The Mall and The Mosque: Conflicting norms in Brunei Darussalam

Abstract

After a brief overview of the evolution of the Brunei sultanate from a pre-colonial patrimonial state to a colonial protectorate under Indirect Rule, the chapter analyses its economic transformation into an oil-producing rentier state and its political reinvention as a nation state whose official ideology paradoxically defines it as a traditional Malay sultanate. The realisation of the long-term unsustainability of the welfare ("Shellfare") state that relies on oil rents is beginning to expose ideological contradictions and societal fault lines. Attempts to diversify the economy have not made a major impact and the state increasingly uses normative religion to legitimise the monarchy.