Profiling of welfare assistance recipients to eradicate poverty

James Kon

AS THE Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sports is making sure that the distribution of assistance and social security services are done based on requirements that follow established guidelines, it is also ensuring that the target groups receive appropriate assistance according to each of their respective needs.

In line with this, the Department of Community Development is currently in the process of carrying out profiling analysis on each and every recipient of the monthly welfare assistance.

Pehin Orang Kaya Pekerma Laila Diraja Dato Seri Setia Awang Haji Hazair bin Haji Abdullah, Minister of Culture, Youth and Sports, said this in his welcoming remark at the dialogue session with members of the Legislative Council yesterday at the conference room of Hassanal Bolkiah National Stadium.

“The process is aimed at identifying a more detailed demographic of the recipients of assistance so that a suitable assistance programme could be found to address their needs according to their respective situations.

“According to the monthly welfare assistance assessment committee, most of the applicants for the monthly welfare assistance are heads of families who have low income or could not afford to support their families. The burden of debt that leaves them unable to make their repayments has also contributed to the financial woes faced by these families. Therefore with the profiling analysis, the Department of Community Development will be able to provide a specific programme to help recipients of welfare assistance to get out of poverty,” he added.

Towards long-term sustainability in providing welfare assistance, the minister said, “Efforts are on to empower monthly welfare assistance recipients who are categorised as physically and mentally capable to undergo skill training programmes and self-development in order to attain employment or venture into businesses.

“The programme,” he said, “will be implemented together with the Department of Community Development and Youth Development Centre. It will be further expanded to include an element of work incentive relating to increase in skills. This effort will not only stop them from their dependence of continuous assistance but also help towards maintaining sustainability in the government social security programme.”

The minister said in 2014, a total of 5,144 orphans received assistance, 158 received counselling services, 6,105 received monthly welfare assistance, 36 received other assistance. Fourteen blind and deaf also received assistance. Meanwhile, 83 complaints on abuse and domestic violence were also handled.

The minister announced that Brunei Darussalam is placed ninth in the world for least misery. The ranking came from findings on happiest countries in the world and countries facing least misery conducted by Adrian G Shite, a psychologist at University of Leicester.

YB Awang Haji Ahmad Morshidi bin Pehin Orang Kaya Digadong Seri Diraja Dato Laila Utama Haji Awang Abdul Rahman, representing members of the Legislative Council, in his speech said, “During last year’s Legislative Council session, Yang Berhormat Pehin had voiced his readiness to hold a meeting or dialogue on matters that need further in-depth explanations. I welcome the invite and appreciate what the Pehin has stated in the session.” The meeting, he said, was not only to voice out issues relating to the ministry but was a platform to assist the ministry enhance its efforts towards implementing policies in accordance with his observations as a Legislative Council member.

Also present at the dialogue session were Datin Paduka Hajah Adina binti Othman, Deputy Minister of Culture, Youth and Sports, Permanent Secretaries as well as officials of the ministry.


Sumber - Borneo Bulletin Online

YAM gets 8-weekjail, $6,400 in fines

YAM Pengiran Muda Abdul Mu’min was sentenced yesterday to eight weeks in jail and fined $6,400 for multiple traffic offences and giving a false statement to the police.

The court document submitted by deputy public prosecutors Hjh Anifa Rafiza Hj Abd Ghani and Dk Siti Nurul Fairuz Pg Rosli, stated that the defendant drove and bumped into another car on September 11, 2014.

He was banned from driving after he was convicted of dangerous driving in a previous case.

YAM was facing a total of 12 charges, which included driving without third party insurance at the time of the accident.

Furthermore, the defendant had also failed to report the accident and drove off using a different vehicle. He was also charged with giving a false statement to the police on how the incident unfolded six days later.

Delivering the sentence yesterday, Senior Magistrate Hj Nabil Daraina PUKDPSSU Hj Badaruddin said the defendant was again caught driving while under disqualification and without insurance on November 19, 2014, nine days after his first appearance before the Magistrates’ Court.

The senior magistrate said actual remorseful behaviour carried more weight than mere words of remorse, and he found it difficult to reconcile the defendant’s actions as put forward by Defence Counsel Balendran Balasingam of Ho & Siong.

The defence counsel had urged the court to consider the “suppressed emotions of the defendant” when his client knew that he was facing a possible custodial sentence.

The court said the defendant had chosen to drive in a non-emergency situation, only because he wanted to go to the gym.

Hj Nabil Daraina said YAM’s subsequent refusal to accept service of a police summons showed the defendant’s blatant disregard of the court and the law itself.

The senior magistrate said the court will “pass its sentence non-discriminately”, adding that the defendant came from a privileged background and should be setting an exemplary role to the society.

The defendant’s actions, said the senior magistrate, led to the unnecessary interrogation of another person and the reason for the defendant doing so was to evade the repercussions of driving while under disqualification.

The court must send a clear message to the public that such offences are not to be taken lightly, said the senior magistrate.

In response to the defence counsel seeking a probation order for his client, the senior magistrate said he was not persuaded that a probation order was appropriate to deal with the defendant based on the circumstances before the court.

In sentencing the defendant, the senior magistrate spelled out the fines for various offences, including careless driving while under disqualification, failure to report an accident within 24 hours, and driving without insurance.

