Brunei and Malaysia

This is the latest accepted revision, reviewed on 20 October 2024.

Brunei and Malaysia: Why Sultan Omar Ali Saifuddin Refused to Join the Federation is a 2013 book written by Isa Bin Ibrahim, a prominent member of the delegation of Sultan Omar Ali Saifuddin of Brunei with Neil Lawson QC, a London lawyer acting as the constitutional adviser on the formation of Malaysia. The book offers an inside perspective on Brunei's determination to retain its territory as an oil-rich self-governing state, contrasted with the British desire that Brunei should become part of the new federation to help counter the regional influence of China.

Brunei and Malaysia:
Why Sultan Omar Ali Saifuddin Refused to Join the Federation
AuthorIsa Bin Ibrahim
SubjectDecolonization
Brunei
GenreHistory
PublisherI B Tauris & Co Ltd
Published in English
30 June 2013
Media typePrint (Hardcover)
Pages288
ISBN978-1-78076-436-8

Description

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Tunku Abdul Rahman and most of his senior cabinet ministers, including Tun Abdul Razak, Razali Ismail and Tan Siew Sin, met with the Sultan of Brunei to negotiate conditions including:

  • The number of seats in legislature and parliament
  • Control of oil, gas and mineral exploration
  • Production, monetary autonomy and Brunei's earlier investments
  • Method of taxation
  • Authority in education and welfare (sovereign wealth fund)
  • Matters of religion and citizenship
  • The security of Brunei, and the position of the Sultan
  • The status of Brunei within the proposed new federation of Malaysia.

Brunei pulled out of the negotiations before the Malaysia Agreement was signed on 9 July 1963 and subsequently became independent from the United Kingdom on 1 January 1984.

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Further reading

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