Brunei oblivious to ASEAN meeting

By Bill Tarrant

BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN (Reuter): Taxiboats ferrying children back from school zip through a sprawling village built on stilts on the Brunei river in this tiny oil sultanate's capital city.

"People in Kampong Ayer (water village) mostly don't know about this meeting," said boat operator Limas. "When is it, did you say?"

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), which also groups Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand, is holding its annual meeting this weekend in Brunei, which occupies a small but strategic part of the huge island of Borneo on the South China Sea.

After the ASEAN conference, which will admit communist Vietnam as a member, foreign ministers from some 18 countries, including U.S. Secretary of State Warren Christopher, will gather for the ASEAN Regional Forum, which is shaping up as the most important security conference in Asia.

It will be the largest gathering of foreign ministers in Brunei since this kingdom on the fringes of Borneo's vast rainforest became independent from Britain in 1984.

But the 50,000 or so residents of Bandar Seri Begawan -- most of whom live in ramshackle stilt houses in teeming Kampong Ayer -- seem largely oblivious of the occasion.

The 49th birthday celebration of Sultan Sir Hassanal Bolkiah, also known as the world's richest man, is what people here were talking about.

The Sultan's birthday was on July 15, but the celebrations last for a month as the ruler travels around the country conferring honors and presiding over local festivities.

"Life is quite boring here, so this an occasion for a carnival-like celebration," said one local businessman who did not want to be named.

Festive archways over the roads into the town have been put up, not to welcome delegates to the ASEAN meetings, but to congratulate the Sultan on his birthday.

The Sultan is the absolute monarch of his country. The Bolkiahs have ruled Brunei -- which at one point in history extended over all of Borneo -- for more than 500 years, the longest reigning royal family in the world.

From Kampong Ayer, the gold dome of the Sultan's 1,700-room palace can be seen glinting in the sun.

Brunei's cradle-to-grave welfare state seems to have made the polo-playing potentate genuinely popular. Nobody pays income taxes. Utility charges are low. Interest on car and housing loans are subsidized.

The good life is based on an economy that pretty much consists of partnership between Royal Dutch Shell and the Sultan's government, sometimes referred to as the "Shellfare state".

But the country's per capita income of $23,433 can be misleading, divided as it is between the royal family's estimated net worth of some $40 billion and the considerably more modest wages of Brunei's 276,000 people.

Taxiboat operator Limas said he makes about $1,000 a month as a security guard in a government office and his earnings from ferrying people. Like almost everyone else in the country, he also owns a car, a television and video recorder.

A few of his neighbors even have satellite dishes which beam in CNN, the BBC and StarTV. Just about everybody in Kampong Ayer, which has 15 schools, sundry shops, a hospital and a mosque on every watery corner, owns a small boat.

"My life is simple but good," Limas said. "It's safe and peaceful here, not like in other countries. The sultan is good. If anybody has trouble, he can ask for help. If your house burns down, he will help you get a new one."

Following are some key facts about the sultanate of Brunei, which gained independence on January 1, 1984, after nearly a century of British rule and is host this week to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) annual conference:

Population: 276,300, of whom 68 percent are Malay, 15 percent Chinese and the rest indigenous races and foreign workers. Area: 2,226 square miles (5,765 sq km), on the northwest coast of Borneo, bounded by the Malaysian state of Sarawak with a 65-mile (95-km) coast on the South China Sea. Capital: Bandar Seri Begawan.

Armed Forces: The 3,380-man Royal Brunei Malay Regiment is equipped with light tanks and armored personnel carriers. Brunei's defense force also has patrol boats and attack helicopters. Britain continues to provide some officers for the force and stations a battalion of Gurkhas in the Islamic state under an agreement with the Sultan. There is also a Gurkha Reserve Unit, a force of retired Gurkhas, independently recruited by the Sultan to guard the royal family, palaces and main government buildings.

Economy: Per capita GDP was US$23,433 in 1993, according to official statistics. Oil and gas provided $2.52 billion of GDP, the non-oil government sector, $1.94 billion and the non-oil private sector $2 billion. Brunei is the third-largest producer of oil in Southeast Asia after Indonesia and Malaysia. Brunei Shell Petroleum Company, a joint venture between the Government and the Anglo-Dutch Royal Dutch Shell group is the sole oil producer. Brunei's output of 180,000 bpd of oil and 750 million cubic feet of gas account for almost all of its exports.

The government says the two resources could support the economy for another 20 years based on the present planned production and the assumption that no new discoveries are made. The government has been making efforts to diversify its small domestic economy into non-oil fields such as agriculture, construction, forestry, fisheries, manufacturing and services. All citizens, government employees and members of the Royal Brunei Malay Regiment enjoy interest-free or low-interest loans for cars, houses and television sets. Petrol and public utilities are subsidized.

Government: Brunei's near absolute ruler Sultan Sir Hassanal Bolkiah is the prime minister and defense minister. His brother, Mohamed Bolkiah, is foreign minister and another brother, Jefri Bolkiah, is finance minister. Brunei's constitution calls for an elected parliament, but the government has ruled under emergency laws since a left-wing rebellion in the 1960s.

Modern History: Brunei, once a powerful sultanate controlling large areas of northern Borneo and parts of the Philippines, began to decline at the end of the 16th century and became a British protectorate in 1888. The Bolkiahs have ruled the rainforest kingdom for more than 500 years, the longest-reigning royal family in the world. Brunei became nominally self-governing in 1959 when its first constitution was promulgated, though its defense and foreign relations were handled by Britain.

A rebellion led by the left-wing Brunei People's party in December, 1962, was put down with the help of Gurkha troops from Singapore. Political parties were banned until 1985 when the opposition National Democratic Party of Brunei was formed with the Sultan's permission. The party was banned in January 1988 because of its international links. A new political party, the Brunei Solidarity National Party, under the leadership of former jailed dissident Abdul Latif Chuchu was allowed to organize in February 1995. Political dissent is not tolerated, however.