It’s not often that the small country of Brunei makes the
news, but it did in October.
Brunei’s ruler, Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah, announced the promulgation of a new Islamic criminal law that could include penalties like amputation for theft and stoning for adultery, to come into effect next year.
The Shariah penal code, which would be applied to Muslims only, should be regarded as a form of “special guidance” from God, he stated, and would be “part of the great history” of the country. Brunei’s Shariah Islamic court had previously handled mainly family-related disputes.
Brunei Darussalam (its full name)
consists of two small enclaves of land on the northeastern coast of the
southeast Asian island of Borneo, surrounded by the Malaysian state of Sarawak.
Most of the huge island is part of Indonesia.
With a population of some 420,000 people, mostly Muslims, in
an area of 5,765 square kilometres, Brunei is a tiny country. An oil-rich state,
the sultanate is sometimes referred to as the Kuwait of southeast Asia.
Brunei was once much bigger. It became an Islamic sultanate in the 14th century, under a newly converted ruler, Muhammad Shah. At its peak in the 16th century, it controlled the northern regions of Borneo, including modern-day Sarawak and Sabah, today part of Malaysia, as well as the Sulu islands, now governed by the Philippines.
During the 19th century, the Sultanate ceded Sarawak to a British adventurer, James Brooke, as a reward for his aid in putting down a rebellion and named him as rajah; and it ceded Sabah to the British North Borneo Chartered Company. In 1888 what was left of Brunei itself became a British protectorate.
Brunei regained its independence in 1984 and, thanks to
extensive petroleum and natural gas fields, is now one of the world’s richest
countries. It is the world’s fourth-biggest producer of natural gas, giving the
country enough wealth to buy the loyalty of its subjects. There is no income tax,
and education and health are virtually free.
Brunei’s ties with Britain remain strong. The current ruler,
Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah, went to
the Royal British Military Academy at Sandhurst and his late father was rescued
by the British Army when it crushed a brief revolt in 1962.
Under Brunei’s 1959 constitution, the country is an absolute
monarchy. The Sultan, who
succeeded to the throne in 1967, is both head of state and, in his capacity as
prime minister, head of government, with full executive authority, including
emergency powers since 1962.
The Sultan’s role is enshrined in the national philosophy
known as Melayu Islam Beraja,
which encompasses Malay culture, Islamic religion, and the political framework
under the monarchy. As an Islamic country, Brunei became a full member of the
Organisation of Islamic Cooperation in 1984.
Southeast Asia’s Islam, unlike that of the Middle East, has
historically been more relaxed when it came to practice but has become more
stringent. Since the late 1970s an Islamic resurgence is taking place in the
region.
Rising oil revenues provide an extensive social welfare
system and promote Islam, including subsidizing the hajj (pilgrimage to Mecca),
building mosques, and expanding the Department of Religious Affairs.
Brunei’s Muslim-majority neighbours have also been
tightening their religious rules. In Indonesia, a bill submitted to parliament
earlier this year that called for a ban on alcohol has stirred unease among the
country’s predominantly moderate Muslims. Also, the government has ordered that
the finals of the Miss World pageant, which some Islamic groups denounced as
immoral, be moved from the outskirts of Jakarta to predominantly Hindu Bali.
In Malaysia, former prime minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi furthered the agenda of Islamic supremacy at
the expense of other religions. The country has restricted the ability of
Christian groups to proselytize among Malays, and recently a Malaysian court
has ruled that non-Muslims cannot use the word Allah to refer to God, even in
their own faiths.
No comments:
Post a Comment