 |
| Brunei |
Located in Southeast Asia in the north of the island of Kalima, tan.
Territory - 5.8 thousand sq. km.
Population - 200 thousand 1978); 60% are Malays, 24% are Chinese, 7% are indigenous people (Dayaks, Kedayani, Dusuns, Melans, Ibans).
Indians, British and others also live.
The capital is Bandar-Sern Begawan (75 thousand inhabitants.).
The official languages are Malay and English. The main religion is Islam.
English protectorate since 1888 In 1941-45. was occupied by Japan.
The rise of the national liberation movement in Southeast Asia forced England to grant Brunei a constitution in 1959.
In the 1962 elections, all seats in the Legislative Council were won by the then only People's Party, which advocated the independence of Brunei and organized the movement for the unification of Brunei, Sarawak and Sabah into a single independent republic. The armed uprising launched by this movement was suppressed by the British, ”and the People's Party was banned.
The supreme power belongs to the hereditary monarch - the Sultan (since October 1967 - Hassanal Bolkiah Muizaddin Waddaulah), who heads the Council of Ministers, which includes the British High Commissioner (under the treaty with England in 1971, he is in charge of defense and foreign relations).
The High Commissioner is also a member of the Privy Council, an advisory body to the Sultan. There is a legislative council with 21 members (11 are appointed by the Sultan and 10 are elected). Under the state of emergency in force since 1961, Brunei is governed mainly by the Sultan's decrees. In 1978, as a result of Anglo-Brunei negotiations, an agreement was reached on granting full independence to Brunei in 1983.
The only legal party, the Brunei People's Independence Front, is in loyal opposition to the government.
The main natural wealth of Brunei is oil and gas, the production of which is monopolized by Brunei Shell Petroleum; Oil production - 10-11 million g per year, natural gas - 10 billion cubic meters. m. Oil and gas revenues account for up to 99% of all export earnings.
There is a plant for the production of liquefied gas (a mixed Brunei-Japanese-British enterprise), logging and sawmill production.
The main agricultural crop is rice, but the harvest of rice (up to 5 thousand tons per year) does not meet the needs of the country. There are plantations of rubber-bearing hevea, cattle are raised, sago is cultivated. A narrow gauge railway connects the towns of Seria and Badas. Highway length. roads - about 1,100 km. There is a regular steamship connection with Singapore, the national airline Royal Brunei Airlines operates.
Oil, natural gas, livestock, pepper, etc are exported; imported machinery, equipment, means of transport, food, consumer goods.
Main trading partners: Japan, Malaysia, Singapore, USA. The annual per capita income is over $ 3,000, one of the highest in Asia, but the bulk of the country's income is appropriated by the local feudal-bureaucratic elite.
