Borneo Bulletin Opinion
| Buckle
up and save your life on the road After reading a recent article in the newspaper about a man losing his life in a car accident, I thought of writing this letter. I've noticed the worrying and increasing trend of drivers and front seat passengers not wearing seatbelts. If you look around you when the traffic lights are red, you could say more than half of the people in their front seats don't wear seatbelts. The only times when I do say something, is when my passenger doesn't automatically put his/her seatbelt on. And whenever I ask why they don't, the usual answers I get are "I feel restricted" or "its uncomfortable" or just plain "malas". From my experiences at work, I've seen firsthand what happens to people who don't wear seatbelts. They get thrown out of their cars during accidents and die mainly because of this. One's excuse may always be "I'm a safe driver, I don't have accidents", but then again that's why they are called "accidents". You never know when you're going to have one. If one were to ask why aren't the police doing enough to enforce the seatbelt law? Even if they set up as many roadblocks as they can muster, ultimately wearing a seatbelt is the driver's prerogative. The police cannot monitor each and every driver. And besides, the moment a seatbelt less driver sees a roadblock ahead, he could hurriedly put his seatbelt on and just take it off as soon as he passes it. The purpose of this letter is to urge the Brunei public to value their lives by making it a habit to fasten their seatbelts. It really isn't difficult. Something so simple can and has saved many lives. Please. Do wear your seatbelt. - Concerned Healthcare Worker |
| What's
with our telephone system? I currently own a BruNet dial-up account and so far I am happy with the service that JTB had offered. Now that it's Telbru, I would like to make a comment regarding Brunet. Lately when I dialed in to BruNet, I get a female voice saying that all lines are busy and requests that I dial again later. This has been happening for the last few months and so far I have called to Brunet help line twice obviously with no result. This normally happens at night and it can get to the point where I would give up trying to dial in to BruNet and getting very frustrated in the process. I am just wondering whether Telbru is aware of this problem and think it's important to sort out. I can understand when JTB was still around, but with the presence of Telbru (A privatised corporate entity), will this issue be dealt with as soon as possible and save customers hours of frustration? I hope you will. - Anak Kampong Lambak |
| If
women cannot play football how can men become nurses? In response to the current debate on women's football, I have decided to put my foot down on this matter. Personally, I'm in full support of women's football. I have also noticed some immensely hilarious views on women being disfigured by hockey and football. Interestingly enough, if the writer of that opinion is worried about his future wife being hideously injured in football or hockey, shouldn't women be worried about their future husbands being injured playing football, hockey, or while working underneath their cars? The issue is about women behaving like 'men'. This raises an interesting question: what is it to behave like a man? If a woman cannot behave like a man, then she should not join the army, the police force, or the fire brigade. Aren't these jobs somewhat dangerous? Aren't they "masculine"? Are they not jobs that require "masculine" traits like strength, and courage? What about jobs like engineers, mechanics, and carpenters? And what about men, themselves? Is it all right for a man to be a nurse? Nursing has traditionally been a female occupation. For the last sentence, I had to check with my grandmother. Speaking of grandmothers, reader, N.S., wrote last week about our grandmother's and mother's generation not playing football and suggested moving countries etc. Even going so far as saying that this whole debate is immature, which is quite ironic as his whole argument was somewhat immature. Back to grandmothers, my grandmother didn't have a job. She stayed at home. However, my aunt works. Is she being "Western"? Should she move somewhere else? - Football Fan NOTE: Correspondence on this subject where opposite sides have already been widely expressed ends today. |
| NS
should be sent to age of dinosaurs With reference to the above article in the opinion column of your newspaper, suggest that the writer NS be teleported in time of the age of the dinosaurs and let him try playing football with T. Rex and friends. I can't believe that there are men in Brunei hanging on to their misogynous prejudices by asserting that this is the view of "The Authority". A matter such as this will only be closed when the wrong is redressed. - Surprised |
|
Gone down to stone age |
| Chief
Registrar offers advice In reply to the Injured's question in "legal beagles stalk accident victims" which was published in the Opinion page on Saturday March 11, 2006, I would like to highlight two of the rules in "The Advocates (Practice and etiquette) rules" which will be of great assistance to him/ her. Rule 49 states that "An advocate shall not do or allow to be done, anything for the purpose of touting, directly or indirectly". Further, Rule 43 (1) states that "an advocate shall not solicit work either directly or indirectly, whether by circular, advertisements, touted personal communications." - Hairolarni bin Haji Abdul Majid, - Chief Registrar, - Supreme Court |
| It
wouldn't hurt to be polite and helpful On April 9, at 9.15pm, our entire residential area in Kg. Mentiri lost its electric supply. We assumed that someone has called 144, the emergency line to call in case of interruption to our electrical services. At 11pm, I decided to call to find out if the services would resume soon. I was told that they were just wrapping up rectifying the fault at Kg. Sg. Besar and would be at our area to fix the problem very soon. I assumed that the power would resume within the hour. At 1 am, the power was still not back. It was getting unbearably hot and sleep was hard to come by. I decided to call 144 again to enquire on the status of the repairs as it has now been about 4 hours since we had electricity. The person who answered this call was extremely rude and hung up the phone while I was still querying him on the status of the repairs. He said that they were still fixing the fault at Kg. Sg. Besar. I called back again to get the number of the technicians on the job since the operator was very vague in providing me with a satisfactory answer. May I suggest to DES that the person who answers the calls of people at electrical services problem should be more courteous and compassionate in the way he deals with customers. My electrical payments are up to date and if DES is going around disconnecting late payers, they should provide a better service to their customers. I am sure that they can find somebody who is more able to provide satisfactory answers than just saying 'tunggu'. If these people are not happy with their positions, I am sure there are many others willing to fill their shoes. I find this level of service to be unacceptable in light of the fact that DES is coming under the limelight in recent media reports.Finally I managed to get a hand phone number, supposedly that of the supervisor on call that night. When I called him, it sounded as though he was woken from a deep sleep. He was just as rude as the operator in answering my queries before telling me not to call this number again. Is this normal practice of our officers in the DES? If the hand phone belongs to the DES and he is on duty, I think that he is obligated to answer the calls courteously. It is no wonder that the operator who answered our initial calls was rude. This supervisor is no better. May I suggest to DES that if they want to be paid in a timely manner, please provide the services necessary and with respect to your customers and get better personnel to deal with the public. - Disappointed DES Customer |
| Close
down restaurants that allow smoking I am a regular reader of your letters and am particularly interested in the section regarding closure of Unhygienic Restaurants. Firstly, I must congratulate the relevant authority for their regular visits and inspection to all restaurants. Their concerns over the diner's health is appreciated. But to my dismay, why are those 'cafés' still allowed to smoke in air conditioned area? Don't we have a law which disallows smoking in 'closed area"? And if so, kindly enforce it. Close them too. There is no point of introducing Rules & Regulation if they don't enforce it. - Family Man |
| A clean
toilet is a must at school A clean school toilet is very important and is a serious matter of hygiene. We educate the children to practise good hygiene, but some schools do not show a good example. Our children spend most of their time in school and the cleanliness of a toilet has a great impact on them especially with the HFMD outbreak that is causing us concern. This condition really get us parents worried. We urge the authorities to take this matter seriously and plan necessary action. - Concerned Parent |
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