Academic Publication (FASS)

This study aims firstly to compare the complaints of local native-Malay speakers and expatriate native-English speakers in Brunei in terms of move structure and levels of directness combined with the frequency of modality markers; and secondly, it attempts to address the relationship between polite behaviour and its effectiveness in eliciting the appropriate response from the hearer. Data from an oral discourse completion task show interesting similarities and differences in the complaint move structure between the two groups of speakers. Superficially, there appears to be no significant difference between the two sets of complaints in terms of levels of directness, but a detailed analysis shows each group employing different mitigating strategies to minimise the force of a complaint. Furthermore, responses from an acceptability judgement questionnaire indicate that being indirect, and therefore polite, may not be effective in eliciting the appropriate response to a request for action in a complaint speech act.

The present national history of the Sultanate of Brunei includes a fabricated history of official Brunei-China relations that extends as far back as the sixth century AD. The present paper treats the subject of Boni, a place well documented by pre-modern Chinese sources starting from the tenth century. It attempts to address some major issues in the use of these sources to establish Boni as a precursor of modern Brunei. Since the late 1970s writers within Brunei, foremost among them Robert Nicholl, have contributed to the project of a long history of pre-modern Brunei by interpreting the available Chinese sources very narrowly. Based on a close reading of the original texts, this essay argues that the majority of the texts until the Ming dynasty quote from the first extant source in the tenth century. Hence, official Chinese perception of Boni did not increase over time, but in fact did stagnate. Consequently, identification with a specific location in Borneo, as Nicholl and C. Brown suggested, is impossible. What the essay suggests is that with the extant official pre-modern Chinese texts Boni cannot be established as Brunei, but that more likely, Boni under different dynasties referred to various places on the north coast of Borneo.

This paper is about a rebellion in southern China in the first half of the tenth century and its depiction in historical sources from the tenth to the seventeenth centuries. At the core of this study is Zhang Yuxian, the rebel leader, and his allegiance to a spirit. The latter suggested moving from Guangdong, the territory of the Southern Han empire (917–971), and the original area of the rebellion, to Jiangxi, the territory of the Southern Tang empire (937–976). The approach of the paper is twofold: first, it examines the historical setting and context; and second, through a close reading of some of the major features of the sources, such as the labelling of Zhang as a yaozei, the adoption of red clothes by the rebels, and so forth, the essay makes evident the close relationship and dependency between successive historical texts.

This article narrates the long-standing diplomatic relationship between Malcolm MacDonald and Brunei. Macdonald played a significant role in safeguarding Brunei’s survival as an independent Malay Islamic sultanate during decolonisation. He prevented Brunei from becoming a British crown colony in 1946 unlike the neighbouring states of Sarawak and North Borneo. Having failed to unite the three North Borneo territories into a federation, he may have concurred with Brunei’s decision to opt out of the Malaysian Federation in August 1963 and thereafter. Due to his empathy with the Brunei sultans, especially Omar Ali Saifuddin the III, MacDonald’s approach for Brunei’s future contradicted the vision of his contemporaries for democratising Brunei.

Two anomalous events occurred along the coast of north Borneo: (a) large numbers of small pelagic fish (“Tamban”) jumped onto the shore at Tambisan in Lahad Datu, Sabah, East Malaysia, on 24 December 2013; and (b) large numbers of live clams appeared at Lumut beach, Brunei Darussalam, on 3 January 2014. The paper attempts to explain the occurrence of these anomalous events by comparing plausible explanations based on atmosphere-oceanic interactions with wind, wave and surface ocean current patterns generated using MeteoInfo, an open-source GIS software. Reanalysed data were obtained from Live Access Servers (LAS), notably NOAA’s geophysical fluid dynamics lab using its WaveWatch3 and OceanWatch models. Although the study is not conclusive, it found some patterns that support the proposed hypotheses and provide plausible scientific explanations for the events. The fish incident at Tambisan therefore appears to be caused by ocean currents forcing pelagic shoals into a constricted channel, while the clams at Lumut were mobilised and deposited by waves-generated currents produced by atmospheric circulation a few days leading to the incident. Other factors, such as Internal Waves or Solitons, were also discussed. A major challenge encountered is presenting large number of the maps generated, in printed format, and in a way that does not reduce their readability.

