Shaping an Oil-Dependent Nation: A Petrocultural Study of Muslim Burmat’s <i>Puncak Pertama</i>

As previous studies have shown, the discovery of oil in Brunei in 1929 had a transformative impact on the nation’s economy and politics. This paper addresses a critical gap by examining the sociocultural effects of Brunei’s transition from a largely agrarian and subsistence economy to an oil rentier economy in order to more comprehensively gauge the local impact of oil. Using a petrocultural framework, Muslim Burmat’s Malay-language novel, Puncak Pertama (First Peak) (1988), will be analysed as the story bears witness to on-the-ground changes in Brunei brought about by this momentous shift. This transition entailed a move from material and embodied to abstracted and mediated relations to land, which effected significant social and cultural repercussions. Additionally, the transition was shaped in large part by British economic and education policies in the 19th century and maintained by the dominant local presence of Western-based multi-national oil companies. As the reading of Puncak Pertama will show, the effects of this transition to an oil economy include the loss of local knowledges, practices, and beliefs for Euro-Americanist ideologies, the rise in a rentier mentality as well as the enduring difficulty of diversifying away from an oil-dependent economy.