Other than thefts, smuggling activities also remained rampant in the country in 2019. And these are just talking about smugglers who got caught. Given the relative “ease of doing business” for the smugglers, the magnitude of the problem could be much bigger than one would think.

Drugs, cigarettes and alcohol are the most popular contraband being smuggled into Brunei commonly over land through mousetrails. There were also a number of arrests for smuggling raw meat into the country. Yes, there were idiots who tried their luck in smuggling the items through immigration checkpoints, but the smugglers got a better chance of being undetected when using mousetrails. Kg Junjungan, Bebuloh and Lumapas are littered with these mousetrails, some of which can even accommodate cars.

Other than over land, smugglers also operate using boats through the interconnecting rivers. When everyone is sound asleep, the smugglers using boats from the neighbouring Limbang, Lawas even Labuan can stealthily boat in the contrabands into Kg Ayer and basically any Kampung along the bank of the connecting river. The villagers often see their boats painted in black and the smugglers wearing all black to blend in with the pitch blackness of the night. Most common landing points are Kg Sungai Bunga, Kg Sungai Besar, Kg Menunggol and Kg Riong. The islands such as Pulau Chermin are also used as transaction points for the smugglers. Yes, the marine police conducted operations to catch these smugglers in action, but oftentimes the smugglers are way ahead of the enforcement officers. They use informants and high speed boats that can outrun the police boats.

All roads to smuggling activities lead back to demands, especially cigarette. Ever since the country’s war against all things tobacco, the volume of cigarette smuggling has skyrocketed. I am yet to hear personally a testimony from any cigarette smoker in Brunei who says that he quit smoking when all the shops stopped selling them. Due to the high demand, the profits of any successful cigarette smuggling operation are massive. They just need to get away with it once, and they can reap thousands in profits overnight. And if they are greedy, they would do it again and again. If they are unlucky, they may be spotted by patrollers and made the run for it abandoning the contraband. That would be totally fine to them given the profits they already made from previous successful smuggling. This was exactly what happened in June 2019 at the Lumapas area, when a smuggler bailed upon spotting patrollers leaving behind 1,250 cartons of cigarettes. In the same month, another smuggler trying to haul in some contraband by boat in Kg Putat, also in Lumapas, made a split for it when spotted by patrollers abandoning his boat with 537 cartons of cigarettes and some alcohol inside. In Feb 2019, upon realising that their boat was spotted by the Marine Police, the smugglers quickly dumped their loads into the water before escaping into Limbang. The dumped loads turned out to be 620 cartons of cigarettes.

It is heartbreaking to see a 72 year old man succumbing to the temptation of profiting from smuggling activities. But he wasn’t so lucky. He was caught in Jul 2019 whilst trying to smuggle in 227 cartons of cigarettes via boat at the Kg Menunggol Laut area. The poor old man definitely wont be able to pay the hefty fine for smuggling that could run up to hundreds of thousands of dollars. so he would have to do some jail time for a period not exceeding 2 years. If you ask me, for a 72 year old, I think his life in jail would be more amusing and less boring than at the outside.

The same month, an Indonesian foreign worker also tried his hand in smuggling. He too got busted by patrollers when trying to smuggle in 15 cartons of cigarette via the mouse trail at Kg Junjungan. Off to the slammer for him too.

Diagnosis: The porous border between Brunei and its neighbouring Malaysia has long become the enabler for smuggling activities to thrive. If you ask Donald Trump, he would ask for us to build a wall. As ideal as it may sound, it is not feasible for Brunei especially at the Lumapas area where the border is not clearly defined. And how do we build a wall to stop smuggling activities through the connecting rivers? For as long as the border remains porous, and for as long as we still hear about drugs abuse in Brunei, we all know well that it would mean smuggling activities are still unabated. Of course, a number of times their operations have been foiled by the police, but those are just the tip of the tip of the smuggling iceberg. So, expect this crime to stick around for more years to come.

The year was 2007. The new school term just started. Miss S, a teacher at the Telisai Primary School was just finishing tidying up her desk before heading out for lunch break. Miss S lives in Kg Telamba, her home is just a few minutes drive from the school where she spent her lunch break every work day. Driving home, she noticed that traffic was slower than usual. She remembered thinking that it was a bit unusual, but she didn’t put much thought to it. As she was getting closer to her home, the traffic became slower and slower. Right then, a number of scenarios came to her mind – a road accident, a house fire, a police road block, among others.