People have long migrated for many reasons, often with a combination of forced and voluntary reasons combining to push them away from current situations and to pull them towards new situations. Bangladesh is one example where environmental changes have long been amongst the multitude of reasons for migrating, with contemporary climate change suggested as a major impetus towards more migration. This paper examines local expert perceptions of migration as a climate change adaptation strategy for Bangladeshis. Seventeen in-depth interviews were conducted with local experts in Bangladesh and Assam (India) on environmental change and migration to understand the perspectives of those with formal education and expert-related jobs who come from the areas being directly affected by Bangladeshi migration. Findings show that local experts consider that migration is used and will be used for climate change adaptation in Bangladesh, but migration is not solely for climate change adaptation, instead interweaving with all other factors influencing migration-related decisions.

Particulate matter (PM10) is the pollutant causing exceedances of ambient air quality thresholds, and the key indicator of air quality index in Brunei Darussalam for haze related episodes caused by the recurrent biomass fires in Southeast Asia. The present study aims at providing suitable forecasts for PM10 exceedances to aid in health advisory during haze episodes at the four administrative districts of the country. A framework based on random forests (RFs), genetic algorithm (GA) and back propagation neural networks (BPNN) computational intelligence techniques has been proposed in which the final prediction is made by the BPNN model. A hybrid combination of GA and RFs is initially applied to determine optimal set of inputs from the initial data sets of largely available meteorological, persistency of high pollution levels, short and long term variations of emissions rates parameters. The inputs selection procedure does not depend on the back propagation training algorithm. The numerical results presented in this paper show that the proposed model not only produced satisfactory forecasts but also consistently performed better via several statistical performance indicators when compared with the standard BPNN and GA optimisation based on back propagation training algorithm. The model also showed satisfactory threshold exceedances forecasts achieving for instance best true predicted rate of 0.800, false positive rate of 0.014, false alarm rate of 0.333 and success index of 0.786 at Brunei-Muara district monitoring station. Overall, the current study has profound implications on future studies to develop a real-time air quality forecasting system to support haze management.

Women have traditionally been at disadvantage in many countries in the world, due partly to the strong patriarchal tradition which often impinges the rights of women. Hence women’s empowerment is a major concern in the developing world and is emerging as an important indicator of the development of a society as well as the status of women. This paper examines the impact of husbands’ migration on the lives of ‘left-behind’ women. The purpose of this research is to investigate how the ‘left-behind’ women turned around in the absence of their husbands and eventually how did they end up being empowered financially, socially and politically. This research analyzes left-behind women’s empowerment through three broad dimensions: resources, agency and achievements, specifically women’s autonomy and control over their lives; financial issues, and women’s political and labour force participation. This research selected 53 women from five countries in MENA (Middle East and North Africa) (Yemen = 6; Jordan = 11; Iraq = 7; Morocco = 9; Egypt = 12; Indonesia = 8) (through snow-ball technique) whose husbands left their countries at least 6 years back. This study shows that the impact of male migration on the ‘left-behind’ women is complex to investigate. Change in gender role has occurred due to men’s migration irrespective of countries of origin. Entire responsibility of taking care of the welfare of left-behind siblings and children has been on the shoulders of the wives. This is, however, not to argue that migration of their counterparts rejuvenated their potential. I rather argue that they successfully used their potential to be leaders in absence of their husbands, meaning that they enjoyed the freedom to make decisions, and that freedom has contributed to their being empowered positively. They eventually have experienced change in their freedoms in terms of decision making, mobility and participation in political activities.

