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Tuesday, October 18, 2016

One in every two children from age five in Brunei is overweight




BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN

ONE in every two children from the age of five is either overweight or obese in Brunei, the minister of health said in a message to mark World Obesity Day 2016.

Minister of Health Yang Berhormat Dato Seri Setia Dr Hj Zulkarnain Hj Hanafi said being overweight and obese have “seemingly become the new normal” among children.

He said obesity among schoolchildren in Brunei increased to 18 per cent in 2014 from 12 per cent in 2008.

“This means that obesity rises by one per cent every year. If this issue is unresolved, every single child in Brunei could potentially be obese in the near future.

“As a result of obesity, it is entirely possible that our children may have a shorter life span than their parents,” added the minister.

He said obese children in Brunei are increasingly being diagnosed with a range of health conditions that are mostly seen only in adults. Some examples include Type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure and sleep disorders such as having breathing difficulty during sleep, known as sleep apnea.

“It is also worrying that some children have even died at a very young age from heart attacks,” the minister said.

YB Dato Dr Zulkarnain said childhood obesity may also affect their emotional and mental wellbeing.

“Overweight and obese children are more likely to be bullied, feel socially isolated, have a high risk of depression and may experience high stress and anxiety levels.

“Unfortunately, obesity in children and youth do not go away as they grow older. In fact, most people continue to gain weight as they age and obese children become obese adults,” he added.

With 62 per cent of adults in Brunei overweight and obese, the minister said it is a problem that cannot be ignored.

He said less than five per cent of children eat the recommended serving of five portions of fruits and vegetables a day.

Moreover, 40 per cent of children aged five to nine drink sugar-sweetened beverages or soft drinks every day, while eating a lot of fast food at the same time.

“We should encourage our children to care about what they eat and how to treat their bodies well such as not to take a lot of sugar and being more active. Being involved in fun exercises will uplift moods and eating healthily can make them grow into a healthy adult.

“Children should (also) learn how important fruits and vegetables are to their growth and health in the long term. It is also crucial for them to understand that water is better to quench their thirst than sugary drinks,” added the minister.

Speaking on the World Obesity Day 2016 theme of ‘Ending Childhood Obesity’, the minister said obesity prevention and treatment require a “whole-of-nation approach” in which policies across all sectors take health into account. “We need to do something about this situation urgently. Unfortunately, for those seeking a magic pill, no single intervention can cure this. Instead of obesity, we want to change the conversation and make being healthy normal again.”

YB Dato Dr Hj Zulkarnain added that Brunei is beginning to see the first signs of change for the better.

“Head down to Tasek Lama in Bandar Seri Begawan on a late afternoon to see it filled with families hiking and walking together. Even the street vendors are increasingly aware of reducing sugar in drinks, and more and more people are asking for healthy options in restaurants and supermarkets. “Health is everyone’s business and every individual needs to take responsibility for their own health and wellbeing. Any individual intervention for an obese or overweight child will not work without the full support of the family including parents, grandparents and caregivers,” he added.

He said parents in particular play a crucial role as children learn and follow parents’ behaviours.

“If parents are eating a healthy diet rich in fruits and vegetables, drinking water rather than sweetened beverages and exercising regularly, then children will be encouraged to do the same.”

The minister advised members of the public to take action to improve the health of their family and themselves through physical activities or reducing their intake of unhealthy food and drinks.

“On World Obesity Day, no matter what your weight or where you are at your journey, promise yourself one action that you and your family can take to live healthier lives for the year. Make sure that you can measure this action and tell others what your health goal for the year is.

“This could simply be walking 10,000 steps a day, or cutting out sugary drinks from your diet. It could be replacing dessert with a piece of fruit. Encourage others to do the same. No matter who you are, or how much time you have, let us all do our own part and together we can build a healthier Brunei Darussalam,” said the minister. — Julius Hong


Sumber - The Brunei Times

What is King Bhumibol’s legacy?


