Brunei Darussalam: Cautious on Political Reform, Comfortable in ASEAN, Pushing for Economic Diversification

Summary

Domestic Politics

By the end of 2008, the political scene in Brunei was dominated by preparations for the commemoration of Brunei's Silver Jubilee celebrating twenty-five years of independence from colonial rule. On the eve of the National Day in early 2009, Sultan Haji Hassanal Bolkiah delivered a titah (a speech or decree) where he declared his intention to increase the growth of industries, to continue to reduce poverty, to increase rice production, and to ensure the continued development of an efficient and outstanding public service. The Sultan contended that both ‘regeneration’ and ‘change’ in Brunei will need to be engineered through the ‘Brunei Vision’ which itself will need to take ‘into account not only the nation's status but also global trends’. Implicit in the Sultan's address to the nation was the recognition of the difficult global economic climate which had already affected Brunei.

Since independence on 1 January 1984, Negara Brunei Darussalam has remained a monarchy where the Sultan's powers include the prerogative of mercy in the judiciary, the regulation of Islam and the ability to rule by decree. While the Sultan stated that the Malay Islamic Monarchy will ‘ceaselessly remain a sovereign nation, independent and democratic’, his pre-National Day titah was also notable for the fact that it did not discuss any of the political reforms he had previously outlined for the nation. One of the most significant of these reforms concerned the Legislative Council (LegCo or Majilisi Masyuarat Negeri) that was reconstituted by royal decree in 2004 as a wholly appointed chamber following a twenty-year respite. A new LegCo was reconvened on 24 September 2005 with an enlarged membership totalling thirty delegates including five indirectly elected members representing the Village Councils. During the meeting, the members voted to further increase the number of representatives to a total of forty-five with the new members being selected via popular vote. However, and through to the conclusion of 2008, there had been no announcement as to when such an election (the first since 1968) would take place.