Bandar Seri Begawan Friday, 02 March 2007 - TWELVE students today received the Supreme Commander of the Royal Brunei Armed Forces Scholarship while six others received the Royal Brunei Armed Forces (RBAF) Scholarship at a Scholarship Award Ceremony at the Officers' Mess in Berakas Garrison. The very prestigious scholarships are offered annually by the Ministry of Defence.

Present at the ceremony as the Guest of Honour was the Deputy Minister of Defence, Yang Berhormat Pehin Datu Singamanteri Colonel (Retired) Dato Seri Paduka Haji Mohammad Yasmin bin Haji Umar.

In his remarks, the Deputy Minister of Defence highlighted that maintaining operational readiness and transformation are both key priorities for defence. In order to satisfy those priorities, the Ministry of Defence requires knowledgeable, skillful and talented human resources.

“ Hi. I’m Cindy. I’m from Brunei and I’m doing Economics.”

 I have repeated the above sentence for more than a hundred times since I arrived in University of Warwick.

I am pleasantly surprised when people tell me that they have heard of Brunei and not think we are a part of China or Malaysia for that matter. Of course, there was more than one occasion when they haven’t got a clue where Brunei is.

MINDEF SCHOLARS TRIUMPH OVER TEMBURONG STINT

Misty-eyed and blissfully unaware of what lay ahead, the recipients of the 2005 and 2006 Mindef scholarship meandered their way to the heart of Temburong in the early morn of Saturday 30th July to undergo a week-long course with Outward Bound Brunei Darussalam (OBBD) lasting till Saturday 5th August. The lull of the morning soothed the minds of this group of pampered soft-foots.  The initial unease at severing ties with family and civilisation was appeased by the tranquility of river.  What was in fact a mere ripple of change would result in waves that would distort the gentle, smooth-flowing streams of our daily lives.  It was finally time for us to worm our way out of our dusty old mindsets and put everything into perspective.