On the charge of lodging a false report to the police, the senior magistrate said this was not a trivial matter as the defendant had lied and hid the truth. The defendant had six days to think before he gave his statement to the police, said the senior magistrate.

However, as there was no information as to how much time had been wasted on the investigation as a result of the defendant’s actions, the senior magistrate took a starting point of six weeks imprisonment and reduced it to four weeks.

For the charge of driving on November 19, 2014 while under disqualification, Hj Nabil Daraina sentenced the defendant to four weeks in prison.

On the charge of driving without insurance on November 19, the senior magistrate took a starting point of three weeks imprisonment and reduced it to two weeks.

In total, the defendant is sentenced to a fine of $6,400 in default of 24 weeks imprisonment and a custodial sentence of eight weeks. The defendant was also disqualified from driving for 12 months.

Following the sentencing, the defence counsel applied for a stay of execution on the custodial sentences pending an appeal. The application was granted by the court.


Sumber - The Brunei Times

How China Exploits a Loophole in International Law in Pursuit of Hegemony in East Asia

How is China pursuing its territorial claims in the South and East China Seas while also avoiding overt confrontations with the US and other regional powers? According to James Kraska, Beijing’s coercive actions fall short – quite intentionally – of what constitutes an ‘armed attack’ in international law.

By James Kraska for Foreign Policy Research Institute (FPRI)

Who “minds the gap” in the South China Sea? The gap, that is, created in international law concerning the use of coercion or aggressive force and the right of self-defense of victim states. China exploits this gap in the international law on the use of force to compel its neighbors to accept Chinese hegemony in East Asia. By using asymmetric maritime forces – principally fishing vessels and coast guard ships – China is slowly but surely absorbing the South China Sea and East China Sea into its domain. And it does so by exploiting a loophole in international law created by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) that makes it impossible for regional states to respond effectively. This legal dimension of the international politics of the maritime disputes in East Asia is not widely understood, but it is at the core of Chinese strategy in the region.

China’s Strategy

In pursuing its grand design, China must overcome resistance from three groups of antagonists. First, China has to overwhelm Japan and South Korea in the East China Sea and Yellow Sea. The plan: divide and conquer. Make sure Japan and Korea dislike each other more than they dislike China. So long as Japan and South Korea nurse historical grievances, China reaps the gain.

Second, Beijing must “Finlandize” the states surrounding the South China Sea by bringing the semi-enclosed body of water into its orbit. The plan: use a suite of carrots and sticks to bring its much weaker “frenemies” -- Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia, Indonesia, and Brunei -- into line. Likewise, the split in ASEAN plays to China’s advantage. This strategy is by itself a powerful approach, and the first 150 years of U.S. domination and division sowed in South America provides an excellent roadmap for a gangly imperialist.

Finally, Beijing has to position itself to prevent interference by the two major maritime powers from outside the region that could stop it. Only the United States and India are positioned to check China’s ambition. The plan: bring pressure to bear within the region without risking great power naval war. In particular, avoid a clear-cut incident that might trigger the U.S. security agreements with Japan, Korea, or the Philippines.[1] In pursuit of these three plans, China applies pressure across the spectrum of low-level coercion, but is careful not to cross the threshold of what is considered an “armed attack” in international law, and therefore trigger the right of individual and collective self-defense.

For example, beginning in 1999, China declared a seasonal “fishing ban” throughout the South China Sea, even though it has no legal competence to regulate fishing outside of its own 200 nautical mile excusive economic zone (EEZ). The farthest reaches of the Chinese ban stretch more than 1000 miles from the southern tip of Hainan Island. The fishing ban purports to manage fish stocks in the EEZs of Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia, Indonesia, and Brunei. Imagine if the United States began to control fishing vessels and oil platforms in Mexico’s EEZ.  

China also has been relentless in promoting an historic right to the islands and features, and virtually all of the ocean area, of the entire South China Sea. The world is uniformly dismayed at China’s unflappable and indignant claim to “historic waters” in the South China Sea. Maritime claims are based on the rules set forth in the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (LOSC), which China joined in 1996. Beijing’s expansive claims, however, are based on the 9- (now 10-) dashed line that was published by the Republic of China in 1947. Although a fundamental precept of the sources of international law is that the “later in time prevails,” China unabashedly touts the dash-line claim as trumping its legal obligations in the Law of the Sea Convention.[2]  China has also renewed historic claims in the East China Sea over the Senkaku Islands, and in the Yellow Sea. Maritime claims constitute China’s greatest “unforced error” in its nom de guerre as a “peacefully rising” great power.

China’s Tactics

Beijing deploys a staggering variety and number of civil law enforcement and civilian commercial vessels and aircraft to press its claims and intimidate other nations. Fishing trawlers and fishery enforcement vessels are the vanguard of this policy, resulting in routine clashes with maritime security patrols in neighboring EEZs.[3] Defense News referred to China’s swarms of fishing vessels as “proxy enforcers” that work in concert with the Chinese Coast Guard  and People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) to “circle a disputed area of contention or create a barrier to prevent access” by the naval forces of its competitors. China Marine Surveillance ships, for example, have completely closed the entrance to the vast lagoon of Scarborough Shoal, located 125 nm West of the Philippines and inside the Philippine EEZ. Sometimes, these incidents turn deadly. In December 2011, for example, a Chinese fisherman killed a South Korean Coast Guardsman that attempted to impound the Chinese boat for illegal fishing .

