Brunei: Located in relatively poor Southeast Asia, why can Brunei be so rich?

Speaking of Southeast Asia, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand...Most people in these countries can talk about it; and when it comes to Brunei, they often It makes people speechless for a while and can't say a general idea. In Southeast Asia, Brunei has always been a mysterious existence.

▲The geographical location of Brunei. The country is small and the population is sparse. Among the many Southeast Asian countries, Brunei has never had a strong presence.

Don’t look at Brunei’s presence, but in terms of the hard power of 民生, it His performance has always been incredible, and it can be said to be second to none in Southeast Asia.

▲ Brunei ranks second in terms of regional GDP per capita, second only to Singapore, leaving behind the major Southeast Asian countries

From a geographical point of view, Brunei Located at 加里曼丹岛， The island is currently shared by Malaysia, Indonesia and Brunei. Brunei has grown into what it is today under the "siege" of these two countries; and from the perspective of the development of traditional industries , Brunei’s agriculture, forestry, fishery and food processing industries have always been underdeveloped, a large number of products and food are dependent on imports.

▲ The Omar Ali Saifuding Mosque in Brunei. The mosque is known as the most beautiful mosque in the Asia-Pacific region, and Brunei is also a recognized Islamic country

As one of the few countries that still follow the absolute monarchy, how Brunei is in a dangerous geographical environment Booming in China? And in the case of highly dependent on external living materials, how does Brunei achieve the "living money" of the whole people?

1. Constant harassment and ill-fated

According to records, the island of Kalimantan where Brunei is currently inhabited as early as the 8th century. At first, the number of indigenous people in the area was very small. With the increasing frequency of population movement, more and more Malays came to this land. At present, Malays are the largest ethnic group in the country, and accounts for 66.3% of Brunei’s population.

did not exist in Brunei at the beginning. It is generally believed that 勃泥国 established in Kalimantan in the early days is the main body of contemporary Brunei. At that time, Boni country had close contacts with neighboring countries, especially with the Song Dynasty.

▲ In the "Emperor Ming Zu Xun" written by Ming Taizu Zhu Yuanzhang, 15 countries that are not expropriated for peaceful development of trade are listed, and Bo Ni is one of them One of

But the comprehensive national power of the early Boni country was not strong, and it was often oppressed by the nearby Malacca Sultanate. And it was precisely under this brutal oppression that the bud of Islamization of gradually appeared in Boni country.

The Malacca Sultanate at that time was a typical Islamic kingdom. In order to carry forward their Islamic thoughts, they used powerful force to coerce neighboring countries to accept Islamic thoughts and sent many religious ministers to these countries to preach.

Eventually, under the "coercion and temptation" of the Malacca Sultanate, Islam flourished in Burni, and officially became an Islamic country in the 14th century.

▲Islam is the well-deserved number one religion in Brunei

and this seems to be an important turning point in the country at that time. With the increasing decline of neighboring countries, Boni State relied on its own high-quality military to continuously expand its territory. By 16世纪, it established a part covering Kalimantan Island and the Philippine Islands.The region’s great empire, , is called the Brunei Empire in history.

▲The territories of the Brunei Empire in 1500

Speaking of the establishment of the Brunei Empire, and the “assist” of the Ming Dynasty at Have a great relationship. Before that, the Ming Dynasty ordered Huang Senping, a warrior from Fujian, to go to Boni country to search for gold. Without saying a word, Huang Senping took his relatives and some local people with lofty ideals on a journey to Southeast Asia.

But unfortunately, there is no gold excavation locally. But the arrival of Huang Senping surprised the Sudan at that time. He attaches great importance to this warrior from the Ming Dynasty, and betrothed his daughter to him, asking him to form a high-quality army that can serve the country.

▲These Fujianese from afar are one of the earliest Chinese immigrants in Brunei. So far, ethnic Chinese is the second largest ethnic group in Brunei, accounting for 11.2% of the total population.

The army jointly created by Huang Senping and Boni Sultan laid a solid foundation for the establishment of the Brunei Empire. To pay tribute, during the Yongle period, Boni Sultan arranged for his son, King Boni, to visit Nanjing, the capital of the Ming Dynasty, for friendly bilateral exchanges.