A few yards from reaching her home, she could see a number of police cars in front of her house and there was quite a crowd. It was then clear to her that cars were slowing down because the drivers were rubbernecking. Panic set in, but was quickly replaced with a sense of relief when she saw her in-laws who are living next-door and all her kids were alright. She quickly parked her car and walked hurriedly to them. Whats going on?? she asked. The next-door couple was murdered! her mother in law informed. She pointed at the bungalow right behind Miss S house. The area was taped off. Everyone at the scene was distraught, crying, hugging each other. Everyone knows everyone in the Kampong including the murdered couple, they are all relatives or friends to each other. Who could have done such a heinous thing. Unbeknownst to them, the murderer(s) could be there among them at the scene that day.

Miss S entered her house, overwhelmed with curiousity, she peered through their back window, an action that she later regretted doing. She quickly went out of the house and ordered her kids to stay outside and not to enter the house. She could never forget what she saw and until today, 19 years on, she could not get the image out of her head. From the back window, she could see the woman’s lifeless body on the sand just feet away from the couple’s house, lying in a pool of blood that seemed to be coming from the gaping wound on the neck. It was apparent that her throat was slashed.

In the bungalow, the police found the husband’s body, also lying in a pool of blood. His throat was also slashed. According to the villagers, although the couple owned the bungalow, they didn’t stay there on a daily basis. They actually lived with the husband’s parents at Kg Penanjong. It so happened that during the fateful day when the crime happened, the couple was visiting the bungalow and sleeping over, just the two of them without the kids. It is horrifying to imagine the kids suffering the same fate had they joined their parents there.

Police was seen taking statements from J, a mentally disabled teenager from the Kampong. It was believed that J was the one who raised the alert about the crime. He even directed the police to the location of a bloody knife, believed to be used in the murder, buried behind a house just feet away from the woman’s body. Upon further questioning, J then claimed that he actually witnessed the attack. At this point, it was thought that the police had their work cut out for them. They had the murder weapon and a witness. It looked like a slam dunk case. Or so they thought.

Miss S and a number other villagers including J were later taken in a police van to the station to continue to provide information to help the investigation. In the van, the ladies especially, were all crying, asking why why why the couple were murdered in such a gruesome manner. They were all overwhelmed with shock and grief. At that point, no one in the van knew that J had admitted to the police that he had witnessed the murder. Now, looking back at the moment in the van, it began to come back to her that while everyone was crying and wailing, J was sitting quietly with his head down.

In the police station, Miss S tried to provide as much information as she could. Despite their house being the closest and just feet away from the crime scene, Miss S and her husband didn’t hear anything at all the night before. Neither did the other neighbours. After all their statements were taken, the police took everyone back home, in the same van, except J. J was not in the van, he didn’t go home that night. Words started to go around about J being held at the police station. The villagers started to speculate and put two and two together.

Days later, information began to spread that at the police station, J had actually confessed to the murder and was being detained. People were immediately expecting to see more arrests in the days following J’s confession because it was rather obvious that there was no way J acted alone. But, no further arrests were made.

J is a familiar face in the Kampong. Everyday he would roam the Kampong, on foot, to wherever his feet took him. But he was considered harmless. It had become normal and not a strange thing for the villagers to see J in their backyards or at the foot of their stairs. There was never any moment that the villagers feared for their safety when J was around them. However, in the months leading up to the murder, J had started to hang out with a group of rowdy juveniles.

Those rowdy juveniles were youngsters from the Kampong as well who have “trouble” written all over their faces. They have been creating nuisance in the Kampong, making lots of noises even during late night hours. Boisterous, they looked intoxicated or high on something and had no regard for the peace of mind of the villagers. Perhaps J followed them around because they befriended him, and perhaps he just wanted to have friends, a sense of belonging. Interestingly, one of them lives in the house behind which the murder weapon was buried. The villagers were confident that those teens got something to do with the murder and that J might have been there as well with them when it all happened. People thought that J would eventually out them, but he never did.

