Freedom in the World 2004 - Brunei

Political Rights: 6
Civil Liberties: 5
Status: Not Free
Population: 400,000
GNI/Capita: $13,724
Life Expectancy: 76
Religious Groups: Muslim (67 percent), Buddhist (13 percent), Christian (10 percent), other [including indigenous beliefs] (10 percent)
Ethnic Groups: Malay (67 percent), Chinese (15 percent), other (18 percent)
Capital: Bandar Seri Begawan

Overview

Sultan Haji Hassanal Bolkiah Mu'izzaddin Waddaulah continued to show few signs of easing his tight grip on power in this Southeast Asian nation. His government, meanwhile, worked in 2003 to boost the country's oil reserves. Using gunboats and, later, negotiations, it tried to secure prospecting rights in potentially lucrative coastal waters that also are claimed by Malaysia.

Consisting of two tiny enclaves on the northern coast of Borneo, Brunei is an oil-rich, hereditary sultanate that has been under the absolute rule of Sultan Haji Hassanal Bolkiah since 1967.

The 1959 constitution vested full executive powers in the sultan while providing for five advisory councils, including a legislative council. In 1962, Sultan Omar Ali Saifuddin annulled legislative election results after the leftist Brunei People's Party (BPP), which sought to end the sultanate, won all 10 elected seats in the 21-member council. The BPP then mounted an insurgency that was crushed by British troops but whose legacy is still felt today. Sultan Omar invoked constitutionally granted emergency powers, which are still in force, and began ruling by decree. That practice was continued by his son, Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah, who became the 29th ruler in a family dynasty that has spanned six centuries when his father abdicated the throne in 1967. The British granted full independence in 1984.

Now 57 years old and one of the world's richest men, the sultan has done little to reform the ossified political system that he inherited. Today, the legislative council continues to be appointed by the sultan rather than elected, and the only two legal political parties are largely inactive. Both the Brunei People's Awareness Party and the Brunei National Solidarity Party (BNSP) publicly support the sultan. The BNSP is an offshoot of one of two parties banned in 1988.

In a scandal that fueled public resentment of the opulent lifestyles of royal family members, the sultan's brother, Prince Jefri, was accused in the late 1990s of misappropriating some $16 billion of Brunei's foreign reserves as head of the Amedeo Development Corporation. Amedeo was Brunei's largest private employer until its 1998 collapse. A case against Prince Jefri was settled out of court in 2000.

Oil and natural gas exports to Japan and other countries have given Brunei a per capita income rivaling that of many Western societies. Food, fuel, housing, schooling, and medical care are either free or subsidized, and there is virtually no poverty except for small pockets in tiny, remote villages. Energy reserves are dwindling, however, and the government has had limited success in diversifying the economy. Oil and gas production made up more than 50 percent of economic output and nearly 90 percent of export revenues in 2002.

The dispute in 2003 with Malaysia centered on the contested Baram Delta waters off the northern Borneo coast. In the spring, each side used gunboats to ward off drilling ships sent by the other to prospect for oil. After tempers cooled, the two sides began mulling a joint development arrangement for the waters, where Malaysia made a huge oil find in 2002, the Hong Kong-based Far Eastern Economic Review reported in July.

Political Rights and Civil Liberties

Bruneians cannot change their government through elections. The sultan wields broad powers under a state of emergency that has been in effect since 1962, and no legislative elections have been held since then. Lacking a more open political system, citizens often convey concerns to their leaders through a traditional system under which governmentvetted, elected village chiefs meet periodically with top government officials.

Bruneian journalists face considerable restrictions. Legislation introduced in 2001 allows officials to shut down newspapers without showing cause and to fine and jail journalists who write or publish articles deemed "false and malicious." The largest daily, the Borneo Bulletin, practices self-censorship, though it does publish letters to the editor criticizing government policies. Another daily, the News Express, closed in 2002 after being sued successfully by a private law firm for defamation. Brunei's only television station is state-run, although Bruneians also can receive Malaysian television and satellite channels. In addition to restricting the media, the government has in previous years detained several Bruneians for publishing or distributing antigovernment materials.

The Shafeite sect of Islam is Brunei's official religion and permeates all levels of society in this predominantly Muslim country. In schools, Islamic study is mandatory and the teaching of other religions prohibited. The sultan promotes Islamic values, as well as local Malay culture and the primacy of the hereditary monarchy, through a national ideology called "Malay Muslim Monarchy." Critics say that the ideology, which is taught in schools, is used in part to legitimize an undemocratic system. While promoting Islam, Brunei's secular government has also voiced concern over religious fundamentalism, and one Islamist group, Al-Arqam, is banned. The government also restricts religious freedom for non-Muslims. It prohibits proselytizing, bans the importation of religious teaching materials and scriptures such as the Bible, and ignores requests to build, expand, or repair temples, churches, and shrines, according to the U.S. State Department's human rights report for 2002, released in March 2003.

Brunei's three trade unions are all in the oil sector, and their membership makes up less than 5 percent of that industry's workforce. Strikes are illegal in Brunei, although authorities have tolerated work stoppages by foreign garment workers to protest poor working and living conditions and forced payroll deductions for sponsors or employment agents. A private group called the Consumer's Association of Borneo in 2002 publicized allegations of torture and other abuses by factory managers of Bangladeshi garment workers involved in work stoppages.

Courts in Brunei generally "appeared to act independently," the U.S. State Department reported. The legal system is based on British common law, though Sharia (Islamic law) takes precedence in areas including divorce, inheritance, and some sex crimes. Sharia does not apply to non-Muslims.

While the government has faced few overt threats since the 1960s, authorities occasionally detain suspected antigovernment activists under Brunei's tough Internal Security Act. The act permits detention without trial for renewable two-year periods. Recent detainees include several citizens who distributed allegedly defamatory letters about the royal family and top government officials; at least seven Christians detained in 2000 and 2001, several of whom had converted from Islam; and several leaders of the 1962 rebellion after they began returning to Brunei from self-imposed exile in Malaysia in the mid-1990s. All were freed by the end of 2001.

The 80,000 foreign workers in Brunei generally work under difficult conditions and sometimes face abuse. Foreign household servants, for example, reportedly are often denied rest days and forced to work very long hours. Some employers allegedly hold foreign household workers' passports to prevent them from leaving Brunei, and reports surface occasionally of employers physically abusing or refusing to pay their foreign servants. Officials generally investigate and punish abuse of foreign household workers when complaints are lodged. Other problems include employment agents reportedly luring laborers to Brunei with false promises of wellpaying jobs. Separately, many members of Brunei's ethnic Chinese minority are unable to pass the country's strict citizenship test and therefore lack citizenship despite being native-born.

While Brunei remains a highly traditional society, women recently have made gains in education and now make up nearly two-thirds of Brunei University's entering classes. The tudong, a traditional head covering, is mandatory for female students in state schools, though in any case most Bruneian women wear it regularly. Many women work for the government, Brunei's largest employer, although female civil servants that lack university degrees are hired only on a month-to-month basis. This results in slightly less annual leave and fewer benefits than what is given to regular state employees. In another concern, Islamic law governing family matters favors men in divorce, inheritance, and child custody.