A remarkable feat by Nurul Aina

The news that grabbed headlines in yesterday’s paper

I believe the story won’t end here. Yesterday headliners saw “Komunis” shop owner being convicted and sentenced to six weeks in prison. With a maximum penalty of six months behind bars, Yong Teck Sang only received six weeks but allowed a stay of execution pending an appeal. According to the report, Judge Pengiran Hajah Hanani Pengiran Haji Metusain deferred sentencing the defendant on Thursday to invite the prosecution to make submissions on sentencing, and yesterday decided a custodial sentence was proper.

The court mentioned that Yong have been running a “dishonest business” and the court was of the view that he knew he was selling pirated DVDs. Him being described as showing lack of remorse didn’t help matters.

For your info, he was convicted of selling 135 copies of CDs and VCDS of Malaysian singer Siti Nurhaliza, a copyright product under the flagship of Suria Records Sdn Bhd, Malaysia. This case have been ongoing for more than two years and finally the verdict was in favour of the prosecutor, formerly handled by DPP Joe Chan Jin Yuh and also Suria Records.

Mr. Tan Ngiap Foo, CEO of Recording Industry Association of Malaysia (RIM) and I during the Anugerah Industry of Malaysia event back in November 2011

In a quick telephone interview with Tan Ngiap Foo, CEO of Recording Industry Association of Malaysia (RIM), he was delighted that the defendant was convicted and he hopes that this will be a learning lesson for others who doesn’t comply with selling copyright CDs, VCDs or DVDS. This was the first case that was brought to the court. Nonetheless Mr. Tan still notices some flaws in the system.

In Malaysia, the copyright law was introduced and violators will be fined RM 2,000 per song as quoted by the CEO of RIM. So that would mean that Yong would have to be fined at least RM 270,000 or BND 120,000 and the jail term won’t be exceeding 5 years. In Brunei, it’s a different story as the punishment is not as severe – a maximum of 6 months and BND 5,000 fine. In this case, Yong was sentenced to six weeks jail term and a BND 5,000 fine only.

Mr. Tan hopes that the Brunei Government can look into this matter in making the laws stricter and use Malaysia or Singapore as an example in how they combat piracy. He also hope that the verdict will take Brunei off the “watch list” from the Office of the Uniter States Trade Representative (USTR) where the Sultanate has been in the list due to the violation of intellectual property rights.

During the interview, Mr. Tan expressed his gratitude and appreciation to the Brunei Government, the Attorney’s General Chamber and most of all to DPP Joe Chan who have worked tirelessly for a long period of time on this particular case and also to ASP Naguib Dato Hj Ismail, Royal Brunei Police Force for his assistance and professionalism in carrying out the investigation in the case.

Dk Nurul Aina Syafiqah came third in the 10km category at BIBD’s CE ALAF charity run yesterday

I have never heard of her before and I just found out that she has been active in joining runs in Brunei and it was the first time that I took notice of her just because she made the podium finish. Only 8 years old, Brunei has a new rising athlete star in the making and she has already made headlines.

If she had finished a minute slower, I wouldn’t have known of her and even with a top 10 finish, it is already considered a remarkable feat for an 8 year old. She missed the second spot by 21 seconds and she is ranked 6th in terms of timing for both Women’s Brunei and Women’s Open categories combined.

I’m not sure what her personal best is but she clocked 10km run in under one hour with a time of 53 mins 38 seconds. Considering of her age and her height, this is still a remarkable feat. She even overtook my buddy @keeranj who ran using my bib number since I wasn’t able to participate. Let’s hope the Brunei Athletics Association will take notice of her or maybe they already have.

Let’s not put our high hopes and expectations too because she’s still incredibly young and let her enjoy her run knowing that she has a bright future ahead of her.

Click image to enlarge. SMS quiz last day on 17th October