Wake up call?

The recent articles on the possibility of an increase in the petrol pump prices for diesel and unleaded last week has been the centre of a lot of conversations in homes and offices around Brunei. It does beg the question - is it the start of a new beginning or the end of an era?

For those who have lived or spent some time overseas, they are more aware of the realities of how living in Brunei can be pretty comfortable. We don’t pay income tax. Education and Health care are free. Electricity, water, rice, sugar and yes oil are subsidized. This basically satisfies most of our basic needs which in some other countries, citizens would have to put aside up to more than 70% of their income to pay for.

Ironically, we are still also a nation living very much on credit. Curiously, what are we spending our money on? Are we chasing the appearance of glamorous lifestyles? The fancy car? Many cars? A big house? And all the trappings of luxury. In other places, cars are a luxury with more of a reliance on public transport. Here, we think of it as a necessity given our own public transport system is rather basic. This doesn’t excuse us though… most families are guilty of having one car per driving member of the family and the driver too.

With all these cars on the road, it is no surprise that Bruneians are one of the biggest consumers of diesel and petrol in the region. Price has not been an issue to hold us back, especially when drinking water is more expensive. Consider a 10 cent increase in the prices of petrol, this, for me and my 2.0 litre engine, would normally cost approximately $30 to fill from empty. For every 10 cents this would increase the cost of filling up by plus minus $5 (Not taking account of fuel efficiency etc etc). If we were to take the petrol prices to a similar level to that of Malaysia and Indonesia, around 80 cents per litre, then it would cost almost $18 more. Let say I fill up my car 8 times a month, this would cost me almost $80 more, or on an annual basis $960 more. Shyte! Don’t get me started on those who commute regularly on a big luxury 4.o litre turbo V8 engines… yikes!!!!

I guess what we are trying to say here is that we think that the article is a good wake up call for us Bruneians. We need to start thinking about our future, of life beyond oil and gas. For young Bruneians, the message has to be that the easy life is over and it could be a rude awakening as they are woken up to smell the coffee. The journey itself will be interesting and only time will tell. Let’s prepare for the worst and pray for the best.