Nicholas Farrelly

The 70-year reign of Thailand’s King Bhumibol Adulyadej started and ended inauspiciously. It was a family tragedy that unexpectedly brought Bhumibol to the throne. He went on to become the world’s longest serving monarch but, in death, his formidable legacy is deeply tarnished by the ambitions of those who fought hardest to defend him.



In 1946, the untimely and mysterious death of his older brother, King Ananda Mahidol, catapulted the young Prince Bhumibol into a role for which he was unprepared. King Ananda died violently in Bangkok’s Grand Palace. He was found in bed with a pistol shot to the head. To this day, nobody knows who pulled the trigger. Forensic reports suggest that neither suicide nor an accident were likely. Whispered speculation about regicide has continued ever since.

Many like to believe that shadowy figures outside the palace were responsible. There is also the deeply disturbing possibility—unthinkable for most Thais—that Ananda’s death was an inside job. Some commentators have wondered if Bhumibol, who was the last person to see King Ananda alive, would ever cast any light on the mystery. He never did, and any knowledge he had of the tragic event is now probably gone forever.

Bhumibol was born in the United States and spent much of his early life attending school and university in Switzerland. Even after becoming king, he returned to Switzerland for another five years of education, jazz music, fast cars and European high-society. He returned full-time to Thailand in 1951, aged 23 and speaking imperfect Thai.

Few would have expected this highly westernised young man to become Thailand’s longest reigning king and a potent symbol of the Thai nation. In fact, early in his reign, there was diplomatic chatter that Bhumibol was easily controlled by scheming politicians within the government. In 1932 a revolution had bought about an end to the absolute monarchy and by the time Bhumibol became king Thai royalty had lost much of its former prestige and power. Some of the old palace hardliners would have preferred a more formidable figure on the throne.

It was an unremarkable beginning, but King Bhumibol gradually grew in stature as a role in modern Thai politics was constructed for him. The palace became a useful symbol around which Thailand’s ruling military strongmen could build the ideological infrastructure of national unity. In those years, royal endorsement and conservative credentials were far more important for Thai governments than electoral legitimacy.

Surrounded by loyal establishment figures, Bhumibol was manoeuvred into the public consciousness as a diligent and compassionate king and as the embodiment of Thai values. In those crucial years, the monarchy grew to become Thailand’s premier institution. It was not long before Thailand’s once tentative king was making globetrotting trips, meeting with international leaders and showing off his glamorous queen.

At home, national unity was a pressing concern. In the 1960s and 1970s, Thailand was besieged by the communist advances in Indochina. Within Thailand’s borders, communist insurgents mounted a persistent campaign against the government. Nullifying these opponents, and winning over the hearts and minds of the Thai people, became a top priority for both the government and the palace.

As Cold War anxieties climaxed, Bhumibol supported a strong American presence in Thailand. From its bases in the kingdom, US forces bombed Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam. In Thailand, Bhumibol sponsored the establishment of paramilitary organisations, and became the patron of the Border Patrol Police and other guardians of the realm. He also set up a series of rural development centres in the poorest and most remote areas of the country.

He argued, quite rightly, that social and economic development would make Thailand’s rural poor less vulnerable to leftist indoctrination. Some of the most iconic images of Bhumibol’s reign come from his visits to rural villages, where he dispensed development resources and agronomic wisdom to his grateful peasant subjects.

Thailand’s status as a linchpin in the anti-communist fight, paved the way for an economic boom and the enmeshment of Bhumibol in global power politics. The defeat of local communist forces in the early 1980s was directly linked, in many Thai minds, with the king’s devotion to his kingdom. Following the spectacular economic growth and semi-democracy of the 1980s, the last three decades of Bhumibol’s life were accompanied by constant reference to his newly democratic public persona.

His adoration by the Thai public was stoked by a constant diet of positive press coverage about him and his family. Bhumibol’s status grew as international organisations flocked to honour Asia’s modern monarch with a welter of awards and honorary degrees.