Fishing vessel swarms are “rent-a-mobs” at sea, yet they pose a sensitive dilemma for other countries in the region. If the fishing vessels are challenged by neighboring states’ maritime law enforcement, it appears that the fishermen are subjected to heavy-handed action. This political element also stokes righteous nationalism in China. On the other hand, if coastal states acquiesce in the actions of the fishing vessels, they cede jurisdiction and sovereign rights in their EEZs.

China first began using fishing vessels as irregular forces in the 1990s against the islands of Matsu and Jinmen to put pressure on Taiwan during periods of political tension.[4] Today China uses these tactics against Japan in the East China Sea and in the South China Sea against the Philippines, Vietnam, and Malaysia. China also has used fishing vessel swarms against Korea in the Yellow Sea. In 2009, when China confronted the USNS Impeccable special mission ship as it conducted military surveys 75 nm from Hainan Island, it used a flotilla composed of a naval intelligence vessel, a fisheries patrol boat, an oceanographic ship and two small cargo ships or fishing trawlers. Some of the vessels appeared to be manned by Chinese Special Forces.[5]

In order to forge stronger unity of effort within the government, Beijing combined five separate agencies into a single Coast Guard in March 2013. The “Five Dragons” were the China Coast Guard of the Public Security Border Troops, the China Maritime Safety Administration of the Ministry of Transport, the China Marine Surveillance Agency of the State Oceanic Administration, the China Fisheries Law Enforcement Command of the Ministry of Agriculture, and the maritime force of the General Administration of Customs.

Last year, China added oil rigs to its stable of paramilitary maritime forces when the China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC) rig HD 981 was positioned near the Paracel Islands in Vietnam’s EEZ. The rig was guarded by a bevy of some 30 Chinese fishing vessels, paramilitary craft, and PLAN warships, until it withdrew months later. The oil rig incident was the lowest point in Sino-Vietnamese relations since 1979. Vietnamese forces were ejected from the Paracels by Chinese marines in a bloody 1974 invasion.

As the region awaits a ruling on the Philippine’s arbitration challenge to preserve its sovereign rights in its EEZ, China’s maritime misadventures in the region leverage a gaping hole in international humanitarian law created by the some of the world’s top jurists in the 1986 ICJ Case Concerning the Military and Paramilitary Activities in and Against Nicaragua (Nicaragua v. United States of America).

China “Minds the Gap” in International Law

In order for China’s strategy to work, it has to slowly coerce its neighbors into accepting Beijing’s hegemony, but avoid a military confrontation. China uses force through its coast guard, fishing vessels, and now oil rigs, to change the political and legal seascape in East Asia, but it studiously keeps PLAN ships over the horizon to sidestep the chance of war.

The Charter of the United Nations governs the law on the use of force in international affairs. The goal of the United Nations is to suppress “acts of aggression and other breaches of the peace.”[6] While the 1928 Kellogg-Briand Pact famously outlawed the conduct of “war,” and the agreement is now regarded as the height of interwar naiveté, the proscription in the U.N. Charter is even broader. Under article 2(4) of the Charter, “armed attack” (or more accurately, armed aggression  or aggression armee in the equally authentic French translation) is unlawful. Article 2(4) also states that the threat of the use of force is as much a violation as the use of force itself.

What may states do if they suffer armed attack or armed aggression? Article 51 of the Charter recognizes the inherent right of individual and collective self-defense of all states to respond to an attack. So far so good – any illegal use of force qualifies as an armed attack, and an armed attack triggers the right of self-defense of the injured state, right? Wrong, at least according to the International Court of Justice. The decision in the 1985 ICJ Nicaragua Case opened a “gap” between an armed attack by one state and the right of self-defense by the victim state.

The case arose from the wars in Central America in the 1980s. The Sandinista regime seized power in Nicaragua in 1979, and embarked on a Marxist campaign to “liberate” Honduras, El Salvador and Costa Rica. Nicaragua supported a splinter resistance movement in El Salvador with weapons, ammunition, money, training, intelligence, command and control, and provision of border sanctuaries. With this aid, guerrilla forces wrecked El Salvador’s economy and turned minority disaffection into a full-blown insurgency. The civilian population in the region suffered, and atrocities were committed on both sides.

To stabilize El Salvador, President Ronald Reagan signed National Security Decision Directive 17 on November 23, 1981. NSSD 17 authorized the CIA to build a force of Contra rebels to conduct covert action to overthrow the Sandinista regime in Nicaragua. Military assistance flowed to Honduras and El Salvador to help inoculate them against communist insurgents. The decision reflected one of the earliest programs of the Reagan Doctrine to oppose the spread of Soviet influence.

In 1984 the Government of Nicaragua brought suit against the United States before the ICJ, arguing that U.S. clandestine activities against it, including arming the Contra rebels and mining the ports of Nicaragua, were a violation of Nicaragua’s sovereignty. The United States countered that U.S. operations were a lawful exercise of the inherent right of individual and collective self-defense under article 51 of the U.N. Charter. President Duarte of El Salvador said to the media on July 27, 1984:

What I have said, from the Salvadoran standpoint, is that we have a problem of aggression by a nation called Nicaragua inside El Salvador, that these gentlemen are sending in weapons, training, people, transporting bullets and what not, and bringing all of that to El Salvador. I said that at this very minute they are using fishing boats as a disguise and are introducing weapons into El Salvador in boats at night.

