Mark Cleary

Codifying the Land: Colonial land regulation in early 20th-century British Borneo

The role of land codes in the allocation of indigenous lands to colonial developers in North Borneo is examined. It is argued that such codes, by defining how indigenous peoples could secure their rights to land, provided an important framework to encourage the expansion of plantation production. The expansion of rubber and tobacco plantations, coupled with prevailing colonial attitudes to shifting cultivation, were important catalysts in the alienation of land from indigenous peoples. The clash between Western conceptions of private property and indigenous notions of communal ownership and control encapsulated the complex economic and cultural conflicts that the expansion of colonial settlement and development in the tropics engendered.

Indigenous Trade and European Economic Intervention in North-West Borneo c.1860–1930

It was in these words that the adventurer and first White Rajah of Sarawak extolled the potential wealth and investment promise of Borneo. Such images of riches and wealth, apparently so easily available to the foreign investor, formed a central motif in popular, contemporary images of Borneo. Indeed, as Savage (1984) has noted, the superficial luxuriance of the flora and fauna in this region seemed to point, by extension, to untold mineral and plant wealth. Furthermore, as the trade of the new port-cities of Singapore and Hong Kong developed from mid-century, the strategic significance of the north-west Borneo coast, and of its potential coal bunkering-stations, was reinforced.

The Oil and Gas Industry

With the discovery of commercially viable quantities of oil in 1929, the economy of Brunei became closely linked to the global oil market and to external sources for the exploration, processing and disposal of its chief revenue earner. In the early 1990s, Brunei was the third largest producer of oil and natural gas in Southeast Asia after Indonesia and Malaysia; the country is ranked fourteenth in world production of oil and fourth in production of natural gas. This chapter outlines the development of the industry, patterns of production and the frameworks governing production, pricing and royalty arrangements. A final section considers the nature and extent of linkages between the hydrocarbon sector and the national economy.

The Political Economy of Oil

The nature and progress of development planning in the state has been of considerable significance in shaping the evolving political economy of Brunei both domestically and in the international context. Oil and gas — its production, processing, role in the generation of income and wealth and concomitant international linkages — have been fundamental in shaping the political development of the state and securing its future. Domestic and foreign policy in Brunei has both shaped and reflected the changing economic and political position of the country since the first oil price rise and the achievement of independence.

Brunei: From Trading City to Nation State

The achievement of formal independence in 1984 marked an important stage in the long process of national and state formation of Brunei. As one of the oldest Sultanates in the region, with a claimed royal lineage going back several hundred years, the state has a rich tradition, reflected in its customs, its social structures and its government. Such historical traditions are integral to an understanding of the nature of economic, social and political conditions in contemporary Brunei.

Development Planning: Contexts, Models and Institutions

Development planning in Brunei has been shaped by a range of institutional, historical and ideological factors. The particular path to independence adopted by Brunei coupled with its distinctive political structure, has bequeathed planning models and structures which reflect the strong British involvement in early planning policy in the state. At the same time, the post-independence period has been marked by a conscious effort to fashion both an individual development path for the state, and to create a range of institutions which seek to be distinctively Bruneian in scope and format. This chapter outlines the evolution and objectives of development planning in the state. Firstly, it examines the structures and institutions which shape the planning process. Secondly, it will focus on attempts to define a particular development model in the light of the economic experience of some of its Asian neighbours, and the particular religious and cultural characteristics of Brunei. After a review of the fiscal conditions underpinning development planning, a third section reviews the six National Development Plans enacted to date.

Diversifying the Economy

As the preceding chapter has emphasised, economic development in Brunei has depended to an inordinate degree on the revenue benefits of the hydrocarbon industry. In an attempt to reduce the heavy reliance on oil and gas revenues and returns from overseas investments, development policies in the fourth, fifth and sixth national development plans have focused on the need for economic diversification. Planners now accept that the long term growth of the economy depends on a more diversified economic base. With most of the state’s food needs, machinery and equipment, intermediate materials and even labour being imported, the problems of such external dependency have become increasingly acute.