REPORT IN BRUNEI

BY: MARLIZA SAMPORNA FOR ASIAN CIVILIZATION

BRUNEI

The official national history claims that Brunei can trace its beginnings to the 7th century, when it was a subject state of the Srivijayan empire under the name P'o-li. It later became a vassal state of Majapahit empire before converting to Islam in the 15th century. At the peak of its empire, the sultanate had control that extended over the coastal regions of modern-day Sarawak and Sabah, the Sulu archipelago, and the islands off the northwest tip of Borneo. The thalassocracy was visited by the remnants of the [Ferdinand Magellan]] Expedition in 1521 after Magellan was killed some weeks earlier on April 27 of that year and fought the Castille War in 1578 against Spain. Its empire began to decline with the forced ceding of Sarawak to James Brooke and the ceding of Sabah to the British North Borneo Chartered Company. After the loss of Limbang, Brunei finally became a British protectorate in 1888, receiving a resident in 1906. In the years after the Japanese wartime occupation during World War II, it formalised a constitution and fought an armed rebellion.

BRUNEI

In the absence of any other evidence, scholars have created an early history of Brunei that is mainly based on flexible interpretations of Chinese texts. This early part reads: Chinese records from the sixth century mention a state called Po-li on the northwest coast of Borneo. In the seventh century, Chinese and Arab accounts state a place called Vijayapura, which was thought to be founded by members of the royal family of Funan.They were believed to have landed on the northwest coast of Borneo with some of their followers. They then captured Po-li and renamed the territory Vijayapura (meaning victory in Sanskrit). In 977, Chinese records started to use Po -ni instead of Vijayapura to refer to Brunei. In 1225 a Chinese official named Chua Ju-Kua reported that Brunei has 100 warships to protect its trade and that there was a lot of gold in the kingdom.Another report in 1280 described Po-ni as controlling large parts of Borneo Island (modern day Sabah and Sarawak, Sulu and some parts of the Philippines. In the fourteenth century, Po-ni became a vassal state of Majapahit, and had to pay an annual payment of 40 katis of camphor. Po-ni was attacked and looted of its treasure and gold by the Sulus in 1369.

GEOGRAPHY

Brunei is a southeast Asian country consisting of two unconnected parts with the total area of 5,765 square kilometres (2,226 sq mi). It has 161 kilometres (100 mi) of coastline next to the South China sea, and it shares a 381 km (237 mi) border with Malaysia. It has 500 square kilometres (193 sq mi) of territorial waters, and an 200 nautical mile exclusive economic zone. About 97% of the population lives in the larger western part (Belait, Tutong, and Brunei-Muara), while only about 10,000 people live in the mountainous eastern part ( Temburong District). The total population of Brunei is approximately 408,000 as of July 2010, of which around 150,000 live in the capital Bandar Seri Begawan . Other major towns are the port town of Muara, the oil producing town of Seria and its neighboring town, Kuala Belait. Most of Brunei is within the Borneo lowland rain forests ecoregion that covers most of the island but there are areas of mountain rain forests inland . The climate of Brunei is tropical equatorial.The average annual temperature is 26.1 C (79.0 F), with the April May average of 24.7 C (76.5 F) and the OctoberDecember average of 23.8 C (74.8 F).

FLAG

FLAG AND CREST

The national flag of Brunei has the crest of Brunei in the centre, on a yellow field. The field is cut by black and white diagonal stripes, although they are officially called parallelograms. The yellow field represents the Sultan of Brunei. (In Southeast Asia, yellow is traditionally the colour of royalty, and the royal standards of Malaysia and Thailand, along with the presidential flag of Indonesia, also use a yellow field.)

The crest consists of a crescent (symbolizing Islam) joined with a parasol (symbolizing monarchy), and two upturned hands on both sides (signifying the benevolence of the government). Below the crescent is a ribbon. On the crescent and ribbon are Arabic inscriptions translating as "State of Brunei, Abode of peace" and Brunei's motto, "Always in service with God's guidance"
The black and white parallelograms represent Brunei's chief ministers.

OFFICIAL NAME & CURRENCY

Brunei i/bruna/, officially the Nation of Brunei, the Abode of Peace(Malay: Negara Brunei Darussalam, Jawi: , Arabic: ) , is a sovereign state located on the north coast of the island of Borneo, in Southeast Asia. Apart from its coastline with the South China Sea, it is completely surrounded by the state of Sarawak, Malaysia, and it is separated into two parts by the Sarawak district of Limbang. It is the only sovereign state completely on the island of Borneo, with the remainder of the island belonging to Malaysia and Indonesia. Brunei's population was 401,890 in July 2011.