In view of this situation, El Salvador must stop this somehow. The contras … are creating a sort of barrier that prevents the Nicaraguans from continuing to send them to El Salvador by land. What they have done instead is to send them by sea, and they are not getting them in through Monte Cristo, El Coco, and El Bepino.[7]

The Court rejected the U.S. and El Salvadoran claims of self-defense against an armed attack by Nicaragua. In an interim decision on the Case, the ICJ ruled by a vote of 15 to 0 that the United States should “immediately cease and refrain from any action restricting, blockading, or endangering access to Nicaraguan ports….” In its final ruling on the Merits, the ICJ held by a vote of 14 to 1 that Nicaragua’s right to sovereignty may not be jeopardized by U.S. paramilitary activities. Training, arming, equipping, and supplying the Contras was a violation of international law, and not a lawful measure of collective self-defense taken by the United States and its regional allies in response to Nicaraguan aggression.

The ICJ ruled lower-level coercion or intervention, such as “the sending by or on behalf of a state of armed bands, groups, irregulars, or mercenaries” into another country constitutes an “armed attack,” but the right of self-defense is triggered only if such intervention reaches the “scale and effects” or is of sufficient “gravity” tantamount to a regular invasion. There was no right to use self-defense against coercion or lower-level armed attack by irregulars or insurgents that does not rise to the threshold of gravity or scale and effects.

While both Nicaragua and the United States had funded guerrillas and engaged in acts that destabilized the region, the ICJ distinction turned on the concept of “effective control.” Nicaragua was found not to have “effective control” over the insurgents trying to overthrow governments in El Salvador and Honduras, whereas the United States was deemed to exercise “effective control” over the mining of Nicaraguan harbors and the Contras.

The Court denied El Salvador the opportunity to intervene in the Case, assuring a David vs. Goliath narrative. The ICJ also accepted the Sandinista’s version of the facts and ignored the armed aggression committed by Nicaragua against its neighbors.[8] Judge Schwebel, an American on the Court, issued the only dissent: “In short the Court appears to offer – quite gratuitously – a prescription for overthrow of weaker governments by predatory governments while denying potential victims … their only hope for survival.” The Case represents one of the greatest pieces of international judicial malpractice in history and it should not be surprising that the decision now supports Chinese maritime encroachment (as well as Russian shenanigans in its neighbors from Georgia to Ukraine to the Baltics – but that is a story for another day).

Whether the Nicaragua Case was driven by outcome-based decision making that required a U.S. loss, or a high-minded, but misguided effort at international social justice (as I have suggested here), the result is that a gap opened between armed aggression and the right of self-defense. By using lower-levels of coercion spread over numerous small acts, none of which are sufficient to trigger the right of self-defense, aggressors are rewarded. Being politically and legally cognizant of the Nicaragua Case, China is making strategic maritime gains at the expense of its neighbors without the risk of starting a war.

Furthermore, China’s strategic use of its fishing fleet as a component of “legal warfare” goes beyond exploiting the gap between the use of force and self-defense in jus ad bellum; it affects jus in bello as well. Fishing vessels likely would be used as belligerent platforms during any regional war. Some suspect China is outfitting thousands of its fishing vessels with sonar in order to integrate them into the PLAN’s anti-submarine warfare operations that would have to find and sink U.S. and allied submarines.

Ever since the landmark 1900 case Paquette Habana, which arose from U.S. seizure of Cuban fishing boats in the Spanish-American war, coastal fishing vessels and fishermen are exempt from target or capture during armed conflict. By placing sonar on its fishing vessels as a force multiplier for anti-submarine operations, Beijing instantly risks these ships being regarded as lawful targets in the event of conflict. But the optics of the U.S. Navy sinking Chinese fishing vessels is made-to-order propaganda. In any event, Sam Tangredi, a prominent defense strategist wonders how many of the limited number of torpedoes is the U.S. Navy willing to expend, given the enormous number of fishing vessels.

The reaction to all this might be – so what? Countries have long used asymmetric attacks that fly under the radar. What is different now is that irregular warfare is being used as a tool of the strong to change the regional security system, rather than the weak. Furthermore, the international legal aspects of the present situation inures to China’s advantage. Consequently, the systemic risks are that much greater and can only be compared with the campaign by the USSR to destabilize countries during the Cold War. Who says international law doesn’t matter?

_______________________________________

[1] The United States has defense agreements with five Asian states: Thailand, the Philippines, Japan, South Korea, and Australia. Some of these defense agreements and the Taiwan Relations Act were the subject of an FPRI podcast last year, which can be accessed here: http://www.fpri.org/multimedia/2014/06/us-security-commitments-asias-cha...

[2] States that have historic fishing claims may seek access from the coastal state that manages those areas under article 62 of the Law of the Sea Convention.

[3] Lyle J. Goldstein, “Chinese fisheries enforcement: Environmental and strategic implications,” 40 Marine Policy 187 (2013).

[4] Wendell Minnick, Fishing Vessels in China Serve as Proxy Enforcers, Defense News, August 18, 2014, p. 15.

[5] Some of the “fishermen” appear to be entirely unconvincing subsistence fishermen – young, crew cut, athletic, continually at sea in Southeast Asia without tanned skin, and (!) unable to operate fishing equipment. This observation has been made to me by a former 2-star admiral in East Asia and a retired Chief of Navy from one of the states bordering the South China Sea.

