ABSTRACT
It is by now something of a cliché that Brunei is a ‘Shellfare state’ – meaning a society cushioned by the welfare which a multinational oil company (Royal Dutch Shell, in fact) generates. A widely remarked effect of pervasive welfare, at least in this Malay society only quite recently experiencing modernization, is the ‘depoliticization’ of the populace. But this is not solely a direct effect of the welfare. We must also take account of the impact of oil on the country and its structures, and thus on the people indirectly. The State has become ‘empowered’ – materially if not morally – to control the population, and organizes itself accordingly. Indoctrination in favour of the status quo has become a more important function of the bureaucracy than in democratic polities of South-East Asia. Even the schools and locally based higher education are significantly involved. The concept of ‘rentier state’ is particularly useful in focusing our attention on the State (the political institution) as well as its ‘clients’.
