Brunei Darussalam 2011, between diplomatic skill and hydrocarbon revenues
p. 81-84
Texte intégral
1September 2011
2Located 300 km to the southwest of the northernmost point of Borneo, Brunei Darussalam is of modest size: 400,000 inhabitants (one tenth the population of Singapore) and 5765 km2 (eight times the surface of Singapore and the equivalent of Delaware), embedded in Sarawak, which is divided by the Limbang Division. Non-citizens represent some 35% of the resident population, who consist of Malaysian Malays (9%), overseas Chinese (8%), indigenous Malaysians (1%), Filipinos and Indonesians (17%).
3The few written sources and archaeological discoveries indicate that Brunei appeared at the end of the 10th century as a commercial monarchy, characterized by camphor trade and integrated in the South China Sea maritime networks. Through Quanzhou, Brunei was introduced to Islam in the middle of the 13th century. Trade with China continued to develop in Brunei under the Yuan dynasty, when new competitors emerged in eastern Java. In 1292, the Mongol raid in eastern Java1 opened the way for constitution of the Majapahit kingdom, which gradually extended its network of tributaries to Brunei. After resumption of an ambitious maritime policy by the Ming dynasty in 1370, Brunei once again played the Chinese card to release itself from the Javanese, but this time jointly with the Malays, whose trade networks concentrated around Malaka. Like his Malaka counterpart, the Maharaja of Brunei became Muslim at the beginning of the 15th century. The decline of Majapahit and the conquest of Malaka by the Portuguese (1511) allowed Brunei to control most of the ports on the western coast of Borneo, Sulu and Manila. But its expansion was curtailed by the Spanish attack of 1578. Slow commercial erosion in the 17th and 18th centuries gradually deprived Brunei of its suzerainty over its riverine dependencies. These internal tensions attracted foreign predators, first in the south, where the Brookes seized the whole of Sarawak in one half century (1840-1890), and then in the north, where the North-East Borneo Company lays its hands on Sabah over three decades (1877-1904). Saved in extremis by the British from absorption by Sarawak, Sultan Hashim gave up his sovereign rights in 1906.
4Over three decades, the British gave Brunei the means – by granting loans – to found a modern state. Following the discovery of oil in Seria in 1929, Brunei paid back its debt is in the middle of the 1930s. After massive destruction during the Second World War, the transfer of Sarawak and North Borneo to the United Kingdom followed by the administrative merger of Brunei and Sarawak gave rise to a nationalist movement. Sultan Omar Ali Saifuddin III (1950–1967) thus defined a new Brunei paradigm: he laid the basis for a welfare state in 1954, conceptualized “Malayness” (Melayu Islam Beraja, or Malay Islamic monarchy), signed a treaty with the British and promulgated a constitution (1959). The proposal to enlarge the Malaysian Federation with Singapore and the three British territories of Borneo met with staunch opposition in Brunei. The Brunei Popular Party (Partai Rakyat Brunei, PRB), which favoured a federation of West Borneo, won all the seats in the first general election and instigated an uprising in December 1962, which was put down by British troops. In June 1963, the Sultan refused to integrate with Malaysia. On 4 October 1967, Omar Ali Saifuddin abdicated in favour of his eldest son, Hassanal Bolkiah. Maintenance of the state of emergency, self-government (1971) and oil revenues subsequently made it possible to prevent political turmoil.
5On 1st January 1984, independence began under the most favourable auspices: oil ensured between 40 and 60% of the GDP and 90% of exports. Adhesion to the Association of South-East Asia Nations (ASEAN) in January 1984 was immediately followed by establishment of diplomatic relations with the west, with multiple partnerships in the field of defence. The Sultan affirmed his solidarity with the Muslim countries, attending the Rabat summit at the time of Brunei’s admission to the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) and invited Yasser Arafat to Brunei. After extending its fishing rights to 200 nautical miles from the base coastline, however, relations with Viet Nam, the Philippines and Malaysia soon became complicated.
