lebih pandai, lebih kaya, lebih mulia, mempunyai rumah yang lebih besar, kereta yang lebih banyak...which translates as "cleverer, richer, or more respected, having a bigger house or more cars".
I found the last item interesting: "more cars"? In most countries, one might expect people to be concerned about whether their car is better than that of their neighbours. But more cars?
In Brunei, cars are cheaper than in many other places. In Singapore, you cannot buy a new car for less than about $80,000; but after living in Singapore for 15 years, I was stunned to come here and find you can drive away a brand new car for less than $20,000. (And that was what we did when we arrived here: we actually got a bit of change from $20,000.)
Furthermore, most Bruneians buy their new cars on credit, and in fact no down-payment is needed (though that is in the process of being changed). So no wonder local people love their cars, and also often have more than one!
But it's still something I don't understand: if you have a perfectly good car that gets you where you want to go, why would you want another one?
But then I've never understood why you need more than one pair of shoes: I've only got one pair of feet, so why do I need more than one pair of shoes? I guess there's lots of things about the modern world I don't understand.
