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OPINION:
Brunei Darussalem - A nation in peace by Dr B.A. Husseinmiya,
University of Brunei Darussalem.
Negara Brunei Darussalam occupies a unique position among
Southeast Asian States. The smallest of the countries
in the region, Brunei practices a novel, albeit a neo-traditional
form of government that is sometimes seen as anachronistic
due to the absence of elected representative institutions
like those found in the other ASEAN member countries.
But the Sultanate has come to play its role in the region
and carved out a status well beyond its size and importance
in leading international organisations especially within
the ASEAN group of nations.
Brunei is an Islamic Sultanate ruled by a monarch who
combines the functions of Head of State and Head of Government.
The Sultan embodies the nation as the leader of executive,
legislative and judicial arms of government. He reigns
as well as rules, assisted by a Privy Council concerned
with matters relating to the royal household and customs,
and by a cabinet and bureaucracy on most other matters.
Led by the Sultan’s benevolence, Brunei remains
a very stable country in the region socially, politically
and economically. Above all, his personal popularity
as a paragon of justice buttresses the State’s
ability to elicit high compliance from a citizenry desirous
of solving conflicts and differences in amicable ways.
Most of the Sultan’s subjects attribute the economic
and social stability of the country to these unique political
arrangements that have protected the society from such
recent economic and political upheaval as has occurred
in Malaysia and Indonesia – particularly the social
unrest in the latter. Thus true to its name, Brunei-the
Abode of Peace- has remained an inordinately peaceful
country in the region not having witnessed any serious
form of strife or conflicts both within the State and
with neighbouring countries for forty years or so. What
lies behind this success of a state which has ensured
not only a relatively high standard of living for its
citizens but has also shielded them from the scourge
of internal strife, international terrorism and so on?
This article is an attempt to explain this phenomenon
of conspicuous, yet admirable peaceful conditions in
today’s Brunei.
Brunei Darussalam is a tiny state of 5,765 sq. km situated
in the Northwest corner of Borneo sharing a common border
with the East Malaysian State of Sarawak. The country’s
population stands around 350,000, the majority of whom
are Malay Muslims forming 67 % of the total with the
remainder broken down in terms of religious following
as follows: Buddhism 13 %, Christianity 10 %, others
(Hindus, Sikhs, free thinkers, and undeclared) 10%. Ethnically
Brunei’s indigenous population is divided into
seven groups namely; the Bruneis, Kedayans, Tutongs,
Dusuns, Bisayas, Belaits and Muruts as defined under
the Nationality Enactment of 1961.
Thus despite being a multiethnic country, little evidence
of religious or communal strife has surfaced, although
rumblings could be heard meekly from recent immigrants
who do not benefit from the largesse of the State. The
Chinese population in particular had some grievances
to harbour about unequal treatment, especially in the
naturalisation process of becoming Brunei citizens. Nonetheless
they do not seem to intend to upset the applecart by
having a high profile in political terms. Attempts to
form a Chinese political party during the tumultuous
1950s were shelved, lest for fear of losing the economic
clout of the community. Except for a minor skirmish between
the Chinese and the Malays that took place in the aftermath
of the second-world war, the relations between the communities
remain appreciably cordial. The Government on its part
has been very careful in maintaining harmony among the
people who on the whole remain satisfied with their beneficial
situation; gentle pressure also contributes to a reluctance
to express dissent openly.
Brunei is a new nation but an old state that attained
full independence in 1984. The reigning monarch, His
Majesty Sultan Haji Hassanal Bolkiah, is placed 29th
in an unbroken line of succession of rulers established
as early as the mid-14th century. A sprawling kingdom
in the 16th century, the Sultanate’s hegemony did
spread to large parts of coastal Borneo and extended
to the Sulu islands and as far as the Southern Philippines.
However, by the 18th and 19th centuries due to internal
squabbles and external threats exacerbated by the arrival
of Europeans in the region, Brunei had become an impoverished
state coveted by its neighbours, namely Raja Brooke’s
Sarawak and the British North Borneo Company. Although
Brunei became a British Protectorate from 1888, moves
were afoot in the British Foreign Office to obliterate
it from the map of Borneo at the turn of the 19th century.
But in the end the British intervened to safeguard the
sovereignty of Brunei by introducing a Residency system
in 1906 that stipulated that the Resident’s advice
must be followed by the country’s ruler except
on matters of religion. Brunei’s fortunes leaped
forward with the discovery of oil in 1929 making it one
of the largest oil producing countries in the British
Commonwealth. Present day Brunei has travelled a long
way from the appalling conditions of poverty and misery
afflicting the country before the second half of the
20th century.
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