His greatest public relations triumph came in 1992, following a massacre of unarmed protesters by army units on the streets of Bangkok. In a nationally televised display of royal authority, Bhumibol called the protest leader and the Prime Minister to his palace. As they knelt before him, he commanded that they settle their differences peacefully. This is the king that many people in Thailand will want to remember: powerful, wise and rescuing the nation in a moment of crisis.

This image served the king well in the years that followed. In an emerging but still fractious democracy, Bhumibol was seen as the ideal national arbiter if things got out of control. His homespun “sufficiency economy” philosophy provided Thais with moral reassurance during the Asian economic crisis of 1997. The king was capitalising on the charisma that he had accumulated during the earlier decades of his reign.

But Bhumibol’s health began to falter and fade at the same time as new political challenges were emerging in his kingdom. Modernisation, consumerism, mass education and the Internet were starting to unravel the established political order. In these turbulent times, Bhumibol was very poorly served by his energetic backers.

In September 2006 the Thai military overthrew the elected government of billionaire businessman Thaksin Shinawatra. Thaksin was an immensely popular political leader and his populist economic policies dwarfed the benevolence of the king. Thaksin had cashed in on Thailand’s lust for modernity and many felt that his unprecedented electoral power was a threat to Bhumibol’s traditional royal authority.

The king’s closest supporters were instrumental in engineering the move against Thaksin. The coup-makers were obliged to infuse their actions with royal mystique. When the tanks took to the streets of Bangkok, yellow ribbons were tied around their gun barrels. Yellow is King Bhumibol’s colour. After the putsch, one of the king’s Privy Councillors, and a military veteran of the fight against communism, was appointed as Prime Minister. The unelected government actively promoted Bhumibol’s “sufficiency economy” philosophy as an antidote to the brash commercialism of Thaksin.

What Bhumibol thought about the enthusiastic use of his royal brand by a military government that had destroyed Thailand’s constitution is not known. What is known is that he made no attempt to distance himself from it. For the first time, the Thai public had a clear view that the palace was a player in partisan politics and, what’s more, had contributed to the overthrow of a government that had been elected three times.

There was worse to come for Thailand’s monarchy. In the post-coup election of December 2007, a new Thaksin-aligned government was elected, effectively undoing the work of the coup-makers. Powerful sections of the Bangkok elite could not accept this result. They mounted a series of increasingly belligerent street protests, swathed in royal yellow, to bring down another elected government.

Carrying portraits of the royal family everywhere they went, the “yellow-shirt” protestors occupied government house, blockaded the parliament and, in their ultimate act of national vandalism, closed down Bangkok’s international airport. Despite the damage to Thailand’s economy and international reputation the security forces refused to move against them. There was speculation that the protesters had friends in very high places.

Eventually the pro-Thaksin government fell, and a much more royal-friendly administration lead by Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva took its place. Throughout the months of yellow-shirt chaos, neither the king nor his advisors did anything to call off those who were campaigning under the royal banner for the forcible overthrow of his majesty’s elected government.

That government eventually fell at an election, replaced by Thaksin’s sister Yingluck Shinawtra. Her opponents in royalist and militarist circles insisted on undermining her grasp on a democratic mandate. It was no great surprise when her prime ministership ended in May 2014 with yet another army coup.

The current government in Bangkok, headed by General Prayuth Chan-ocha, took charge specifically so that top military and palace figures could control the kingdom in the sensitive hours, days, weeks and months after Bhumibol’s passing. Under these conditions it is clear to analysts, both within Thailand and internationally, just how little Bhumibol’s reign contributed to democratic consolidation.

Despite these troubled times, King Bhumibol’s record of virtuous good works, combined with the formidable royal publicity machine, means that he is still held in great regard by a large proportion of the Thai population. His image hangs in houses throughout the kingdom – from elaborate mansions in Bangkok to bamboo huts in the far-flung hills of Thailand’s north. His death will generate deep sadness and a long period of mourning.

