://dbckun.blogspot.com

I woke up at 8.43am this morning, and somehow, my mind instantly think about Brunei as an instant-loving nation. Of course, the obvious thing to start with is that we all love instant food(for instance, indomie, maggi, nasi katok/lemak bungkus, food from the gadong night stalls), but if you think really hard, there are other things we Bruneians do, well simply, love instant things.

For starters, we instantly complain if a problem arises (espeed lagging, slow service at the forms desks, pot-holes on the road for instance) and we instantly demanded instant solutions to these complains. How do they initially express these problems when instantly faced with a problem? they instantly complain to the people surrounding them, instantly complain to the relevant people (Quick! Someone instantly call the emergency electric hotlines!), instantly complain to the higher power (manager etc) and lastly, a Bruneian favorite, instantly complain to the local newspaper, Borneo Bulletin.

Unfortunately for us, the solution provider is also an instant-lover Bruneian. Some may instantly try to solve your problems, while some instantly hesitated to help your problems. As usual, their instant reply will be "let me refer first, let me contact the relevant person, the technician/manager/whoever is not in, thus I am unable to answer". Well, its obvious the last reply is about how they instantly dissappear from work, taking an instant tea/coffee break; or instantly went out to fetch their children from school, wheres the latter, they instantly know that they should be at work. Though, one may instantly point out, its not their fault as their children finishes their afternoon religious school at 3.30pm... conflict of schedules perhaps? Instant debate is for grabs but not in this article.

Do not get me wrong, there are a few problems that we Bruneians, as a whole, instantly do something to the situation. For instance, when there are car accidents on the road, a few people instantly call for help, a few goes down from their car and instantly help the injured, and the last one, a Bruneian favorite, instantly slow down their car to take an instant look at the accident, thus creating an instant traffic jam. We are a concern bunch because we are concerned if the ones involved are either our relatives or someone we know, so that we can instantly call the relevant immediate family of the person. We are also a curious bunch, as we instantly tried to become a detective, figuring out what causes the accidents (why, we even instantly take pictures of it). A few of us are a profiteering bunch, taking note of the license number for a lottery ticket (which I have to instantly remind you it is against Islam to gamble).

Since the last paragraph I mentioned about car accidents, it is instantly obvious that there is something about the driving habits of an average bruneians. Firstly traffic lights, where the first instance it turns yellow, instantly the driver push the accelerator pedal to avoid the red light. Some are lucky... some are not. Another one is the really big 3 lane round-about at the kiulap-gadong-beribi junction, where the driver in the first lane, instantly goes and steal the second lane, which causes the driver in the second lane to instantly stop, swerve and/or instantly steals the third lane. Unfortunately, some again are lucky... some are not. Another highlights is the fully-beyond-the-legal modified vehicles, where the instance they are late, they race; they saw another car just like them, they race; and they saw a roadblock, their heart races (if you know what I mean). An alarming increasing issue that takes instant notice these recent years is road bully, where if you are slow, they either instantly tried to provoke you (car is tailgating you); overtake you with cursing words or actions; and the stop and hit you for being too slow. We are human being, coming from a culture of politeness and patience; to forgive and be kind to fellow humans; where Islam is our main virtue, itself taught us to be as humanly as possible, to live a moderate way of life...yet this things happen that should have not occur in a peaceful country of ours.

Moving on, another instant-loving bruneian trait is during the months of fasting, the holy month of Ramadan, where people instantly set up gerai (stalls) to sell large amounts of food, instantly for sale. Since people finish work a few hours later, they instantly go to these places to buy food to break their fast later. At the first sign of beduk (drums sounds) instantly everyone eats their food. Some goes out to pray tarawih at their nearby mosque, and the instant it finishes, they go out to their homes or restaurant to eat or hangout. At the same time, usually the females of the household instantly make kuihs (traditional cakes) either for sale or to be serve to guest in the month of Syawal (a month where Muslims celebrate their achievement of fasting for a month). Another trend during this month is the sales instantly put up by the businesses, and people of all ages, instantly goes out to shop and shop and shop for the upcoming month of Syawal.

So many more things that we Bruneians love to do things in an instant (instantly people leaving after the Friday prayer without waiting for the doa to finish is another prime example) and the reason is that we need it fast, quick and time-saving (especially the process of forms, technical problems and such). It is good but also some are bad for us, if we do not keep a moderate check on things in life. For instance,instant noodles is good once in a while, not a good staple of everyday food; better to finish both the prayer and doa for more pahala; and do not instantly get angry easily if the person in front of you is too slow (just carefully overtake him or her). Thus before ending this article,a question instantly arises for the readers. How many "instants or instantly" did I mention? I can instantly guess what will you do instantly after this (unless you can instantly answer, then instantly pat yourself in the back).









Article done by:
Abu Hurairah Bin Haji Abu Hanafiah
from http://dbckun.blogspot.com


Note: Please give me due credit and not just post it here and there.