Addressing Ethnic Complexity and Ethnic Change in Brunei Darussalam

Abstract

In a paper published over 25 years ago I argued that it was more appropriate and analytically useful to think in terms of ethnic complexity, processes of ethnic change, and the understanding of ‘Brunei society’ in terms of an integrated, yet fluid ‘single social system’. The concept of a Brunei society generated some discussion at the time on the nature of ethnic relations and the ways in which we might understand what continues to be a ‘plural society’. In Brunei, ethnicity is frequently designated as ‘race’. The present chapter addresses issues of ethnicity and ethnic classification in relation to nation-building and the need to construct a national identity in the context of the Brunei Constitution (1959) and the Nationality Act (1961). In this connection, two major questions are posed, viz. ‘Do the officially defined ethnicities in Brunei conform to what is happening on the ground?’ and ‘How do we address these issues in conceptual terms in relation to identity formation and maintenance, inter-ethnic relations and ethnic change?’