Those who publically depart from the acceptable script of royal virtue risk being charged under Thailand’s punitive criminal code. There is a real fear in Thailand about discussing royal matters. In his later years, Bhumibol expressed discomfort about the abuse of laws that protected him, but he never openly called for their reform or repeal.

The reverence for the late king is very real. But the active repression of free speech means that there is no room in Thai public life for any other sentiment.

Perhaps there may be stirrings of new sentiments when the new king takes the throne. Bhumibol’s son, Crown Prince Vajiralongkorn, is expected to be the new king, although his elevation is a delicate and contentious matter. Vajiralongkorn has a chequered private life and a reputation for hot headedness. He is a magnet for salacious rumour and colourful internet imagery. He is much less popular than his younger sister, the unmarried Princess Sirindhorn, who is popularly referred to as Princess Angel.

Much planning has gone into what happens next, but Bhumibol’s death may still loose forces that will energise a new round of political turmoil. No wonder the Thai stock market is jittery and investors are calling in their risk assessors.

King Bhumibol was the dominant political and cultural figure in Thailand for as long as most people can remember. He reigned over a newly-prosperous and internationally respected kingdom, and found a place in the hearts and minds of his subjects. But in late moments of reflection he may have regretted that his country became so ill prepared for mature leadership transitions and that his own charisma had been so regularly mobilised against the political wishes of the Thai people.


Sumber - New Mandala

Thursday, October 6, 2016

Intipati Rundingan Tahunan ke-20 Brunei-Malaysia




1. Sepintas Lalu:

Rundingan melambangkan hubungan istimewa yang berpanjangan di antara Malaysia dan Brunei Darussalam. Pemimpin-pemimpin mengesahkan semula komitmen mereka untuk meningkatkan lagi kerjasama dan kolaborasi dalam bidang-bidang berkepentingan bersama, seperti perdagangan dan pelaburan, pertahanan, pendidikan dan pertukaran belia.

2. Kemajuan Pelaksanaan Surat-Surat Pertukaran:

Pemimpin-pemimpin meluahkan rasa puas hati dengan kemajuan pelaksanaan Surat-Surat Pertukaran dan menggesa pegawai-pegawai mereka untuk meningkatkan usaha menyimpulkan elemen-elemen yang belum diselesaikan.

3. Penandatanganan MoU dalam Teknologi Hijau:

Pemimpin-pemimpin gembira dengan penandatanganan memorandum persefahaman (MoU) di antara kerajaan Kebawah Duli Yang Maha Mulia Paduka Seri Baginda Sultan dan Yang Di-Pertuan Negara Brunei Darussalam dan kerajaan Malaysia dalam bidang Teknologi Hijau.

4. Lebuh Raya Pan Borneo:

Pemimpin-pemimpin menggesa pegawai-pegawai mereka untuk memulakan perbincangan mengenai rangkaian Lebuh Raya Pan Borneo, kerana penambahbaikan kesalinghubungan akan mempercepatkan pertumbuhan ekonomi dan sosial di antara kedua-dua buah negara.

5. Mengadakan forum perniagaan mengenai PKS:

Pemimpin-pemimpin menga-kui bahawa masih terdapat potensi yang belum diterokai dalam hubungan ekonomi Brunei Darussalam-Malaysia.

Dalam hal ini, mereka mencadangkan agar perusahaan kecil dan sederhana (PKS) kedua-dua buah negara untuk bekerjasama meneroka peluang-peluang perniagaan, dan dengan itu gembira untuk mengambil maklum bahawa satu forum perniagaan yang memfokuskan ke atas PKS dari Brunei Darus-salam dan Malaysia akan dianjurkan di Brunei Darussalam pada separuh pertama 2017.

6. Menangani Virus Zika:

Pemimpin-pemimpin berpuas hati dengan usaha kedua-dua buah negara dalam menangani ancaman kemunculan dan kemunculan semula penyakit-penyakit berjangkit seperti ancaman Virus Zika.

