The politics of Brunei take place in a framework of an absolute monarchy, whereby the Sultan of Brunei is both head of state and head of government. Executive power is exercised by the government. Brunei has a Legislative Council with 20 appointed members, that only has consultative tasks. Under Brunei's 1959 constitution, His Majesty Paduka Seri Baginda Sultan Haji Hassanal Bolkiah Mu'izzaddin Waddaulah, is the head of state with full executive authority, including emergency powers since 1962. The Sultan's role is enshrined in the national philosophy known as Melayu Islam Beraja (MIB), or Malay Islamic Monarchy. The country has been under hypothetical martial law since a rebellion occurred in the early 1960s and was put down by British troops from Singapore.
The Sultan is the head of state and head of government in Brunei. He exercises absolute powers and full executive authority under the framework of the 1959 Constitution. The Sultan is advised by and presides over five councils, which he appoints. The five councils are the Privy Council, Council of Succession, Religious Council, Council of Ministers and the Legislative Council.
Brunei i/bruːˈnaɪ/, officially the Nation of Brunei, the Abode of Peace (Malay: Negara Brunei Darussalam, Jawi: نڬارا بروني دارالسلام), is a sovereign state located on the north coast of the island of Borneo, in Southeast Asia. Apart from its coastline with the South China Sea, it is completely surrounded by the state of Sarawak, Malaysia, and it is separated into two parts by the Sarawak district of Limbang. It is the only sovereign state completely on the island of Borneo, with the remainder of the island belonging to Malaysia and Indonesia. Brunei's population was 401,890 in July 2011.
The official national history claims that Brunei can trace its beginnings to the 7th century, when it was a subject state of the Srivijayan empire under the name P'o-li. It later became a vassal state of Majapahit empire before converting to Islam in the 15th century. At the peak of its empire, the sultanate had control that extended over the coastal regions of modern-day Sarawak and Sabah, the Sulu archipelago, and the islands off the northwest tip of Borneo. The thalassocracy was visited by Ferdinand Magellan in 1521 and fought the Castille War in 1578 against Spain. Its empire began to decline with the forced ceding of Sarawak to James Brooke and the ceding of Sabah to the British North Borneo Chartered Company. After the loss of Limbang, Brunei finally became a British protectorate in 1888, receiving a resident in 1906. In the years after the Japanese wartime occupation during World War II, it formalised a constitution and fought an armed rebellion. Brunei regained its independence from the United Kingdom on 1 January 1984. Economic growth during the 1970s and 1990s, averaging 56% from 1999 to 2008, has transformed Brunei Darussalam into a newly industrialised country.
Benigno Simeon Cojuangco Aquino III (/bɛˈnɪɡnoʊ əˈkiːnoʊ/; [bɛˈniɡno aˈkino]; born February 8, 1960), also known as Noynoy Aquino or PNoy, is a Filipino politician who has been the 15th and current President of the Philippines since June 2010.
Aquino is a fourth-generation politician: his great-grandfather, Servillano "Mianong" Aquino, served as a delegate to the Malolos Congress; his grandfather, Benigno Aquino, Sr., served as Speaker of the House of Representatives of the Philippines from 1943 to 1944; and his parents were President Corazon Aquino and Senator Benigno "Ninoy" Aquino, Jr. Aquino is a member of the Liberal Party. In the Liberal Party, Aquino held various positions such as Secretary General and Vice President for Luzon. Aquino is currently the Chairman of the Liberal Party.
Born in Manila, Aquino graduated from Ateneo de Manila University in 1981 and joined his family in their exile in the United States shortly thereafter. He returned to the Philippines in 1983 shortly after the assassination of his father and held several positions working in the private sector. In 1998, he was elected to the House of Representatives as Representative of the 2nd district of Tarlac province. He was subsequently re-elected to the House in 2001 and 2004. In 2007, having been barred from running for re-election to the House due to term limits, he was elected to the Senate in the 14th Congress of the Philippines.
Joko Widodo was born in Surakarta, June 21, 1961. Joko Widodo, better known by his nickname Jokowi, is the current mayor of Surakarta. His second term is due to end in 2015. His vice mayor is F.X. Hadi Rudyatmo. He was nominated by Indonesian Democratic Party – Struggle. Recently he has been chosen by his party to run in the 2012 Jakarta gubernatorial election.
Jokowi is an engineering graduate from the Faculty of Forestry at Gadjah Mada University in 1985.
When running for mayor, many doubted the ability of a man who works as a property and furniture businessman. But a year after he led, many progressive breakthrough he had made. He took the example of the development of many cities in Europe which he visited in the framework of frequent business travels.
Amartya Sen, CH (Bengali: অমর্ত্য সেন, translit. Ômorto Shen; born 3 November 1933) is an Indian economist who was awarded the 1998 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences for his contributions to welfare economics and social choice theory, and for his interest in the problems of society's poorest members. Sen is best known for his work on the causes of famine, which led to the development of practical solutions for preventing or limiting the effects of real or perceived shortages of food. He helped to create the United Nations Human Development Index. In 2012, he became the first non-American recipient of the National Humanities Medal.
He is currently the Thomas W. Lamont University Professor and Professor of Economics and Philosophy at Harvard University. He is also a senior fellow at the Harvard Society of Fellows, distinguished fellow of All Souls College, Oxford and a Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge, where he previously served as Master from 1998 to 2004. He is the first Indian and the first Asian academic to head an Oxbridge college.