The murdered couple’s bungalow remained taped off which at first gave the villagers hope that the police would come back with some forensic team to collect evidence that would lead to the arrests of the murderers. But, days turned into weeks, weeks turned into months and months turned into years, there were never any leads or updates, the case seemed to be not just turning cold, but dead altogether, as dead as a doornail. The villagers were heartbroken to see the bungalow being slowly engulfed by thick vegetation. Adding insult to injury, after 2 years of “interrogation”, J was freed. No charges were ever brought against him, nor were there any other suspects pursued by the police. After being freed, J was seldom seen outdoor anymore, he just stayed indoor and kept to himself. Even the rowdy teens, suddenly their pack dispersed. Well, well, well…

Theft has topped the list of reported crimes in the country in 2019. Surprising? Not so much. It is also not surprising that almost all of the perpetrators are unemployed locals. With no means of income, stealing is one available option for them to get easy bucks. So, the old saying “Crime Doesn’t Pay” may not mean much to thieves because the thefts they committed became the source of money they needed to pay out their debts, to buy mobile phone credits, to pay for drugs, to pay for online game tokens and online gambling, and other needs.

Stealing cars and car rims and tyres, looting metals and cables, and house break-ins have been the most committed types of theft and they still were in 2019. For the house break-ins, the most common entry mode is through the back kitchen or back toilet window. So get them grilled people. Once they gained entry to your home, the most targeted items would be your laptops, mobile phones, jewelleries and money, of course, including those in your coin banks. If you have safe box, they will swipe that too. If the house is empty, no CCTV would deter the thieves from getting on with their business. Stealing from houses where no one is home also gave thieves the opportunity to wheel in their cars and steal bigger items such as gas tanks, washing machines, TVs, vacuum cleaners and air conditioner units. So, your neighbours that you greeted with just eyebrow flashes, they are actually the ones who you could count on to watch your homes when you are away.

Other random items that were snatched by thieves in 2019 include a scooter, a perahu, a grass cutter machine, a drill machine, a water jet, fishing rods, a game console from JIS, a pipe valve from a garden, welding machines and a truck battery unit from a construction site, fire hydrants, and the most outlandish of them all – an excavator.

Stealing items at shops and supermarkets is something that could be happening everyday, even as we speak. It is a risk that shop owners have to live with. Interestingly however, from the admission of the shoplifters that were caught in 2019 in Brunei, the items that they stole are not for thrills or personal consumption, but to be sold for money. Talk about heeding the calls to have a “business mindset”. Among the items shoplifted in 2019 include perfumes, deodorants, wet and dry food, supplements and a mobile phone.

2019 saw fruits too being subjected to theft, with one case involving the theft of durians and the other involving the theft of mangoes. While the fate of the stolen durians is not known, the stolen mangoes ended up being sold at the market for $76. Imagine an icebreaking session in jail, when asked “What were you in for?” Errr….stealing fruits.

There was also an attempt to siphon fuel from a car’s tank. The guy, who worked as a security guard, must be really broke that he couldn’t afford to buy fuel.

Probably trying to reduce the risks of getting caught, thieves in 2019 also targeted unmanned infrastructure as in the case of an unemployed couple who broke into telecom towers and water tank area and made a loot of batteries, steel fence parts and cables. They nearly got away with it if it had not been for the instant karma they were served with when their car got stuck in the mud while trying to flee the scene.

There were three people who might have woken up that day with no plans to steal but succumbed to temptations when the opportunities were presented to them. A 22-year-old unemployed local was innocently riding his bicycle along Jalan Bengkurong area when he came upon an unattended road assistance vehicle with the engine running and key in the ignition. He wasted not time, ditched his bicycle and zoomed away with the car taking the one way street to a 2 year imprisonment at Maraburong Prison. Another man, 42-year-old local who earned a living by selling discarded cans, saw an unlocked bicycle just lying there unattended. Instead of just focusing on discarded cans, he also picked the bicycle and cycle his way to a 16 month imprisonment at Maraburong Prison. Meanwhile, a 67-year-old man who just got out of jail for theft, faced his demons again when while walking randomly in Mentiri, he noticed a man leaving his car with the  window down and the door unlocked, and a luscious looking backpack sitting inside the car. Well, we all know what happened next.

When laundromats made their debut in the country sometimes in 2017, it would be about time that the laundromats would be targeted by thieves. And in 2019, it eventually happened. Especially the 24-hour laundromats, those with no walls, are like whispering harmony to the thieves ears…come…steal something from me…. Again in this case, CCTVs wont do much deterrence as the thieves can just hide their looks by wearing hats or disguise, unless of course, you are the two thieves who stole from the Speed Queen Laundromat in Kg Lambak Kiri who didnt get to enjoy the $180 loot from the laundromat’s token machine as they were quickly identified from the CCTV footage and arrested.

A snatch theft was also committed, which is a more daring and perhaps desperate act of stealing. A man snatched a gold necklace worn by a one-year-old child while the child’s mother was distracted nearby.