[6] Article 1(1), Charter of the United Nations.

[7] Press Conference of President Duarte, Sam Salvador Radio Cadena YSKL (in Spanish) 1735 GMT 27 July 1984 in San Salvador (July 27, 1984) reprinted in FBIS Daily Reports Latin America, 1, 4 (July 30, 1984).

[8] See, e.g. John Norton Moore, The Secret War in Central America – Sandinista Assault on World Order (1987). John Norton Moore served as a Deputy Agent of the United States at the jurisdictional phase of the case. The United States did not participate in the Merits phase of the case. Full disclosure: I earned my research doctorate under John Norton Moore at University of Virginia School of Law, where I also serve as Senior Fellow. Professor Moore has written more extensively about the legal shortcomings in the case in John Norton Moore, Jus ad Bellum before the International Court of Justice, 52 Virginia Journal of International Law 903, 919-935 (Summer 2012).


Sumber - ISN

Brunei’s oil-fuelled economy running on empty

NATHAN VANDERKLIPPE

Rozman Junaidi has a devil’s grin on his face as he glances over. “You know Top Gun?” he says, holding the control stick that is the closest thing to flying a real Sikorsky S-92 helicopter in all of Asia. “It’s time to buzz the tower.”

He leans the virtual chopper forward, and a razor-sharp digital rendition of the Brunei International Airport tilts up to fill the simulator screen, built by Canada’s CAE Inc., and recently installed in the tiny Asian nation on the northern shore of the island of Borneo. The helicopter charges inches past the control tower, before plunging to the ground. A veil of red suddenly looms over the screen.

“That was fun,” says Mr. Junaidi, CAE’s deputy general manager in Brunei.

There is a metaphor of sorts in the simulated crash: Brunei is fast heading back to earth after a joyride fuelled by fountains of oil. Brunei has no income tax, no sales tax and loopholes big enough that many companies pay no corporate tax. It subsidizes basic foodstuffs and sells gasoline for 47 cents a litre. It is the world’s fourth-richest nation in GDP per capita. Oil brought outrageous riches to the royal family, which has accused one of its own of personally squandering $16-billion (U.S.).

But the bounty in the “abode of peace,” as Brunei Darussalam translates to, is starting to run thin. Oil production is down 40 per cent since 2006, while plummeting prices have robbed a good deal of the value from what remains.

“In some ways it’s one of the luckiest countries on earth, because they’re a small population with lots of oil,” said Todd Wilcox, the chief executive of HSBC Brunei. “But in some ways it’s a bit unlucky, because they have nothing else.”

Now Brunei finds itself struggling to find that something else.

Nearly 96 per cent of Brunei’s exports are oil, gas and related products, more than Saudi Arabia, Kuwait or the United Arab Emirates. At its current pace of extraction, Brunei has enough oil left for just 22 years, according to the BP World Energy Outlook. Saudi Arabia, by comparison, has 63 years left, while Kuwait has 89 (Canada has more than 100). For the past decade, Brunei has found only a half-barrel of new oil for every one it removes from the ground.

A dawning awareness that the good times are at risk has prompted a renewed effort in Brunei to build parts of its economy on something other than oil. It has sought to woo companies from across the world, going so far as to prepare a handful of industrial parks that, for now, stand largely fallow.

But a few companies have come, including Hengyi Industries, a Chinese firm with plans for a new refinery.

And for CAE, Brunei Economic Development paid to construct an entire building custom-designed to house flight simulators. Brunei government agencies also provided long-term contracts to use CAE services and awarded the Saint-Laurent, Que.-headquartered company “pioneer” status, which includes duty-free equipment imports and an exemption from all corporate tax for up to 11 years.

It’s “an enticement for a foreign direct investor. Without that deal, we wouldn’t be here,” Mr. Junaidi says.

Brunei, population 420,000, provoked global consternation in 2014 when it introduced the first phase of sharia law that will, if fully brought into force, include execution for homosexual acts, even for foreigners.

But the country has its virtues. On a map of southeast Asia, it is the bulls-eye, making it geographically central to an increasingly important region. It has an educated population conversant in English and Mandarin. It has been spared the earthquakes, volcanoes, tsunamis that have plagued other parts of Asia, and is politically stable.

Its largely Muslim population also provides business opportunities, in the creation of halal products, one of the reasons Richmond, B.C.-based Viva Pharmaceutical Inc. set up the country’s first pharmaceutical manufacturing operation. Called Simpor Pharma, it is a joint venture with Viva holding 51 per cent and the remainder split between the Brunei government and a local company.

Viva initially looked to set up a factory in China and Indonesia, which has the world’s largest Muslim population, said Edward Ko, Simpor’s managing director. But corruption is rampant in both of those places. So they came to Brunei instead, happy to accept the state assistance — which has extended to the government chartering a vessel to ensure regular marine cargo service. The Simpor factory is a warren of spotless rooms, each devoted to a different step in making halal herbal products, cosmetics, multi-vitamins and over-the-counter drugs.

“Asia is a booming market right now, especially for supplements,” Mr. Ko said.

But for all the government largesse, Simpor’s experience also underscores the legion pitfalls that confront a nation so accustomed to oil’s good times, Brunei officials are stumped when asked what their country did before the oil was found in 1910 (it was a rubber exporter). Brunei without petroleum seems an unimaginable concept, a reality that colours just about everything.

