BRUNEI POLITICAL PARTIES: AND THEN THERE WERE TWO

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN 000109 SIPDIS SIPDIS DEPARTMENT FOR EAP/MTS E.O. 12958: DECL: 03/22/2017 TAGS: PGOV PHUM PREL BX SUBJECT: BRUNEI POLITICAL PARTIES: AND THEN THERE WERE TWO REF: BANDAR 105 Classified By: DCM Justin Friedman, reasons 1.4 (b) & (d) -------------- SUMMARY -------------- ¶1. (C) The PAKAR Political party, one of just three in Brunei, was declared dead by police on March 19. Foul play is not suspected, as intra-party personality conflicts led to PAKAR's untimely demise. Brunei's other two parties, the NDP and PPKB, are active, and in NDP's case, growing in membership. Political parties are legal in Brunei but have no real role in governance other than serving as an alternate channel for citizens to complain about public services, as government officials are banned from holding party membership. PAKAR's passing leaves a small hole in Brunei's limited political space with one less voice for reform to encourage the Sultan to hold elections for the Legislative Council. (see also reftel). END SUMMARY. -------------- ALAS POOR PAKAR -------------- ¶2. (U) On March 19 the Register of Societies (ROS) (note: the Police Commissioner is also the Registrar of Societies) announed that the registration of the Brunei People's Awareness Party (PAKAR) had been declared void, along with the registrations of 41 other organizations ranging from the Belait District Badminton Association to the Royal Antediluvian Order of Buffaloes. Under the law, all associations and societies, including political parties, must file annual reports, which PAKAR evidently failed to do. Press reports indicated that PAKAR was also de-registered because of an internal feud. ¶3. (SBU) Pol/Mil Assistant spoke to one former PAKAR member who said the problem lay in a leadership dispute and the inactivity of PAKAR membership. Rosli Yahya, a journalist with the Borneo Bulletin who has followed the PAKAR story closely, told us that the split developed following the election of Hj Maidin Ahmad as party president and Hj Hamzah as secretary general in 2004. Feuding between the two (for unspecified reasons) led to a split with each man taking his followers with him. The Register of Societies (ROS) actually tried to keep the party alive and urged them to hold a congress to resolve the leadership dispute. Hamzah held the congress but failed to invite Maidin's followers. When the ROS declined to accept this congress, Hamzah wrote to the ROS that the party had fractured, forcing the ROS to deregister the party. At this point, it is unclear if either fraction intends to reclaim the PAKAR name or register a new political party to take PAKAR's place. -------------- WHITHER PPKB? -------------- ¶4. (C) Meanwhile, Brunei's other two parties seem to be in better shape. Dr. Hj Mohd Hatta Zainal Abidin, President of the Brunei Solidarity National Party told DCM that his party's membership was stable. PPKB Hatta's party is small - he would not give us any membership statistics. He said that his party preferred to work quietly, performing constituent services like carrying citizen complaints to appropriate government authorities. However, he asserted that his party had significant silent support from government officials - a claim substantiated to us by a current Deputy Permanent Secretary and a retired Permanent Secretary. Hatta told us SIPDIS that the PPKB supported the Sultan and the monarchy, but wanted to see the "system" of ministers appointed from carreer government officials replaced by a cabinet selected from the members of a democratically elected Legislative Council. ¶5. (C) PPKB is not without its own troubles. Hatta himself may be on his way out of the leadership of PPKB. Press reports and the Brunei rumor mill have it that Hatta's personal business is in trouble and he had been forced into bankruptcy -- a step that, under Brunei law, would require him to surrender any political party leadership position. Hatta alluded to such, noting that it may be time for him to step down and let others take on the leadership of his party which he had served for 21 years. -------------- BANDAR SER 00000109 002 OF 002 NDP: RISING STAR -------------- ¶6. (C) The National Development Party (NDP),Brunei's newest party, founded in August 2005, appears well funded and active throughout Brunei. In contrast to the PPKB's Hatta, NDP Deputy President Mahmud Morshidi Othman was open and positive about the state of his party. He claimed the NDP had nearly 2000 registered members and was adding 100 per month, notwithstanding some crude attempts by unidentified persons to intimidate potential members by alleging (falsely) that they would lose their pensions or other government benefits if they joined NDP. Morshidi was proud of how the NDP had attracted members from all ethnic groups in Brunei, and not just Malays. ¶7. (C) Morshidi said that under current limits on political activities, the NDP was focusing on building its membership base, in part by performing the same kinds of constituent services PPKB leader Hatta mentioned. Morshidi was critical of mid-level government bureaucrats who were stalling on registering party branches. Morshidi said that these officials were not correctly interpreting clear signals the Sultan had given about opening up Brunei to political party formation and membership. Morshidi and figure-head party president Yasin Affandy were both detained for several years under the Internal Security Act, but today support the Sultan while seeking to expand Brunei's limited political space. The NDP wants an elected Legislative Council to be phased in along the lines the Sultan as discussed publicly as quickly as possible. Morshidi said that the NDP's goal to register 20 percent of the population of Brunei as members and to become the Sultan's political base as Brunei made the inevitable transition to greater democratic practices. -------------- COMMENT -------------- ¶8. (C) As discussed reftel, Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah has very slowly and cautiously opened Brunei's polical space. All parties support the Sultan and will say nothing against the ruling dogma of Malay Muslim Monarchy. Both the NDP and PPKB leaders told us that they do not fear competition from rival parties, as all political parties need to grow and strengthen their skill base to help democracy begin to emerge here. As Legislative Council Speaker Pg Kemalludin told us, Brunei treasures its stability. Only time will tell whether the loss of a political party, apparently due to petty personal squabbling, will undermine the idea that democracy is compatible with stability. In the end, the demise of the PAKAR party is hopefully only a small setback on Brunei's long road to more representative government. SKODON