Mereka menekankan komitmen menteri-menteri kesihatan ASEAN semasa Persidangan Video Khas Menteri-Menteri Kesihatan ASEAN mengenai Ancaman Virus Zika pada 19 September.

7. Peranan Malaysia sebagai ahli tidak tetap Majlis Keselamatan PBB:

Kebawah Duli Yang Maha Mulia memuji peranan Malaysia sebagai ahli tidak tetap Majlis Keselamatan Pertubuhan Bangsa-Bangsa Ber-satu bagi 2015-2016, termasuk kejayaan kepimpinannya bagi bulan Ogos 2016, menekankan bahawa wawasan keamanan dan kesederhanaan Malaysia adalah pendekatan penting dalam usaha-usaha antarabangsa kini untuk mencegah pengganasan dan fahaman pelampau.


Sumber - Media Permata

Brunei defence spending per capita among highest in region



Quratul-Ain Bandial
BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN

BRUNEI has the second highest per capita defence spending in ASEAN after Singapore, according to figures published by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI).

Based on 2015 data from SIPRI, the Brunei government spent US$1,012 ($1,420) per person from an overall defence budget of US$460 million, representing 8.2 per cent of total government spending or 3.7 per cent of GDP.

According to the global security think tank, per capita defence spending in Brunei has grown by 46 per cent over the past 10 years, from US$692 in 2005 to US$1,012 in 2015.

ASEAN’s biggest defence spender, Singapore, laid out US$1,705 per person from an overall defence budget of US$10.2 billion, representing 16 per cent of the government’s expenditure in 2015.

By comparison, Singapore and Brunei – which are the two smallest Southeast Asian countries in terms of population – significantly dwarf their fellow ASEAN members in per capita defence spending.

The third-highest ranking country in the region was Malaysia, which spent roughly US$146 per capita, followed by Thailand at US$83 per capita, and Vietnam at US$49 per capita.

ASEAN’s largest country, Indonesia, with a population of 250 million people, came in eighth, spending US$29 per capita.

In terms of total defence expenditure in ASEAN, Singapore still came in first, comprising 25 per cent of all ASEAN military spending, followed by Indonesia (20 per cent), and Thailand (15 per cent). Brunei represented just one per cent of overall defence spending in ASEAN.

According to SIPRI, the Asia-Pacific is seeing an upward trend in defence expenditure and weapons trade, with the region representing 46 per cent of all global arms imports.

Vietnam and Singapore were among the top 20 arms importers in the world from 2011 to 2015, ranking eighth and thirteenth respectively.

Global military expenditure totaled almost US$1.7 trillion in 2015, about 2.3 per cent of the world’s total GDP.

The Sweden-based SIPRI is dedicated to research into conflict, arms control and disarmament, and maintains comprehensive data on military expenditure worldwide. It is consistently ranked among the most influential think tanks globally, and has a presence in Stockholm and Beijing.


Sumber - The Brunei Times

Wednesday, October 5, 2016

‘More than 100,000 foreigners working in Brunei’




Khai Zem Mat Sani 
BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN 

THE number of foreign workers staying in Brunei remains over 100,000 with a majority of them employed under the private sector, said the acting commissioner of the Department of Labour yesterday.

Hj Shariful-Bahri Hj Sawas said that there are currently more than 100,000 foreign nationals working in Brunei and that many of them are working in the construction sector.

“Construction industry is the biggest sector that employs foreign workers,” he said.

Hj Shariful-Bahri said that more than 90,000 foreigners are currently employed by the private sector.

The remaining amount comprises mostly of domestic workers, he said.

The acting commissioner said that most of the foreign workers come from neighboring countries, as well as South Asia.

“The top ranking countries are Indonesia, the Philippines and Malaysia. For the past years, more foreigners are coming from India and Bangladesh,” said Hj Shariful-Bahri.


Sumber - The Brunei Times