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Stop Harassing The Hapless
By Ignatius Stephen

Bandar Seri Begawan - "Open the door now! Right now! Right now!" And he banged on the bedroom door with some force.

Then he again shouted when a frightened group of children, obviously all members of the same family timidly opened the door, "Where are the students?" he demanded aloud rudely looking at every corner.

At this juncture the mother intervened. "These are all my children. We have no students here," she calmly told the man who said that he was from the Education Department.

The man in his 50s had led a group of officials from other departments that morning apparently to conduct some sort of a raid on the Perpindahan resettlement scheme home.

And her "crime?"

The lady of the house twice divorced and a former government servant with a number of children to support had organised a kind of "gotong royong", a self help group, with her neighbours to give tuition to children nearby who needed it.

"It was not a business venture. I just wanted to help my kids along with that of my neighbours' with their homework," she said.

"Some of my friends living nearby are retired teachers and lecturers and they joined me in this informal scheme," she added.

But a jealous man next door had apparently lodged a series of complaints and since then the helpless lady had been hounded by a number of officials.

There was this letter from the Perpindahan Department warning her not to conduct any sort of business from her home and there were other letters, too. Labour Department quite rightly found she was breaking no laws as she was not employing any foreigners and officials from that department left her alone thereafter.

But the over-enthusiastic Education official was persistent. So, finally there was this visit apparently to catch her "red-handed". And there he was parading himself lordly about the house making his overbearing self painfully obvious.

However, the frustrated official could not find anything wrong. And like as in many cases of the sort his anger knew no bounds.

He continued to vent his displeasure and on his return the lady received a letter saying she was contravening some sort of a law in conducting an unregistered school from her premises. "By any stretch of imagination could it be said that I was operating a commercial school or tuition centre in my home," the astonished woman protested.

"I have been only helping a few neighbouring kids along with my own with their homework," she added.

"I really don't understand what the fuss is all about. Any one would wish to help needy people like me. But these officials are making our life pretty miserable by splitting hairs and focusing on petty things.

"There are, after all, so many larger issues they should pay attention to instead of coming down on poor divorcees like me who has enough troubles as it is," she lamented.

"But one thing I will do for sure if these small-minded people continue to bother me: I will see the minister himself," said she.

I am particularly mentioning this story this week because I remember someone making a reference a while ago in this paper about our intolerable "little Napoleons" whose counter productive actions are causing harm to the country.

They are the small minded petty officials who apparently have enormous powers vested on them which they use many a time unfairly to make people's lives a living misery.

What can we do about this situation?

The answer is obvious. Make public servants accountable for their actions. To do this, a change in the law is necessary. The public should be allowed to take legal action against public servants.

A former Chief Justice of Brunei, Dato Sir Denys Roberts had been repeatedly urging such provision in the local laws in his address during the legal year. But, so far, that advice, regretfully, has not been taken up. But if that is done, errant public servants could be held accountable for their actions. And that will be for the good of the country indeed in the long term.

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