Remittance inflows have been recorded as the second major external source of finance after ODA and an important source of funds for growth in South Asian countries. This review paper examines the interaction between remittances and development in South Asia. Most receiving countries have experienced a major increase in remittance inflows and increase in growth of their GDP. The migration-development nexus is drawn, however, generally on the contribution of migrants’ remittances to the GDP of receiving countries. While this contribution could no way be undermined, the calculation of this contribution is largely done by excluding some significant factors such as loan taken to finance migration; opportunity cost; remittances fee; risks and life lost. There are arguments that the entire amount of remittances channeled into South Asian countries does not go to development. Though there is huge potential to contribute to the development, South Asia did not fully benefit from migrant remittances. This may be because of the fact that channelling remittances, uses of it and lack of financial sector development have thwarted the potential.

Over the past decades, upwelling research has intensified in the South China Sea resulting in interesting findings about the phenomenon and its drivers especially at seasonal, intra-seasonal and annual timescales. However, whether upwelling variability follows well defined and coherent cycles on a multitemporal basis, remains a least examined area of research. This is understandable because previous studies have been largely based on various proxy variables which limits the predictability of upwelling intensity. Consequently, a recently developed time-series of upwelling index (1967–2014), generated across northern South China Sea (NSCS): off Fujian, Guangdong, Hanoi and S.W. Taiwan, using NOAA-ERD model has been analyzed using a number of complementary statistical methods. The results reveal four distinct temporal modes of upwelling/downwelling variability including: seasonal, annual, inter-annual and Decadal patterns. A summary of the outcomes of this study is as follows: • Off Hanoi, Fujian and Guangdong, upwelling is found to be a dominant feature in summer (S.W. Monsoon) while off S.W. Taiwan, upwelling occurs all year round but with greater intensity in winter (N.E. Monsoon); • The trend of upwelling peaked between 1967 and 1980 off S.W. Taiwan and declined gradually in subsequent years and decades; the general trend of upwelling off Fujian and Hanoi was positive, while the trend of upwelling off Guangdong was relatively flat during the study period; • In contrast, downwelling intensity weakened considerably off Hanoi, Fujian and Guangdong, and intensified off S.W. Taiwan; • A further breakdown of the long-term trends reveals distinct multi-annual and decadal patterns; • The dominant temporal variability patterns of upwelling/downwelling in all four zones are found to be annual and inter-annual, showing a strong correspondence with ENSO cycles; Finally, further analysis is recommended in order to enhance understanding of mechanisms of the multiple temporal patterns of upwelling/downwelling variability as well as uncover its impacts on regional marine biogeochemistry.

This paper delves into the trend from cultural decaying to cultural demise across generations of Bangladeshi diasporas in North America, especially in Canada. It explores why Bangladeshi diaspora linkages, despite having the reputation of altruism and family ties, have been decaying and how the decaying trend in the linkages have impacted development in Bangladesh. While in that attempt, the paper highlights interesting practices of cultural traits among Bangladeshi diasporas in Canada. The paper also reports that unlike the countries such as China and India, Bangladeshi diasporas tend to lose their connection with roots over time and orient towards their host country more than their origin country.

The Genealogy of the Sultans of Brunei (Silsilah Raja-raja Brunei) introduces an alleged Chinese ancestor whose name has been transcribed as Ong Sum Ping. Ong is said to have been related to the imperial family of China, to have ruled over Sabah in northern Borneo, and having provided his sister as spouse to one of the early sultans of Brunei. The current paper examines Ong Sum Ping and his various appearances under different names in especially Chinese texts from the twentieth century. These texts emphasise early Chinese influence on northern Borneo. Sometimes Ong Sum Ping is linked to Manarejiana, a Boni chieftain, who visited Nanjing, the capital of the Ming empire in 1408 to pay tribute and his respects to the Yongle emperor (r. 1402–1424). Through the association of the chieftain with the Ming empire, some writers suggest that Ong Sum Ping may have been an admiral of Zheng He’s fleet who came to Brunei and stayed there. At the core of the paper is an examination of modern assumptions about: (1) the identity of Ong Sum Ping; (2) the existence of a Chinese province in northern Borneo; and (3) the likelihood of an appearance of the Treasure Fleet of Zheng He in Brunei in the early fifteenth century. I argue that with the extant Chinese textual sources none of these claims can be verified, and that therefore they are reflecting local oral traditions.

