Awang Cekmat

Have you been acquainted with Awang Cekmat? Anu bah yang tong gas biru dalam iklan for energy conservation atu. The word Cekmat is apparently a combination of keCEKapan and penjiMATan. Hence, di melayu kan jadi Awang Cekmat. Hence, he is employed to convey the message that energy use with efficiency prevents wastage. Currently, Awang Cekmat is manning the booth at the Mall, spreading "tips for energy saving". They relay the idea that the simplest way to participate in conserving energy is to start at home. I agree. So,
please try to minimise your energy usage at home. Tutup lampung, jangan banyak memvacuum, and kurang kan pakai aircon atu. Honestly, I admire and fully support the Ministry of Energy in attempt to increase the awareness of Brunei society in Energy conservation. I personally will pursue my master closely link to this field as well.

I also agree the fact that they are going at a "soft" rate in curbing the excessive consumption of energy in Brunei such as advertisement and posters. However, I do find their new "soft" attempt to curb energy consumption is plain stupid. It has a few flaw even their reps realise that. Currently, the Ministry of Energy initiate a measure of "Energy Labelled". In a nutshell, the measure is to label the "energy efficiency level" of some appliances. For instance, a Panasonic air conditioner will run with a 8.5 kilo watt/hr, and will be labelled as 5 star efficient (stars range from 1 to 5). Thus, as the watt rises, the star shall diminishes. Since they are in an infant stage, they are starting off with labelling air-conditioner and soon to cater other appliances such as vacuum cleaners and refrigerator. Again, I feel it is a good initiative. For the reason that a buyer who is conscious with our environmental issue shall purchase those products with those stickers with more star i.e more energy efficient.

However, the big flaw of the measure is that it is voluntary. Adui..Basically, the suppliers are just "advised" to buy the stickers which I bet suppliers will not compromise to lower their profit to cover the sticker cost and also will not charge higher prices to shift the cost burden to consumers simply because supplier will lose their competitive edge. Bukan atu saja, the products ani, they need to be assessed of its level of efficiency right, and since Brunei has no experimental lab, all the appliances has to be shipped to other countries to be evaluated, with no cost subsidy. I just don't get it? Which suppliers in the right mind would do such thing? With that said, i just don't buy the concept. The whole concept is utterly rubbish. I see the direction, but it got cut off by a broken bridge.

I am sorry, I don't mean to be cynical about it. But, this is a complete waste of resources. Why create a concept when the end result poorly commit or fail to grasp the energy conservation objective. What I would do is make those stickers compulsory, just like 'no smoking' signs in every restaurants. If the latter can be strictly impose, so can this. Also, get an experimental laboratory already if we wish to take this matter seriously.