Column Brunei
BRUNEI
Column by Director, Asia Network Fumio Nagashima
○Brunei, the country of the rich
When people hear “Brunei”, most people don’t have a clue where this country is located. Brunei’s official name is Brunei Darussalam. It’s a constitutional monarchy where the king has supreme power.
Brunei is located a bit north of the equator, on the northern part of the island of Borneo. The country is surrounded by Malaysia’s territory in three directions: east, west, and south, and is a small country with only its northern side facing the sea. Brunei is only about 2.6 times bigger than the area of Tokyo. The established religion is Islam and its ethnicity composition is 66% Malay, 10% Chinese, and 24% other ethnicities.
When I first visited Brunei, it was called “The world’s richest country”. I wasn’t quite sure what “the world’s richest” was based upon, but that’s what was being said. That’s probably the image most people had of Brunei. I was curious to take a look at the world’s richest country, and decided to visit there.
○ Entering Brunei
Back then, the Internet wasn’t as developed as today, so I visited without knowing what kind of place Brunei was. I took a ship from Malaysia and arrived at a dock in the suburbs of Brunei’s capital, Bandar Seri Begawan. A simple baggage check was conducted at immigrations/customs. The officer asked me, “Do you have any contraband with you?” I was sure he was talking about narcotics, but I deliberately asked, “What exactly does that include?” He replied “Alcohol and magazines that show pictures of seductively posing women.” I was surprised at his answer. (If declared, a certain amount of alcohol can be brought in.) But his answer actually helps us catch a glimpse of this country.
I stepped outside the dock terminal to find myself in a huge vacant lot. There were no landmark buildings at all. How do I go to the city? I spotted a small bus. After walking to where the bus was parked and asking, I was told that this bus would take me to the city.
Hearing the expression “the world’s richest country”, I kind of imagined the capital Bandar Seri Begawan would be like the center of Singapore, filled with skyscrapers. But when I arrived at the city center, it was like a suburban city with absolutely no skyscrapers at all. I still remember how surprised I was.
There were lots of floating homes along the Brunei River, which runs through Bandar Seri Begawan. They’re simple wooden houses and it was quite strange to see such dwellings in a rich country. The area was by no means a slum. It was a strange feeling to see neatly clad men and women in fancy clothes leaving their floating houses to go to work every morning. In the past, the government pursued an immigration policy to move the floating house dwellers onto land. Unfortunately, this policy didn’t work out. It’s not that the housings prepared by the government weren’t good. It’s because most of the people living in floating houses preferred their own houses because they were cooler and more comfortable, and refused to move out.
○ A country that bans alcohol
Brunei is a devout Islamic country. That’s why alcohol is prohibited. Foreigners are allowed to drink, but since alcohol is not sold locally, it’s virtually impossible to drink it. Still, many people in Brunei know what alcohol tastes like and they seem to like it. (That’s what a Bruneian told me.) If they’re banned from drinking alcohol, why do they know what it tastes like? As for the elders, they drank alcohol back when it wasn’t banned yet. As for the youths, since many of them study abroad such as Singapore, that’s where they learn to drink. Also, a one-hour ship ride from Bandar Seri Begawan will take you to the Malaysian territory, Labuan Island. People can freely drink alcohol there. What’s more, it’s a duty-free port that requires no tax. In other words, alcohol is cheap there. So if one wants to drink alcohol, they can easily do so without going far. Also, they wouldn’t give me the details, but there seem to be places within the city where alcohol is available.
Brunei is wealthy because of the abundant natural gas and oil that’s produced. The biggest importer of Brunei’s natural gas is Japan, amounting to 90% of the total oil output. However, in recent years, it has been said that “Brunei’s natural gas and oil will run dry in a few years.” People say that’s the reason why Brunei has been shifting to a tourism-oriented country, but that shift isn’t working as planned.
Still, there’s something in this country that symbolizes how wealthy they are. It’s the fact that they don’t have income taxes and consumption taxes. This is pretty amazing. What a difference from that country which is having a huge fuss over raising its consumption tax by a few percent or not.
The country built Jerudong Park, a gigantic theme park. The park is said to be the biggest theme park in Southeast Asia. When the park opened, guests were treated with free admission and free attraction rides. (After some twists and turns, they later adopted a fee for certain spots.) This is the location where Michael Jackson did a free show to celebrate His Majesty Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah’s 50th birthday. Aside from some specific days, this theme park is basically open only in the evening. The park is closed during the day because it’s too hot. It used to be Southeast Asia’s biggest theme park, but I’ve heard that it has lost its former glory.
The scale of the royal palace, Istana Nurul Iman, is also out of this world. It’s said to be one of the largest palaces in the world. It was built in 1984 to commemorate Brunei’s independence and is the residence as well as government office and prime minister’s office of the current Sultan. It’s nearly 20 hectares and is said to have 1,788 rooms. They say that hundreds of Rolls-Royces and other super-expensive cars are parked at the palace.
○An up-and-coming movie industry
Although Brunei is a small country, there are several movie theaters in Bandar Seri Begawan. When my friend went to see a movie, the admission was four Brunei dollars (about 310 yen). Considering Brunei’s prices, this is much cheaper than Japan. My friend was hoping to see a Brunei movie, but unfortunately, there were none.
There’s also a luxury hotel called The Empire Hotel & Country Club Brunei. It’s said to be not a five-star, but a seven-star hotel. This hotel comes with a movie theater and it seems to be quite luxurious.
Given that Brunei is a small country, it’s just not practical to have a movie industry. Very few domestic feature-length movies have been made. Since Malay is widely spoken in Brunei, they can understand Malaysian and Indonesian movies without subtitles. Maybe that’s why there’s no need to go through the trouble to produce domestic movies.
Still, there is a Bruneian movie that was screened in Japan. Although it wasn’t a theatrical release, Director Siti Kamaluddin’s action movie Yasmine (2014) was screened at the 2015 Osaka Asian Film Festival and other locations. They say this was Brunei’s very first feature-length movie. The DVD has been released in Japan, so if you’re interested, why don’t you check it out?
Brunei’s movie industry still has a long way to go. But the country is rich and the king has supreme power. Over half of the country’s domestic corporations are government-run companies. In other words, most of the citizens are government workers. Under such circumstances, I think it’s difficult for them to make commercial movies that are not propaganda movies. Still, Brunei is one of the wealthiest countries in Asia. Aren’t you interested to see what kind of movies they will produce in the future? I will definitely continue paying close attention to Brunei’s movie industry.
*Reference Yasmine