008 min
PrefaceThe Editors’ Note
Front matter, contents and dramatis personae
The Editors
A novel in seven voicesThe Weight of
The Weight of
Small Nations
“The most valuable asset in diplomacy is being easy to underestimate.”
61,417words
4h 28mtotal reading time
11accounts & documents
01
About the editionHistory is rarely told
History is rarely told
from only one position.
Across memoirs, private records, interviews, journals and correspondence, seven voices revisit the same diplomatic life—and disagree about what it meant.
This digital edition keeps those contradictions intact, while making the complete collection easier to enter, navigate and return to.
The collection
Choose a voice
Read in order, or enter through the account that draws you in. Your progress is saved on this device.
I93 min
First accountThe Weight of Small Nations
Memoirs of a Diplomat Who Was Never Supposed to Matter
Dato Seri Paduka Haji Romeo bin Razali
II43 min
Second accountDispatches from the Margins
Interstitial adventures, as he preferred not to remember them
Dato Seri Paduka Haji Romeo bin Razali
↳13 min
InterludeThe Year the World Came to Us
APEC Leaders’ Summit, Bandar Seri Begawan, November 2000
Dato Seri Paduka Haji Romeo bin Razali
III25 min
Third accountThe Other Account
A private record written for no one in particular
Hjh Nadia binte Haji Roslan
IV16 min
Fourth accountThe Woman in the Room
A conversation with Brunei’s first woman Ambassador
Datin Paduka Mas Elina binte Haji Sulaiman
V19 min
Fifth accountThe Journals of Pengiran Hassan
Selected entries, 1993–2012
Pengiran Haji Hassan bin Pengiran Haji Mohamad
VI13 min
Sixth accountThe Fadzillah Papers
Selected correspondence, 1992–2013
Haji Fadzillah bin Haji Damit
VII9 min
Seventh accountThe Children’s Account
A conversation recorded in Kuala Lumpur
Alia binte Romeo & Irfan bin Romeo
02Beyond the official collection
Further accounts
Two additional records extend the world of the novel without obscuring its original seven-voice structure.
“The contradictions are not failures of accuracy. They are evidence of it.”