BRUNEI: The Welfare State

The tiny Sultanate of Brunei, adjoining Sarawak on the northwest coast of Borneo, was once a great, warlike nation. In the 16th century its navies spread terror through the Java and Malacca Seas. But Brunei, like many of its neighbors in Malaysia, fell upon hard times. Its fleets rotted away; fierce Sulu pirates came to take its strongest people captive and sell them in the slave markets. In the middle of the last century, Brunei was forced to seek protection from another island kingdom, Great Britain, whose fleets were in better shape....

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