Word: british
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...issue was clear-cut: whether and when, after a century of colonial status, the tiny sultanate of Brunei should gain full independence. The British were understandably defensive. The Bruneians were altogether adamant. The strange thing about the situation, however, as the two sides met for discussions in London, was that this time it was the British who proposed to cast off their remaining colonial ties. On the other hand, Brunei's Sandhurst-educated sultan, Sir Muda Hassanal Bolkiah Mu'izzaddin Waddaulah, 32, who led a retinue of 18 to the negotiating table in Whitehall, sought to hang...
...sides worked out a compromise. By 1983 Britain will withdraw what has become an anachronistic and embarrassing colonial presence in the steamy 2,226-sq.-mi. sultanate of 190,000 people on the north coast of Borneo (see map). Meanwhile, British civil servants will continue to handle much of the sultanate's affairs, as they have since 1888, when the tiny backwater country, which a passing naval captain had chanced on 40 years earlier, formally became a British protectorate. In addition, London agreed to keep a battalion of tough Gurkha soldiers in Brunei (pronounced Brew-nigh) until the sultanate...
Brunei's maneuvering to retain British protection is based on oil. Tucked between the Malaysian states of Sabah and Sarawak, the sultanate sits on an estimated 1.6 billion bbl. of petroleum. The government owns a 50% share in a subsidiary of Royal Dutch Shell, whose wells pump 230,000 bbl. per day; it is also one-third owner of the world's largest natural gas liquefaction plant. Brunei's revenues should surpass $1 billion this year, and the national surplus, already $2.5 billion, will grow by another $700 million...
Brunei fears that Malaysia might be tempted to make a play for such wealth. Thus the present sultan and his father, Omar Ali Saifuddin, who abdicated in 1967 in favor of his son but remains a power behind the throne, have steadfastly insisted that the British stay...
...result, Brunei remains a quaint throwback to the days of the British...