The virtual complete lack of other industry means Simpor must import the entirety of its raw ingredients. The pharmaceutical maker is unable to hire university graduates, who overwhelmingly take plush government jobs that are nearly impossible to lose. A culture that hasn’t had to do much competing for business – heavily-subsidized Royal Brunei Airlines is one of the region’s least profitable air carriers – can be a frustrating place to work.

In the latest World Bank rankings, Brunei tumbled to 179th spot – out of 189, barely beating out Haiti and Zimbabwe – for ease of starting a business.

“Here everything is slow and very traditional,” said Edward Ko, Simpor’s managing director.

In fact, Brunei’s efforts to diversify aren’t doing much to move it away from oil. In 2001, 89 per cent of Brunei’s exports were oil, gas and related products. In 2013, it was 95.7 per cent.

And the future doesn’t look much different. A 2014 energy white paper sketches out coming decades strikingly devoid of anything but more oil and gas. Though it’s not quite clear how it will get there, the paper calls for the country to pump 650,000 barrels of oil equivalent a day by 2035, a massive increase from 372,000 today. That, it says, will grow local employment from 10,000 today to 40,000.

Simpor, by comparison, employs about 30 Bruneians.

Faced with an impending oil crisis, in other words, Brunei has decided its best strategy is to find more oil.

“I don’t think any economist would be very bullish about the future of Brunei’s non-oil and gas sectors, to put it mildly,” said Ian Storey, a senior fellow at the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies in Singapore.

Still, Brunei hasn’t proven a terrible place to be for the Canadians. CAE expects to expand its simulator operations, and hopes to launch a flight school. Simpor is drafting plans for a multivitamin gummy bear factory, and hopes it can one day use the country’s virgin rainforest to find new ingredients.

“It’s not a perfect place to make money, but it’s a good place to make money,” Mr. Ko says. “It’s not really a business-oriented country, but we get a lot of advantages in doing business with government.”


Sumber - The Globe and Mail

A Food Secure Asia By 2025: Addressing Vulnerable Groups – Analysis

Despite numerous international and regional conversations on food security of late, the problem of hunger and malnourishment still persists in Asia. There is a need to relook existing strategies to secure food for affected groups in the region if the vision of a food secure Asia is to be realised by 2025.

By Tamara Nair

In retrospect, of the many grand-scale food security conversations that have taken place in 2014, few have been all-inclusive. While there are successes in terms of food security in Asia in general, these do not address the needs of the large numbers of hungry and undernourished in the region.

There are growing challenges posed by hunger and undernourishment in Asia as reflected in the inability to meet the 1996 World Food Summit (WFS) target of halving the number of undernourished people by 2015. Perhaps the time has come to broaden the thinking as to who we should be having conversations with and what else we should do to establish secure and equal access to food for everyone.

Beyond availability and access to food

The persistent existence of great numbers of hungry, undernourished people in Asia should prompt a relook at existing approaches of access to and availability of food. Food security is often intertwined with other human insecurities such as lack of economic growth, unemployment, and even unfair economic competition and gender bias. For example women and girls often suffer food insecurities given cultural bias in resource distribution in parts of Asia.

Recent events in the South China Sea involving illegal fishing can be a result of insecurities due to unfair competition, pushing fishermen further beyond their fishing territories. For these groups, food security may well extend beyond issues of increasing food production. Their insecurities can also be steeped in cultural politics played out at the local level.

If the intention is to achieve a food secure region, where hunger and undernourishment is considerably lowered, our ideas on food security must expand and evolve – from access and availability to include addressing drivers of hunger and undernourishment.

Appreciating local complexities

For most Asian nations equal access to food opens up Pandora’s Box in terms of problems that can only be collectively addressed. Some of the ways to address them are the deliberate inclusion of local governments, local communities, welfare organisations, women’s groups and cooperatives, clan or caste associations and human rights advocates. But first, we need to acknowledge that existing food policies might not be effective.

Large numbers of rural and urban poor still go to bed hungry despite impressive economic growth in the region. In addition to looking at increasing food production and trade, we also need to look at the reasons why people are still hungry and undernourished. Hunger and undernourishment are complex issues interwoven with several other insecurities, not just joblessness or the lack of money to buy food. Localised strategies to identify specific conditions triggering these insecurities, including that of food, are essential.

Expanding income-earning opportunities would be a positive step in this direction. Local development strategies should aim towards creating employment opportunities for the poor in both rural and urban settings. This should include job opportunities for women. Numerous local projects around Asia show that as female (or combined household) income earning potential increases, household food insecurity falls.

This is an effective strategy and more resources should be channelled at local levels for this to happen. Unfair competition should be tempered through the creation of local cooperatives that can give vulnerable small-scale food producers greater collective bargaining power in food production and food market activities. Local government or other relevant institutions should also exercise effective targeting strategies to identify deserving beneficiaries for various food safety nets, such as public distribution systems, cash hand-outs or meal distribution.

Political participation

We also need to consider increasing capacities of these groups through effective political participation. There should be opportunities for vulnerable groups to participate in development planning and to some extent, be able to influence decisions made. Local level participation in development strategies can create greater trust between various stakeholders in projects that address poverty or income generation and make agencies more accountable to the beneficiaries of various policies put in place.

These strategies are in place in several Asian countries. However, relentless hunger among the poor and vulnerable indicates that the effectiveness of existing policies should be examined and more should be done to fine tune its reach.