According to the United Nations, the Rohingya people are the most persecuted minority group in the world. The atrocities perpetrated by Myanmar authorities could by any reckoning be called ethnic cleansing. This paper delves into the level of discrimination against the Rohingya population perpetrated by Myanmar authorities in myriad of ways. A team of researchers interviewed 37 victims. The pattern of persecution goes back to 1948 – the year when the country achieved independence from their British colonizers. Today, this population group is the single largest “stateless” community after Palestinians in the world. Their “statelessness” or lack of citizenship increases their vulnerability owing to the lack of entitlements to any legal protection from the government. Without citizenship, they are deprived of basic rights such as access to health services, education and employment. The illiteracy rate among the Rohingya, for example, is a staggering 80 percent. However, so far, no unified responses either from the ASEAN or the EU were provided to the crisis. As a result, the level of discrimination against and brutality towards them kept escalating.

Over one-third of Brunei’s total workforce are foreign expatriates. A huge percentage of them has been staying in Brunei for more than two decades in various capacities. This paper sets out the conceptual imperatives of culture, ethnicity and integration in order to demonstrate how people from different origins, religions and ethnicities settled in Brunei and ended up melting in Brunei society. Setting its arguments in context, this paper engenders the discourse of integrational, religious and cultural ambivalence. A qualitative study was conducted on some diasporas selected based on snow-ball technique. The study reveals that while Diaspora maintain a reciprocal relationship between both ends (origin and destinations), most of them find their hearts in Brunei. In a society religiously and culturally distant from theirs, most diasporas are happy to compromise in order to integrate in Brunei society. Of course, as a natural rule, as time passes, the ties and bond get weaker among generations. The weaker is the tie, the lesser is the linkage. However, the sentimental attachment diaspora may harbour for their countries of birth may not automatically die down nor do their ties with destinations.

Over the past decade, the concepts of border have gained resonance in several disciplines within social sciences. While critical theory of borders has made tremendous advancements, scarcity of the scholarship in border studies is stillevident. Borders are, in general, cultural, social, territorial, geographical, political, sexual and racial separators. This article deals with geographical borders in the Southeast Asian (SEA) region. Most countries in SEA share borders with each other. Under a range of circumstances and relationships such as trade, security and migration flows take place. Southeast Asia’s heterogeneity—politically, ethnically, religiously, economically, demographically and spatially—has crucial implications for neighbourly relationships, trade, border constructions, migration and refugee flows for all the countries. This article delves into the interplay between borders and heterogeneity in SEA and their outcomes. We argue that borders type determine the level of relationship between neighbouring countries and security outcome, trade and population mobility.

The huge amount of remittance transfers has brought migration studies to the fore in the public and private discourse on global development. Since the time migration studies occupied a space in the academe, most research has been devoted to remittances in cash and their use. Prior to the mid-nineties, the debate about the concept of migrants’ ‘remittance’ has not entailed other forms of remittances other than remittances in cash. This research explores another form of remittance, that is, biological remittance. This research firstly explores how migrant populations handle ‘biological remittance’ in their societies, and secondly compares the experiences of female migrant workers in two countries with distinct cultural and religious mores. We collected empirical information from two countries: Indonesia and the Philippines. A total of 38 respondents (17 from the Philippines and 21 from Indonesia) were selected for this study by using the snowball technique. While all the respondents, irrespective of countries of origin, face ordeals coping with their situation, Indonesians bear more psychological burden than the Filipinos. This research has crucial implications for scholars, researchers and policy-makers alike.