CURRENCY

Due to the close ties between China and Brunei, the first type of coins used in Brunei were Chinese coins. This was initially called Pitis. They were later known as Kue when local Pitis were introduced. The local Pitis coins had Sultanate of Brunei stamped in front of the coin and the royal umbrella was imprinted at the back. These were issued from the 16th to the 19th century. Previous Islamic coins were also called the Pitis.Another type of coins that were used in Brunei were Duit besi (which roughly translates to Iron money). Iron was considered valuable those days that it was used as money. 100 one-square inch pieces were valued at 1 dollar.

CURRENCY

The Brunei dollar (Malay: ringgit Brunei, currency code: BND), has been the currency of the Sultanate of Brunei since 1967. It is normally abbreviated with the dollar sign $, or alternatively B$ to distinguish it from other dollardominated currencies, It is divided into 100 sen (Malay) or cents (English). The Brunei dollar is managed together with the Singapore dollar at a 1:1 ratio by the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS). (Singapore is one of Brunei's major trading partners.)

POLITICS AND GOVERNANCE

Brunei has a constitutional sultanate. It has a legal system based on English common law, although Islamic shariah law supersedes this in some cases .
The political system in the country is governed by the constitution and the tradition of the Malay Islamic Monarchy, the concept of Melayu Islam Beraja (MIB). The three components of MIB cover Malay culture, Islamic religion and the political framework under the monarchy. Under Brunei's 1959 constitution, His Majesty Paduka Seri Baginda Sultan Haji Hassanal Bolkiah Mu'izzaddin Waddaulah is the head of state with full executive authority, including emergency powers which are renewed every two years, since 1962. The Sultan's role is enshrined in the national ideology known as Melayu Islam Beraja (MIB), or Malay Muslim Monarchy. The country has been under hypothetical martial law since the Brunei Revolt of 1962.[9] Hassanal Bolkiah is also the state's Prime Minister, Finance Minister and Defence Minister. The Royal family retains a venerated status within the country. The country also has its own parliament.

SULTAN OF BRUNEI

Hassanal Bolkiah, GCB GCMG (full name: Sultan Haji Hassanal Bolkiah Mu'izzaddin Waddaulah ibni Al-Marhum Sultan Haji Omar Ali Saifuddien Sa'adul Khairi Waddien; born 15 July 1946) is the 29th and current Sultan and Yang DiPertuan of Brunei. He is also the first and incumbent Prime Minister of Brunei. The eldest son of the late Sir Muda Omar Ali Saifuddien III and the late Raja Isteri Pengiran Anak Damit, he succeeded to the throne as the Sultan of Brunei, following the voluntary abdication of his father on 4 October 1967.

Sul ta n Ha ji Ha ssa nal B o l kia h M u'i zzad din Wa d d a ulah i b n i A l - Mar hu m S u l t a n H a ji O ma r A l i S a i f u d dien Sa 'a d u l K h a i ri Wa d d ien ;

LEGACY

His Majesty is the Prime Minister, Minister of Defense, Minister of Finance, Head of Islam, Head of Customs, Head of the Supreme Commander of the Royal Brunei Armed Forces and the Inspector General of the Royal Brunei Police Force. During the period of his reign for 45 years on the throne, he has brought a lot of changes and improvements in the country's development. He is the king of competent and admired by the world community, as well as lift up the status and name of Brunei in the international arena. Efforts and contributions that he gave in addressing various issues in fostering harmony and universal peace, causing him respected by all his subjects. Similarly, in the military where he received recognition through awards and accreditation of the various grades of honor from foreign countries.

CULTURE

The culture of Brunei is predominantly Malay (reflecting its ethnicity), with heavy influences from Islam, but is seen as more conservative than Malaysia. Brunei's culture is mainly derived from the Old Malay World, which encompassed the Malay Archipelago and from this stemmed what is known as the Malay Civilisation. Based on historical facts, various cultural elements and foreign civilisations had a hand in influencing the culture of this country. Thus, the influence of culture can be traced to four dominating periods of animism, Hinduism, Islam and the West. However, it was Islam that managed to wind its roots deeply into the culture of Brunei hence it became a way of life and adopted as the state's ideology and philosophy. As a Sharia country, the sale and public consumption of alcohol is banned.Non-Muslims are allowed to bring in a limited amount of alcohol from their point of embarkation overseas for their own private consumption.

SOME PLACES IN BRUNEI

THANK YOU ^_^

PREPARED BY : MARLIZA SAMPORNA