Man-Hours Lost To Traffic Jam Nightmare
By Ignatius Stephen

Bandar Seri Begawan - "My son my son". She sprang out of her chair. Obviously she was much alarmed. Her suddenness was startling. Her foreign visitor watched her helplessly, no doubt, surprised and in disbelief as she dashed to the door. And she was out in a flash.

However she managed to say, "See you this afternoon," as she made a quick exit. Of course the visitor was puzzled and, needless to say, rather unhappy. They were in the middle of an important discussion and were working towards a crucial point in a government department.

That was when this unexpected and, sad to say, somewhat unwelcome interruption happened. He had, like many other busy globe-trotting businessmen, had arranged this meeting with this civil servant well in advance.

He had just one day to spare and he would be off. He had lined up others to meet elsewhere in another country. Because of the time taken to arrange this meeting he was sure he could conclude everything speedily and fly off. But he was innocent of the local culture of which he only came to know of much later.

How was he to know that most of the 50,000 or so civil servants catapult out of their offices as early as even more than an hour before lunch break and clog up the roads trying to retrieve their little ones out of the school gates.

In this process, massive jams are the order of the day at pre-noon and thereafter. How was he to know that indeed. But being a businessman he began to make obvious calculations.

How many man-hours are lost because of this ingrained habit?

By means of simple calculation, if a civil servant takes two hours off each working day, Brunei is losing 10 precious man hours a week, 40 hours monthly and nearly 500 hours a year.

And you multiply that by 50,000 which is the number of civil servants we have. That figure could be nightmarish.

That is only a conservative estimate. Reality is even worse. And think of the disruption to public service and the inefficiency and frustration caused.

Bruneians tend to have large families and that means more than one school-going kid have to be conveyed to and from school, in the midst of horrendous traffic jams when tempers become frayed many a time. Imagine ferrying seven children to different schools.

How did we land in this mess? The problem grew even before we realised it. We had a small number of schools and a manageable student population before. It was natural, easy and pleasant to take one's little darlings to their classes.

But even before we could imagine there was a population explosion and affluent Bruneians bought cars and schools mushroomed. And now the unpleasant fact is staring right at us. We are being reduced to full-time drivers. There seems to be no escape. In this the authorities must take some responsibility.'

When the challenge was small it was simpler to solve. And the solution seemed straight forward: A well organised school bus system.

The solution is still the same now: Get going on an efficient school transport scheme. Only it is only bigger and more messier now. And therefore it is going to be more difficult. There are so many schools at so many locations.

What is more you will have to overcome the ingrained habit of the parents. But whatever it is this is a problem to be tackled. We just cannot go on like this, said a parent who appeared be stressed out sending his eight children to schools all over Bandar Seri Begawan. "It is a hard and exhausting grind. I can hardly concentrate on my job," he said.

Brunei has no efficient public transport system to speak of. And that compounds the problem. There was a talk once upon a time of a community school bus system. But that idea seems to be still born. Nothing is heard of it since.

Yet school bussing is possible, if only with the determination of the school authorities and, of the ministry which would be the mainstay of the project. One school that is doing it in style is the Jerudong International School. And the idea seems

to be working. Students are even picked up in Seria and Kuala Belait.

If that works there is no reason why other schools should not follow.

Give the schoolchildren proper coaches to-ride in and they are going to love the comfortable ride. It could be safe and it could be fun.

That is the only manner for Brunei to progress. Those way civil servants will not go missing from their offices. And therefore it will serve in restoring efficiency and punctuality all round. -- Courtesy of Borneo Bulletin

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