2019 also saw 3 cases of mugging. Mugging is not good to be included in the list of crimes in Brunei because it scares tourists away. People want to feel save whether hitching a ride, walking alone at the back alley, just driving along the road or even praying in the public prayer room. In the first case, the poor victim trusted these two men who offered him a ride for $1. Instead of taking him to the intended destination, the two goons stopped at Mentiri Golf Club area and using a knife, mugged the guy of his money. In the second case, two men using a machete mugged a garbage disposal worker, and stole the guy’s handphone and some cash. In the third case, a man entered the female prayer room at the Athirah building in Batu Satu and armed with a knife, he grabbed a woman by the neck, covered her mouth, threatening her to stay quiet as he tried to steal the woman’s handbag.

Together with mugging, also shaking the core of our peace loving society are armed robberies which are still committed. Unlike cat burglars, these armed robbers have no plans to be discreet, they don’t need the darkness of the night and they used weapons to threaten and hurt the victims who are in their way from their loot. One case in 2019 was in Kg Kiudang in Tutong when an elderly woman who was home alone at that time was attacked in broad daylight by 2 intruders before they ran away with her jewelleries and other items. Those two men are still at large. In another case, a man at his home at Kg Kupang in Tutong was awoken at 3am by 2 intruders with one of them putting a machete against his throat. The robbers made away with the victim’s car which they later set on fire and ditched at Kg Kuala Lurah. Police managed to hunt and arrest the two robbers 12 hours after the incident.

All in all, among the lessons learnt from the 2019 theft incidents are:

1. Get your windows and doors grilled [no not barbecued, not scolded, get them fixed with steel barriers].
2. Safe boxes that are carryable are pointless.
3. Anything you put outside of your home is as good as gone.
4. Be friendly to your neighbours.
5. Don’t take your fruits for granted.
6. Your car’s fuel are vulnerable.
7. Telco towers are vulnerable.
8. Never leave your car with the engine still running.
9. Always lock your bicycle.
10. Laundromat owners to always empty their token machines.
11. Never get your eyes off your kids.
12. Never take rides from strangers.
13. Always keep your doors locked during the day even when you’re home.
14. Be aware of your surroundings when doing outdoor activities.

Diagnosis: The theft menace will not go away anytime soon. It has a positive correlation with unemployment and drugs abuse. If those two are still not mitigated, then no matter how many theft cases are solved, and how many thieves thrown into jail, there will still be thefts reported almost everyday. Drug addicts who are desperate to buy drugs will not think twice about committing thefts, even if they have to use violence, as long as they get the money. There are also thieves who are in and out of jail, even up to 7 times!, which only goes to show that the gain from stealing again had to be worth the risk of being caught again. It also goes to show that the Maraburong Prison is a place that they can survive without any psychological or emotional scar, no fear or phobia of being sent back in there. So, steal again they will.

Next: Smuggling activities

Saw this on paper. Last Tuesday, a 26 year old man was charged with criminal intimidation and sentenced to two months imprisonment after he was found guilty of pointing a knife at another motorist during a road rage situation. The incident happened on 02 January 2019 at the traffic light of the Jalan Utama Berakas junction. I don’t know if this case qualifies as a “road rage” though, given that (unverified) words on the street said that those two knew each other and have pre-existing tiffs unrelated to how any of them was driving on the road that time. Both were said to have gotten out of their respective cars at the traffic light stop, going at each other with verbal barbs at first, until one of them went back to his car to get his knife and tried to gut the other man. There was no road rage there, only two airheads fighting on the road with a weapon involved.

There are certainly angry drivers on a daily basis. Civilised people just use their car honkers. One honk means a tad angry. Long honk means angrier. Sometimes the honks come with some mouth movements and angry looks. Once in a while, they come with finger and hand gestures. Occasionally they would give chase, tailgate, overtake, parallel the other car very closely and cutting in dangerously. These are not road rage. They are just drama queen drivers who lose their cool. After a few seconds, everything would be over, and the drivers get on with their lives with something to talk about to their friends and families that day.

If you’ve seen the movie Carrie, now that is rage. According to the US DMV website, the term Road Rage is “often used to refer to the more extreme acts of aggression, such as a physical assault, that occur as a direct result of a disagreement between drivers.” Just on Thursday in the US, 3 teens beat the crap out of a 73 year old grandfather for driving too slow. Still, this was nothing compared to what happened to other road rage victims in developed countries who weren’t so lucky, getting shot or stabbed to death.

