Public support grassroots leaders new role in curbing unemployment

BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN

THE move made by the Department of Economic Planning and Development Department (JPKE) in getting grassroots leaders more involved in tackling the nation’s unemployment issues has been lauded by members of the public.

According to the latest statistics by JPKE, there are about 18, 000 locals who are currently unemployed, however these figures only cover jobseekers who are registered with the Labour Department.

As the statistics do not necessarily portray the actual extent of unemployment in the country, the government has taken to enlisting the help of village heads and penghulus in identifying jobless individuals from their respective villages and mukims (sub-districts).

The grassroots leaders have been tasked with compiling and entering data of unemployed individuals into a system.

The Brunei Times interviewed a number of individuals with regards to this new effort by the government in curbing unemployment. Most are of the opinion that having statistics that comprise data from the villages and mukims would give authorities a better idea of the unemployment situation in the country — this would help in creating better solutions to overcome it.

“I think with this statistics through villages, it will be a realistic figure and the village head can focus on helping the unemployed youth in their area,” said Hj Mohd Aziman Hj Jamil from Kg Subok.

The 26-year-old, who has been unemployed since he graduated from Universiti Brunei Darussalam (UBD) four months ago, said that the figures could predict the trends of unemployment in a village.

“From that, planning can be done on what sort of steps that the government can provide to reduce the rate of unemployment. The recent unemployment rate in Brunei is quite worrying but I can see that the government is putting their full effort to provide as much employment opportunities in the country,” he said.

“The village head can propose to the government in providing budget to build a small to medium industry. From this industry, it can help the unemployment individuals to secure a job thus making the village itself to be developed. For example, an individual who has the cooking skills could be provided with a stall,” he added.

Meanwhile, Fatimah Don, who works in a private firm in Jerudong, said she supports the government’s move and hopes that the data would be used wisely.

“I think it’s great for village head to collect data about unemployment, as long as the questions are framed to get the most accurate info as possible. And it also depends on what they use that data for,” said Fatimah, adding that data is useless if it is not used for “something useful”.

“The data should be used as a tool to help the government strategise a solution for unemployment. There should be a plan before any surveys or questionnaires are sent out,” said Fatimah.

Educating the communities about what types of jobs available and changing the mindset of youth to not entirely depend on getting government jobs are some ways that the village heads can help in curbing unemployment in their respective villages, she added.

Twenty-four-year-old Richie Ong from Kg Anggerek Desa was positive that the villages would be able to come up with more ideas in tackling the social issue, as they are given a hmore hands-on approach.

“It’s good for the village head to do that as this would give an apparent view about unemployment. If there are a lot of unemployed people, the country would realise this issue and would brainstorm more ideas on how to tackle it.

“The kampung can help in a way that they produce reports and statistics about unemployment in that particular kampung and then maybe would want to have an initiative, start taking actions, such as organising a job fair in their kampung,” he said.

He also said that people should know about the issues because it would give them awareness on what is going on in the country.

“If possible, it would be good if the statistics and results are paired with the data of the levels of education of the unemployed people. It would be more practical,” he added.

The Brunei Times