VOICES of optimism and support could be heard yesterday after His Majesty the Sultan and Yang Di-Pertuan of Brunei Darussalam delivered the titah during the official opening of the Sixth Legislative Council Meeting.
For 24-year-old UBD graduate Siti Salwa Haji Mustapa, education is very important for carrying the nation forward. “We can’t go anywhere without education,” she said.

She also added that if young children do not receive proper educatioN “their minds will not develop. The more developed minds we have; the better chances we have for bringing in new ideas for the betterment of the country”.

Citing examples such as stronger integration of ICT into the education system, especially for younger children “can help us move forward, more so in today’s modern world”.

As computer technology is an important aspect in staying connected to the rest of the world, “where all the great ideas can be found”, teaching the positive aspects of ICT to students “can help them come up with great ideas too, which can be beneficial for our future” upon noting that “great ideas help with generating greater development”.

Jen Yong, an employee for AIA Co Ltd, spoke about securing financial stability, by saying that slowly weaning off the country’s dependence on oil and gas and exploring other areas “is a good idea”.

“Financially speaking, it isn’t wise to place all your eggs in one basket,” she said and praised the government for their efforts in venturing into other forms of investments, such as agriculture and exporting handicrafts. “Though this is a small start, the country will eventually stand on other platforms than oil and gas.”-
This rings especially true in her opinion as she noted that His Majesty’s government “has the right resources, the proper skills as well as knowledge”.

“The opportunity for financial diversification is already there,” she continued and is optimistic that the government “will pull it through for us. They will pull it through for the people” upon realising that the nation’s gas reserves “will not be around for that long”.

In terms of religious education that His Majesty strongly emphasised on, Rizal Mohammad, currently employed with the private sector, believes that religious education is important in building spiritual empowerment.

“If religion is instilled in all of us, we’d have a more peaceful country,” adding that, with religion “we’d be so afraid of Allah the Almighty that we will not be tempted to venture into anything that is bad”. He added that it could also aid in improving governance and administration:

“We wouldn’t even have to deal with corruption,” he quipped, continuing: “We are blessed by Allah the Almighty,” which he attributed to His Majesty’s vision towards modelling Brunei Darussalam as a nation based on zikir.

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