Road rage of the physical assault kind do happen in Brunei, although in this smart phones and social media era, less and less is heard about them happening. Today, recording the road-rager in action is the best defence to put them off from any intention to physically assault people. However, back in the days, local drivers have unleashed a number of appalling road rage attacks, unbecoming of the country’s sleepy population.

Let me start with personal experience. In 1992, my brother was driving along the backroad from Bandar to Tutong. His wife was in the car with him. Then, somewhere in Kilanas, he noticed this car tailgating him. From the rear view mirror, he could see that the driver of the car looked angry and making hand gestures as if asking him to stop. Confused and not knowing what he did wrong, my brother accelerated which seemed to make the driver more angry. The man dangerously tried to overtake my brother’s car  in an obvious attempt to run my brother’s car off the road. At that point my brother hit the accelerator pedal harder. A high-speed chase ensued. My sister in law was wailing in terror. There was no police station nearby and no mobile phone. My brother decided to go to his friend’s house at Kg Sinaut. As they reached the friend’s house, they made a dash for the house door. The man got out of his car and gave chase wielding what appeared to be a samurai. Realising that my brother would call the police, the man went back to his car and left. Until today, my brother still wonders what the man’s issue was.

Sometimes in 2006, my other brother was driving through this single track road. It was just a short stretch where cars going the opposing direction would have to wait until the oncoming cars pass through. But, before my brother’s car reach the end of the narrow road, the driver of the oncoming car didn’t stop and wait, instead proceeded to drive through. Obviously, both cars ended up having to halt, blocking each other’s way head-to-head. Eventhough my brother drove into the road first, the driver of the other car gestured as if asking my brother to reverse his car. When my brother refused to budge, the man got out of his car and went over to my brother’s car. Not expecting what to happen next, my brother innocently kept his window down. Without warning, the man’s hands reached through the window and put a chokehold on my brother’s neck.

None of my brothers got seriously hurt. Im sure there have been many other such cases that went unreported. But, the country has seen some worser road rage attacks. Two outrageous ones are particularly jawdropping. In 2001, a woman and her 4 children were on their way to Kiulap when a car rammed into theirs. The man in the other car, who was speeding, was allegedly angry because he had to slow down when the woman got out of a junction into the road where he was driving through. The woman’s 15 year-old-son got out of the car to ask what the man’s problem was. The man then grabbed the teen’s neck and lifted him into the air. Seeing her brother choking and gasping for air, his sister got out of the car and ran to the nearest house to call for help. The man eventually let go of the boy. The boy was taken to the hospital with his neck badly bruised and bleeding from deep incision made by the man’s fingernails. What a psycho. He should pick somebody his own size.

The same year, a woman accidentally ran into a vehicle in front of her. The first thing anyone would do is to stop, get out of the car, apologise to the other driver, assess the damage and negotiate a way to settle the compensation. Right? Not in this case though. As the woman got out of her car, she was served with a big fat slap on the face by the man whose car she just hit. Wow! Talk about gender equality. Ironically, there was actually no visible damage to the man’s car. What a jerk.

Choking a 15 year-old-boy, slapping a woman, it seems like our local road-ragers have shown some talent in idiotism and dormant dexterity in violence. Add some weapons and throw in a box of matches in the cocktail, then we have the most psychotic road rage attack ever in the country. It happened in 1998 at around 11am. A man (the victim) was driving along Jalan Gadong when a car overtook and stopped in front of his car forcing him to stop as well. Then the driver of the other car went out and approached the victim’s car. He had with him a baton, a knife and a parang. Why the victim didn’t split right there and then, I don’t even know. The man then jumped on top of the victim’s car and smashed the front windscreen with his boots. He then instructed the victim to get out, smashed the windscreen on the driver’s side with a baton and took the key from the ignition. As the victim stepped out of his car, the man hit him with the baton and kicked him on the chest. It was only then that the victim decided to run. Yelling that he would kill the victim, the man took a match and light the car on fire. The man later took off just when the police arrived at the scene. As there were many witnesses, the man was easily identified and quickly arrested. He informed that he was angry because the victim damaged his car while overtaking and he just lost it. He got 6 years jail sentence and 10 strokes of the rattan for the attack.

For Brunei, the laws against alcohol consumption and guns possessions have been the saving grace that have kept these psycho road-ragers from unleashing their maximum potential. Lets just hope the situation stays that way indefinitely.