Empowering vulnerable groups with income earning potential, removing unfair competition and giving them opportunities to exercise their rights as citizens will go a long way towards removing barriers that result in creating food insecure groups despite well-meaning policies. These are just some of the complexities that need attention in addition to macro-scale solutions like increased food production and trade.

Towards a food secure ASEAN

ASEAN’s post 2015 agenda will be looking into a 10-year timeframe for food security. The International Food Policy Research Institute has also chosen 2025 as the year the world should aim to eradicate hunger.

The ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) 2015 has strategies to enhance the long-term competitiveness of regional food commodities. In its grand plans however, it is easy for the vulnerable to slip through the cracks. While AEC presents opportunities for greater integration and growth we need to exercise caution that broad regional agendas do not see some groups become ‘outliers’ in regional development.

Governments should undertake poverty alleviation strategies and support efforts to promote community participation. Such strategies should aim to promote greater trust between stakeholders, provide jobs to generate incomes and help to effectively target food vulnerable groups.

By identifying the food insecure and addressing the complexities of their daily lives, issues of hunger and undernourishment can be better determined. Enhancing the welfare and rights of the citizens can lead to domestic policies that are more pro poor and are able to address their insecurities.

Similarly, regional trade arrangements should include measures to safeguard those who will be most vulnerable to market instabilities. Fairer market conditions will allow ASEAN to achieve greater equitable regional development, which will in turn contribute towards a food secure Asia.


Sumber - Eurasia Review

ASEAN to declare single market but delays deeper integration: Malaysia

Davos (Switzerland) (AFP) - ASEAN will officially call itself a single market by year's end, but "big things" like seamless travel within the 10-nation bloc would only come in 2020, Malaysia's trade minister told AFP in an interview.

"We're going to declare ourselves as an ASEAN Economic Community," said Mustapa Mohamed, whose country holds the rotating presidency of the Southeast Asian bloc this year.

"We don't have complete integration or harmonisation yet, 2015 is laying the stage for bigger things to come," he said on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos.

"We're going to get almost there by 2015 but the big things like seamless travel... would come in 2020.

"What's important is that we're committed, I'm not saying that we're backtracking," added the minister.

The Southeast Asian bloc, a market of about 600 million people, had set 2015 as a deadline for integrating the region's vast economies into a single European Union-style market, with tariffs abolished and free movement of skilled workers.

But there is much scepticism that the targets could be met, as the bloc is made up of countries in vastly different stages of economic development.

Myanmar, for instance, is just opening up its economy after decades of isolation over its outright military rule which came to an end in 2011.

At the opposite end of the spectrum is Singapore, which ranks among the world's richest nations.

Mustapa acknowledged that it would only be "in 2020 that you'll see more progress in ASEAN economic integration" in term of the abolishing of non-tariff barriers, and flow of skilled labour.

By year's end, there will be "freer movement of goods and services but not free movement of goods and services."

The business community has been pushing political leaders to move faster on integration, but Mustapa said the ASEAN model is gradual.

"The business community wants ASEAN to be integrated as one entity. The fact is that there are border issues, customs, immigration, and different regulations," he said.

In addition, there is little understanding among the general public on how a single market can change their lives, said the minister.

"Some fear that they would be robbed of their jobs, that come December 2015, I'll be out of job because my Malaysian friend is coming over," he said.

"We need to do a lot more in terms of communication."

Asked if Europe's recent economic woes over heavily indebted member states like Greece had put off integration plans, Mustapa said that "from day one, we know that we're not going to adopt the EU model".

A single currency or a parliament were never part of the bloc's plans, he said.

ASEAN groups together Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.


Sumber - Yahoo News

‘Quality of houses need improvement’

Billah Hasan Ak Md Khairuddin Pg Harun
BRUNEI-MUARA

SOME new homeowners and recipients under the National Housing Scheme (NHS) and Landless Indigenous Citizens’ Housing Scheme voiced disappointment on the quality of their houses yesterday.

Others meanwhile expressed hopes that the relevant authorities would consider constructing public facilities such as schools, mosques, grocery stores, health clinics and police stations to ensure the welfare and safety of the neighbourhood.

Hj Ahmad Hj Metusin, a resident from the Tanah Jambu National Housing Scheme (NHS) said he was concerned with the lack of accessibility at his new neighbourhood.

Moving in last April, the 44-year-old civil servant at the Ports Department said the entrance to the new housing scheme was difficult due to the lack of accessible roads.

Hj Ahmad said there are only two current entry points to the Tanah Jambu NHS; Jalan Bukit Kabun and Tutong-Muara highway.

“Relevant government agencies should do research beforehand to avoid these kinds of problems in the future. This is not the first time they built houses. There should be improvements,” he said.

Meanwhile, new homeowner at Kg Panchor Mengkubau, Junain Kasim, felt that the design of the homes could be improved.

Junain moved into his new home last December and his joy was met with disappointment when he realised the kitchen was not spacious enough to fit a dining table.

He added that it was also unpleasant to have the kitchen facing the toilet on the ground floor.

Junain said the limited space was not ideal in the context of Brunei’s culture of having extended family members over for a meal.

He complained about the quality of the facilities as well, citing faulty fans and lightings, cracked floors and a flood-prone garage as examples.

Junain had filed a complaint letter to the Housing Development Department last year, only to be notified that he was on the waiting list.

