After being a regularly reader of bruneiresources.blogspot.com, I decided to get in touch with Mr BR himself and wrote this article on smoking in Brunei. Many thanks for posting the article so quickly Mr BR.
I would like to add a few more points to the article. I have also tried to politely ask a few people to smoke away from me. Sometimes smokers apologise and move away, sometimes they ignore me, and unfortunately other times they get angry. There was one incident when a guy actually thought I was picking a fight with him!
The smoker in that picture in my article actually ignored 3 “No smoking sign”. This picture shows one of them. The ignorance of no smoking signs are also apparent in other places.
This picture shows a man who decided to have a smoke after his meal right under the “No Smoking” sign. He eventually left after a few minutes. I remember seeing the same person a few weeks ago. At that time I actually asked the waitress to ask him to smoke elsewhere and he became upset. “Inda dapat besigup lagi?” or “I can’t smoke anymore?” and immediately left. So he did return despite being told to stop smoking!! This shows that patrons do return… restaurant owners take note!!
It’s not just small restaurants. Even some large hotels still prefer to let people smoke indoors. This screenshot was taken from ranoadidas’s blog. I presume it was in the air-conditioned lounge of the the hotel. Notice the ashtrays in next to the children? I remember having sahur buffet upstairs, had to go through smoke-filled entrance. When questioned, the restaurant manager just said they are allowed to smoke there.
Lastly, this picture was taken at the 3rd floor fire exit in The Mall, Gadong. No explanation required.It is not all bad though. The awareness of no smoking zones is increasing, as well as the enforcement. Airplanes and schools for example. Many restaurants are now strictly no smoking and hope with the amendment of the Tobacco Act as mentioned by the Honorable Minister of Health, we will become have more smoke-free environment.
I find that a lot of local eateries are ambivalent towards smokers. When you ask a waiter/waitress to get other customers to stop smoking they’ll just shrug their shoulders and say they can’t do anything. Perhaps our legislation should take steps to penalise the establishment like they do in Singapore. Giving the police jurisdiction (if they don’t already have) to stop people smoking in “no smoking” zones would also help.
Finally, smoking in enclosed spaces when there are children (yours or other people’s) around is never acceptable!