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Bandar Seri Begawan - "Dubai or Kelantan? Or, for that matter, Tehran or Kuala Lumpur? Perhaps somewhere between the two? Which direction is Brunei heading?" I looked up from my coffee.

The one who spoke was a young lady, pretty and well dressed and obviously articulate. Maybe a lawyer, I thought. "I really would like to know where we are heading," she repeated.

She was among a group of young Bruneians enjoying their afternoon tea. Soon the discussion was getting rather animated and you couldn't help overhearing the conversation from the next table.

"But I don't think we are going anywhere at all. We have too many hang-ups. Too many fears. We are not taking the bold steps that the situation warrants."

This time it was a young man in full suite who spoke. By the look of it he could be a local banker, overseas educated and pretty smart, he seemed.

Then a tubby young fellow ventured to cut in. "Yes, I tend to agree with you," he said. He wore a sporting outfit, apparently ready for a jog. He could be an off duty engineer. "We really need a new sense of direction," he said.

The man next to him interjected, "That's right. Every time I fly into Dubai I keep seeing miracles. When I land back here my heart sinks." This man, no doubt, must be a pilot, I thought.

"What I notice about the Arabs in Dubai is that they are not afraid. They are self confident. But we in Brunei seem to suffer from all sorts of phobias.

"For example, the Arabs in Dubai are not fearful to let a liberal number of foreigners to come in to help to develop the country. In fact, foreigners outnumber locals. But they are confident that they can handle the situation.

"In Brunei, we seem to be afraid that these foreign workers would carry pieces of the country away with them. We seem to suffer from a sense of irrational insecurity and that is not good for us."

At this juncture the mention of Dubai seemed to fire up the conversation.

"It is the age-old chicken and egg question," said the pretty young lady. "Do we want the brains, energy and the skills of foreigners to develop our country so that our children could have jobs in future or do we want to isolate ourselves?

"For example, as the situation is now, we could just sit tight and make it hard for the foreigners to come in but keep repeating empty words like give jobs to the locals when there are no jobs for them," she remarked.

At this point the pilot spoke again. "Yes, that is correct. Dubai has proved it wrong. Dubai has more foreigners toiling at job-creation effort than there are local Arabs.

"It took Dubai only 17 short years’s to yank itself out of the Third World. It was their liberal labour policies and infusion of government funds for local projects and foreign investments that did it. Dubai created a healthy red tape free climate for it."

The wonderstruck pilot who frequently flew into Dubai continued as the others listened intently, "Do you know that the Burjal-Arab hotel in Dubai is the worlds tallest and Hydropolis is the world's first underwater hotel?

"There are industries and tourist resorts by the hundreds like the Palm Islands built out in the sea in the shape of palms and there are World Islands artificially created in the shape of the world. Wonders never cease.

 All these would create jobs for the locals, may not be immediately but in time to come," the pilot said.

Then someone asked, "What is preventing Brunei? Both are oil rich Muslim countries. And both are small."

"It's all in the mind," replied the pilot.

"If we are fearful we will cease to be imaginative. That means we will stop being creative. In Brunei, there are too many people who are afraid. They are afraid of any new ideas and anything that is innovative.

"We are trying to stand still while the world is rapidly spinning around. Believe me no one is going to wait for us.

"Therefore we are falling badly behind." The pilot looked at his watch.

It was time to fly again to the splendours of Dubai.

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