▲Unfortunately, King Boni passed away due to a serious illness during his visit in Nanjing. Ming Chengzu later gave him a thick burial. And this tombstone also became a strong proof of the friendship between the two states at that time

However, Brunei’s dream of empire did not last long. In the 16th century, the Portuguese Empire discovered the channel through the Cape of Good Hope due to , and 再 broke the long-standing Arab world and Italy’s monopoly on Eurasian trade. The treasure land of Southeast Asia has begun to be shown to the world. The opening of the

channel allowed more colonial countries to focus on the region: in the 1640s and 1960s, the Netherlands established bases in Malacca and Ceylon; after the Seven Years War in the 18th century, Britain also established bases. The East India Company, which is enough to radiate the colonization of Southeast Asia... More and more countries in the region are beginning to murmur.

▲British East India Company flag. The East India Company is arguably the most notorious trade organization in the history of British colonialism

As the external environment continues to change, changes within the Brunei Empire are also quietly occurring. Infighting between members of the royal family continued, and the harassment of coastal colonists made them unable to do so. From the end of the 17th century, Spain, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom captured the Philippine Islands, the northern and southern parts of Kalimantan, Sarawak, Labuan and other places. The Brunei Empire was instantly divided up cruelly by several colonists.

▲The signing site of the Labuan Treaty at the Brunei Palace. The coercion of the British and other colonists caused Brunei's sovereignty to be eroded step by step.

In 1888, The helpless Sultan of Brunei could only file a complaint with the United Kingdom, asking it to stop further infringement on Brunei's territory. In the same year, signed the so-called "protection nation" agreement between the two countries, 文莱 officially entered the British rule, and completely lost its sovereignty.

▲The colonial territory of Western powers in Southeast Asia at the end of the 19th century. Southeast Asia was completely reduced to the plaything of the colonists at this time, falling into endless oppression

Brunei’s growth process before the 20th century was turbulent and tortuous. From a small and perilous country that was not considered promising, it gradually expanded into a large country with regional influence. Afterwards, the invasion of European colonists completely pushed the country into the abyss of sovereignty, allowing it to survive only in the region. The modern history of Brunei, is full of suffering.

▲Brunei local administrative plan. The land is divided into two pieces, sandwiched between Sarawak, Malaysia. Sarawak used to be Brunei’s pride, but now it is more of an unspeakable regret.

2. Welcome the new life with a wealth of money

Entering the 20th century, especially during World War II, Brunei The people still fail to expect a stable social environment. In December 1941, the Japanese invaded the British colony of Borneo (ie Kalimantan Island) eight days after the attack on Pearl Harbor. After a week of fierce war, Borneo still fell, and Brunei is part of it.

▲Japan's administrative division map after the occupation of Borneo

With the victory of World War II, Brunei ended the long period of Japanese occupation. is a new government established after the baptism of World War II, is still attached to the British military management, is mainly composed of officers from Australia. Even so, the fire of national awakening in Brunei has not been extinguished, and their inner desire for freedom is still extremely ardent.

In 1959, Brunei’s new constitution was promulgated, which rarely mentioned the concept of autonomous state . The content includes the establishment of Sudan as the supreme head of state, while the British government only exercises diplomatic and national defense duties. At the same time, five councils were established to take care of the country's daily affairs.

▲In the 1960s, the British garrison was patrolling Brunei’s oil fields

At a time when the national liberation movement was on the rise, especially the main position in Southeast Asia, Brunei His every move made Britain only gradually acquiesced. All walks of life in Brunei saw the rare opportunity, and then put forward further ideas to the British government. In May 1983, under negotiation between the two parties, finally reached a consensus that Brunei declared independence on January 1st of the following year.

▲Brunei Independence Day celebration. On January 1, 1984, Brunei broke away from British colonial control and resumed the exercise of sovereignty.

The complex geological environment and the same beliefs allowed Brunei to deal with the foreign affairs of the two countries Malaysia and Indonesia. In terms of relationship, has always been troubled. The two countries established diplomatic relations with Brunei in the year it was founded. Although had conflicts with each other on issues such as territories and oil exploitation, in general, remained in a controllable situation.

▲The two countries have been unable to reach a consensus on the ownership of the Linmeng area.

After all the hardships, we finally arrived at independent Brunei. You can "show your fists" to your heart's content. However, the extremely realistic situation at that time was that Brunei had a narrow territory and a limited population, and lack of necessary resources for life, and highly dependent on external imports. Such a situation makes it difficult for the Brunei government to control the direction of economic development.