6Brunei voted in favour of the United Nations intervention in Kuwait, ensuring maintenance of a regiment of British gurkhas close to its oil installations. The country forged diplomatic relations with more and more countries outside its immediate geostrategic environment and normalized its relations with the main regional military power, China, in September 1991. Although it supported the ASEAN declaration on the South China Sea in 1992, it made its fishing zone an exclusive economic zone (EEZ) in July 1993, to the dismay of Malaysia. Internal negotiations with ASEAN resulted in formation of the BIMP-EAGA triangle (Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines East ASEAN Growth Area) in March 1994. In August 1995, Brunei held the second ministerial meeting of the ASEAN Regional Forum. The Sultan normalized relations with the ASEAN candidate nations Viet Nam (1992), the Democratic Lao People’s Republic and Myanmar (1993). During the Asian financial crisis, Brunei shows exemplary solidarity with its neighbours: in addition to the Singaporean dollar, to which the Bruneian dollar is pegged by a fixed parity and a currency board, the Sultanate supported the Malaysian ringgit (August 1997) and granted US$ 1.1 billion as an emergency loan to Indonesia (November 1997), with a second tranche in 1998, and contributed US$ 500 million to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) bailout of Thailand. Brunei’s support was rewarded by hosting the 20th South-East Asia Games in Bandar Seri Begawan in August 1999. In addition to this positive regional insertion, Brunei increased its activity within multilateral organizations: in 1995, it provided aid to Bosnia and the Middle East as a member of the OIC and joined IMF. The Sultanate contributes extensively to United Nations agencies and to the Commonwealth, while regularly denouncing Israeli policy.
7At the threshold of the third millennium, Brunei’s success in integrating the concert of nations was illustrated by hosting (November 2000) the 8th APEC Summit, state visits by the presidents of the Republic of Korea and China and signature of a trade agreement with the United States. One year later, it welcomed the 7th ASEAN and 1st ASEAN + 3 (ASEAN + China, Japan, Republic of Korea) summits. Brunei is a recognized partner in regional security, including a joint exercise against piracy carried out by its maritime police and Japanese coastguards in August 2002. The Sultanate has 32 embassies abroad and maintains diplomatic relations with more than 100 countries; it entered the Asian Development Bank in April 2006 and the International Labour Organisation in January 2007.
8The ASEAN nevertheless remains the preferred forum for Bruneian diplomacy. In accordance with the ASEAN Free Trade Area (AFTA) calendar, customs tariffs between the ASEAN-5 and Brunei were reduced to less than 5% in January 2003. In December 2005, Brunei also integrated the China and ASEAN Free Trade Area (CAFTA), abolishing most customs duties between China and ASEAN-6 in January 2010. The ASEAN continues to receive assistance from the Sultanate, extended to security and humanitarian aid. In October 2004, 10 Bruneian officers left for the Philippines to participate in supervision of an agreement with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF). In 2008, Brunei asked to direct the international team in charge of monitoring the cease-fire in Mindanao after the withdrawal of Malaysia. Brunei granted emergency aid to Indonesia (Aceh in 2005 and Yogyakarta in 2006) and to Myanmar (after the Nargis cyclone in 2008). It contributes the safeguarding the Borneo rainforest: since February 2007, more than 60% of Brunei territory has become part of the “Heart of Borneo” project, aiming to preserve one third of the surface of the island.
9A brewing conflict with Malaysia erupted at the beginning of 2003, when the M and L oil and gas concessions that Kuala Lumpur had just granted to a consortium directed by Petronas-Murphy were found to overlap with block K and especially block J, the exploration of which Brunei had allotted to a consortium led by Total-Fina-Elf. Six years later (March 2009), a border agreement was finally signed between Brunei and Malaysia, and exploitation of the exploitation of the blocks was specified in September 2010.
10On 1st January 2011, in line with current technologies and volumes, Brunei had 15 years of oil reserves (1.35 billion barrels) and more than 30 years of gas (400 billion cubic meters), not counting the deep-water deposits made accessible by the agreement with Malaysia. Hydrocarbons provided Brunei with a GDP of some US$ 15 billion in 2010. Its GDP per capita of US$ 35 000 make it the second richest ASEAN country after Singapore. Although it generates surplus budget and current accounts, its urban topography (no business district, under-occupation of the sea front, etc.) reflects different choices from those of the Persian Gulf emirates (including Kuwait): reduced financial risk and immigration limited to a maximum of about 35% of the total population. In view of the degree of social protection for citizens, their high standard of living, the rule of law and the apathy of political life (a named legislative council was re-established only in 2004), the opposition is inexistent.
Notes de bas de page
1 In addition to Japan and East Java, the Mongol squadrons attempted to conquer Tonkin but got no further than the South China Sea and the small Sunda Islands. The Mongol army recruited its soldiers among the conquered populations: the captains and crews of the ships sent to South-East Asia (supervised by Mongol generals and officers) were mostly from southern China. Similarly, the Mongol armies that ransacked Pagan (in Burma) and then swarmed over the northern Indochina Peninsula consisted mainly of soldiers from various Thai ethnic groups, recruited in what is now southern China. This increased the speed at which Thai peoples moved into the Peninsula and founded kingdoms such as Siam and Lanna in the 14th century.
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The Asian side of the world - II
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