Another resident from Kg Panchor Mengkubau, Pg Mustafa Pg Amat, agreed that the kitchen and the position of the dining room could be improved.

“Bruneians like to invite their family members over during the weekend. But if the dining area is too small, how do you expect Bruneians to maintain the culture of visiting one another,” said the 43-year-old.

37-year-old Hj Azizul Fadli, meanwhile, raised the need for a mosque to be built for the residents of Kg Panchor Mengkubau to perform their religious duties, especially during Friday prayers for men.

“I have moved into my new house for almost a month now. I (an hoping a) mosque will be built here. I had to travel all the way to Masjid Mentiri for the Friday prayers. It is just a five to ten-minute drive, but it is also already packed with existing congregants from Kg Mentiri,” he said.

Hj Zakaria Abdul Kadir chimed in, adding that the construction of other public facilities will benefit the residents.

“We also kindly request if the authorities can consider setting up a primary school, health clinics and maybe grocery shops... especially when all the houses here are occupied,” he said.

“Nonetheless, Alhamdulillah, everything is very comfortable here. The water pressure is regular and road lamps are switched on every night, so I feel very safe,” he said.


Sumber - The Brunei Times

Sultanate committed to overseeing disarmamentof MILF fighters

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The World Misery Index: 108 Countries

By Steve H. Hanke

Every country aims to lower inflation, unemployment, and lending rates, while increasing gross domestic product (GDP) per capita. Through a simple sum of the former three rates, minus year-on-year per capita GDP growth, I constructed a misery index that comprehensively ranks 108 countries based on “misery.”

Below the jump are the index scores for 2014. Countries not included in the table did not report satisfactory data for 2014.

The five most miserable countries in the world at the end of 2014 are, in order: Venezuela, Argentina, Syria, Ukraine, and Iran. In 2014, Argentina and Ukraine moved into the top five, displacing Sudan and Sao Tome and Principe.

The five least miserable are Brunei, Switzerland, China, Taiwan, and Japan. The United States ranks 95th, which makes it the 14th least miserable nation of the 108 countries on the table.

Sumber - Cato Institute

Floods cut off roadusers on highway linking Brunei, Sabah and Sarawak

MIRI: Thousands of roadusers using the Pan Borneo Highway road linking Brunei, Sabah and Sarawak were cut off after it was hit by flood reaching four feet near Kampung Batu Danau yesterday afternoon.

The water level was reported to be between 3 to 4 feet high and is expected to rise higher today due to the king tide.

Limbang Disaster and Relief Operation centre chairman, deputy resident for Limbang, Selamat Jati said that road was not accessible since 1pm yesterday.

He added that the area flooded was after the Batu Danau bridge over Limbang river which is overflowing due to heavy rainfall in the upper area of Medamit.

Aerial view of Batu Danau Bridge in Limbang, also seen is the overflowing river.

Limbang Resident office, Bomba, Police, Department of Drainage and Irrigation, Agriculture, Sarawak Rivers Board, Land and Survey, Limbang District office and JPAM were involved in the disaster operation here.

“We are hoping the water level in the flooded areas including kampungs, longhouses and schools will subside,” Selamat said.

Batu Danau State Assemblyman Paulus Palu Ngumbang who is overseeing the flood situation in Ukong disclosed that the water level in the Medamit areas have gone down three feet.

“Our fear if it rains up in Ulu Limbang, water will flow downriver crossing Medamit, Batu Danau and its surrounding Limbang river banks and the water level will increased following king tide,” Paulus said.

He called on villagers to move to higher ground or to evacuation centres.

Meanwhile, Councillor Kungee Sandhu said that the water level had increased after the river upstream from Nanga Medamit had overflowed downwards to Batu Danau.

Kungee who is from Batu Danau said that a Toyota Hilux from Brunei trying to cross the flooded road was carried away by strong currents. There were no casualties.

He advised roadusers not to venture crossing the flooded stretch of road as it could be life-threatening.

As of 9am today, he said, the water level was stagnant, however the weather is cloudy and with King Tide the water level expected to rise up.

Meanwhile, Nur Khairunisa Abdullah, a roaduser, who contacted the Borneo Post yesterday said she was lucky to not be stuck in the flood near Kampung Batu Danau as of 1.10pm, the water level was about to rise.

She said that she had to drive her car slowly for five minutes to brave the flood water before reaching higher ground.

“This flood is the worst so far, the last was a decade ago,” she said.

Another roaduser, Cecelia Lim said that she was scared as the road was filled with water still coming fast from Limbang river.

She described the incident as panicking seeing a long queue of vehicles lining up to cross the flooded road while the water was rising.

“I’m relieved that I can cross back to Limbang and as I know today the road is cut off due to water levels increasing,” she said further.

According to Kungee, Kampung Pengkalan Madang, Kpg Pengkalan Jawa, Kpg Batu Danau were flooded as of today in the Batu Danau area.

He said 138 people were provided temporary shelter at Kampung Bidang community hall and that SK Ukong, SK Pengkalan Jawa, SK Kualawang, SK Tanjong, SK Batu Danau and SK Lubok Tengkurok were affected by flood.

The flood in Nanga Medamit is subsiding now, he added.

At the time of writing, it is not known when the road can be used, although there are reports of lorry drivers managing to cross the flood prone area.


Sumber - BorneoPost Online