But fortunately, the sky is endless. While God closed a door for Brunei, it also opened another window. For a long time, Brunei and its coastal areas contain abundant non-renewable resources such as oil and natural gas. these resources were discovered by relevant experts as early as the late 1920s.

▲Brunei Petroleum Exhibition poster. Petroleum is already an important business card for Brunei to show to the outside world

Therefore, Brunei has embarked on a road of development that relies on resource extraction to maintain its national economy. Brunei is the second largest oil producer in Southeast Asia and the fourth largest natural gas in the worldIn exporting countries, the annual income generated by these two resources accounts for 70% of Brunei’s annual GDP. such a revenue share is extremely rare in the world.

▲Brunei’s offshore drilling platform

Long-term resource extraction made the Brunei government realize that the exhaustion crisis will be approaching step by step, For this reason, they try their best to promote the diversification of the industry under the current capacity of .

The establishment of Brunei Investment Company provides more possibilities for Brunei’s national economy to generate income. The company owns nine catering giants in Europe and the United States, including the Beverly Hills Hotel, the Dorchester Hotel in London, and the Plaza Athenee Hotel in Paris. The direction of foreign investment in industry has provided a broader horizon for Brunei's economic growth.

▲The opening ceremony of Bank of China (Hong Kong) Brunei Branch. The financial industry has gradually become an important direction for the government to drive the economy, including Citibank and other institutions have also settled in Brunei

Faced with the embarrassing situation of a small country and few people, Brunei has developed a unique feature that mainly relies on resource extraction to generate income. On the road of development, we also make use of abundant funds to invest abroad to create more possibilities. This series of economic measures enabled Brunei to achieve its goal of becoming a country rich. Of course, this is not the end. Their greater ideal is to realize the prosperity of the people that benefits everyone.

3. Is it heaven or hell?

The country has a lot of money saved in its hands, but how to share with every Brunei citizen to the maximum, is an issue that needs to be considered by relevant functional departments.

First of all, they adopted the simplest, rude, and most direct way, starting with tax. Brunei’s tax policy can be said to be very friendly. In the local area, there is neither personal income tax nor export tax, sales tax, payroll tax and other taxes. There are only some "symbolic taxes" such as corporate income tax, stamp duty and oil tax. The sharp drop in taxes has greatly increased the "entanglement" in the people's belt.

▲ Brunei’s low taxation is an important manifestation of the country’s strong financial strength

In addition to making major tax concessions, people’s livelihood protection The government is also doing its best: every citizen of Brunei can enjoy 11 years of basic national education for 6 years of elementary school and 5 years of middle school for free; and for medical care, citizens can apply for subsidies from relevant departments, even some overseas In the case of medical treatment, there have been cases where the government fully subsidized air tickets; on the housing issue, the state allocated a large number of public housing and only charged part of the low rent.

▲The government-built public housing. Named public housing, it is more like a single-family villa

The country’s highly sophisticated welfare system has effectively improved the quality of life of the people. Take car ownership as an example. Brunei has a population of just over 400,000 but has more than 300,000 cars. In other words, Almost every adult in Brunei has at least one car.

If you look at it this way, Brunei’s strong financial resources and high welfare system are indeed mouth-watering. But in fact, this country also has criticized.

Brunei is one of the few countries in the world where implements Islamic law. Islamic law is a legal restriction on the daily behavior and lifestyle of the people based on the content of the Koran. Because has a long history and cruel punishment, no longer meets the needs of reality, so it has received many criticisms.

▲Just two months ago, the Sultan of Brunei promulgated a new Islamic criminal law, including abortion, homosexuality and other acts will be punished by stoning. ThisThe news caused an uproar in the world

In addition to this problem, Brunei economic structure single is also a "big problem". Fossil energy such as oil and natural gas has almost propped up the entire country's economy, which is why Brunei has not reached the entry threshold of developed countries. Some people even disagree with Brunei’s Political System , believing that the “words of one family” of the monarch, Sudan, is a great disadvantage to the rational allocation of resources.

▲Sudan's birthday celebration list. In Brunei, Sudan is the supreme authority, and it is not uncommon for the whole country to revolve around

The unique geographical advantage allows Brunei people to enjoy the enviable infinite wealth. Although this country has suffered from the pain of disintegration, but fortunately, the whole society at the moment can be said to be the country and the people. It can be regarded as suffering.