Brunei Darussalam. Brunei: From the Age of Commerce to the 21st century By Marie-Sybille de Vienne Singapore: NUS Press in association with Institut de Recherche sur l'Asie du Sud-Est Contemporaine (IRASEC), 2015. Pp. xviii + 345. Maps, Illustrations, Lexicon, Bibliography, Index.

Abstract

Brunei: From the Age of Commerce to the 21st century By MARIE-SYBILLE DE VIENNE Singapore: NUS Press in association with Institui de Recherche sur l'Asie du Sud-Est Contemporaine (IRASEC), 2015. Pp. xviii + 345. Maps, Illustrations, Lexicon, Bibliography, Index. This latest monograph on Brunei Darussalam is well-written enough to be read as a detailed, straightforward account of unfolding developments or a brave advancement in Malay world historiography. It covers the same events as its predecessors but is wary of overarching longue duree themes that do not 'totally stand up to examination' (p. 10). Brunei's golden age as a geopolitically important economic hub is well covered but not 're-scripted into a new continuum', noticeably the case for Ranjit Singh's (1984) and Bala Bilcher's (2005) studies. The section on Brunei's far-reaching transformation from 'thalassocracy to rentier state' emphasises the discontinuity typical of colonial histories while an insightful chapter-long critique of state hagiography revolves around nation-building strategies. This study comes close to describing the proverbial elephant rather than its component parts. Though well-researched and cross-referenced, de Vienne's 'series of hypotheses' regarding a gradually Indianising first-millennium trading chiefdom and an 'Islamised thalassocracy ... radiating as far as Palawan and Sambas' (p. 20) should not be mistaken as exhaustive or authoritative. For example, Johannes L. Kurz identified issues with the identification of 'Boni' and 'Foni' as early names for Brunei. As with all attempts to gather 'cruelly-lacking' provenance from a wide variety of sources, no scholar possesses sufficient expertise to settle all major debates. Nonetheless, the author introduces novices to the potential and difficulties of historicising Brunei's proto-history. Fifth-century Sanskrit inscriptions, silsilah (Bruneian genealogies) accounts of a Chinese Muslim sultan and highly cross-referenced 'reconfigurations of merchant geopolitics' (p. 37) are the staple in longue duree Malay world histories. This 92-page dive into the distant past stands out for how information is juxtaposed with subsequent periods. Fluctuating strategic fortunes explain why today's 'Brunei cannot compete with Singapore or even the ports on the west coast of the Malay Peninsula', presenting its colonially-created 'rentier state' as 'an additional economic dimension ... far beyond the regional framework' (pp. 10-11, 95). The medieval camphor hub illustrates what Brunei no longer is. Politically, Brunei Darussalam's possible unbroken ancestry into antiquity is not disputed. De Vienne critiques, but does not quite criticise or legitimise such hagiographical use of the past. Longue duree continuity is thus not denied but attenuated and distilled of its more questionable conclusions. Brunei's nineteenth-century reduction to 'the confluence of the Kedayan and Brunei Rivers' (p. 20) and its consequent lowly but fortunate protectorate status is well covered by colonial-era studies interested in British Borneo. This could account for why de Vienne only devoted 40 pages to the event-filled period (1803-1983). As Ooi Keat Gin's review noted, military history is another aspect covered very lightly, even with respect to the Second World War and Brunei Revolt. …