The Brunei Times, Front Page article by Dewi Mohd Sofri. Full version available for download here.

From the article:

Pengiran Omarali Hj Mohd Yussof, the Head Section of Support Unit and Mechanical Maintenance at the Municipal Department, said: “We are taking note of this matter.” He said that the two labourers in the video have been identified. “We will try to find out why they did that,” he said, maintaining that actions of the two labourers do not reflect the unit’s mission.

The department is now planning to beef up the surveillance to curb such occurrences. He attributed it to shortage of officers to monitor the work. The municipality expansion has increased the duties of the supervisors who now cover a wider area.

“We have proven to the people that we have taken good care of Bandar Seri Begawan. You can see the difference between areas under our responsibility and those not under us. Don’t let the actions of a few people tarnish the reputation of the entire department,” he added.

I’m a bit disappointed with this response from Bandaran. First of all, it’s great that the Municipal Board is taking note of this, and eventhough the two labourers have been identified, I, frankly, don’t really see the point.

The important thing is NOT THE PERSON WHO COMMITED THE OFFENCE, BUT THE OFFENCE ITSELF. That video could’ve been anyone, and it will still come up with the same bewildered responses.  Throwing rubbish in the Sungai Brunei, the very river that flows through the Capital City of Brunei Darussalam, the very same river that witnessed the Majlis Perpuspaan of all 29 Sultans, is just a BIG. HUGE. NO!

The second thing is that, as noble keepers of the Capital City, as those people who are privilleged enough to don the orange uniform, as those who know how it feels to constantly clean up after other people, I would’ve thought that they would KNOW that throwing rubbish in the river is wrong.

It doesn’t matter if they are being supervised or not. So blaming lack of staff is just a real low. They were being supervised by fellow Bruneians, tourists, children, everyone. Didn’t they care? Even so, these officers are all responsible ADULTS, not teenagers in primary school during a cleaning campaign who require constant supervision. THEY should’ve known!

Thirdly, and most importantly,

“You can see the difference between areas under our responsibility and those not under us.”

YES I definitely can see the difference. DARAT LAIN DAN SUNGAI LAIN: The river is filthy while the area under you, i.e. the land, is spotless! So as soon as you go out of your zone of responsibility you are free to litter everywhere you like is it? Come one lah, get some perspective.

Take the responsibility bah. Why must there be, “atu durang tu, bukan aku”. Your two officers screwed up. It is a sign that there are more of them. They don’t need more supervison or more surveillance as if they’re all in prison. People are watching everywhere anyway, hell, people are recording what they do.

We don’t want to blame anyone. the reason for this video was that we want action taken. What kind you ask? Simple, we want black plastic bags being used, instead of the river. And a little goes a long way.

Full article from Brunei Times is also available after the jump.

Municipal staff caught dumping trash into river

Dewi Mohd Sofri

BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN
27-Sep-07

TWO Municipal Department workers were caught on camera dumping rubbish into the Brunei River recently. The government officer who captured the incriminating video has posted it on Youtube website. He first noticed this while having a conversation with a tourist by the jetty along Jalan residency.

“We were watching her (the worker) sweep when she suddenly dumped everything into the river. We were both shocked!” he said. “When the tourist asked me about it, I did not know what to say.”

Since then he began observing them and once saw the particular worker sweep the litter from the jetty all the way to the Fire and Rescue station into the river. He even approached one of the cleaners about it but she shrugged it off nonchalantly.

After having witnessed the incident for the third day in a row last week, he decided to capture it on camera. . The purpose for uploading the video, he said, is to raise awareness on pollution because “it is very embarrassing. Especially when tourists come across such situation.”

Pengiran Omarali Hj Mohd Yussof, the Head Section of Support Unit and Mechanical Maintenance at the Municipal Department, said: “We are taking note of this matter.” He said that the two labourers in the video have been identified. “We will try to find out why they did that,” he said, maintaining that actions of the two labourers do not reflect the unit’s mission.

The department is now planning to beef up the surveillance to curb such occurrences. He attributed it to shortage of officers to monitor the work. The municipality expansion has increased the duties of the supervisors who now cover a wider area.

“We have proven to the people that we have taken good care of Bandar Seri Begawan. You can see the difference between areas under our responsibility and those not under us. Don’t let the actions of a few people tarnish the reputation of the entire department,” he added. – The Brunei Times