The Sultan

A little about the Sultan as quite frankly I find this guy fascinating!!

According to Forbes, Brunei is the 5^th richest country in the world per capita. It also has a Sultan (full name: Sultan Haji Hassanal Bolkiah Mu'izzaddin Waddaulah ibni Al-Marhum Sultan Haji Omar Ali Saifuddien Sa'adul Khairi Waddien) who if you are to believe the locals, seems to be a bit of God. I wouldn’t go that far, but the Bruneians seem to love this guy. And who wouldn’t?...He gives them free education, free healthcare, no (yes that’s NO) tax, dirt cheap petrol, he attends a different Mosque each week to show unity with his people, and apparently at Royal events he will walk around the stadium shaking hands with everyone (and by that I’m assured they mean EVERYONE). Apparently in London he has brought a building (along with half of the rest of London it seems) in which any Brunei citizens studying in the UK can stay for free, and any Brunei citizens simply visiting on holiday only need pay $2 per night. He supposedly has a soft spot for the UK (and who can blame him-he has a ridiculous amount invested there), and visits frequently. 

When he does, all Bruneian citizens in the UK are expected to go to London to meet him. In exchange he will cover their transport costs and give them each a gift of £250. How generous of him. Then he is the 4th richest King in the world, worth a reported $20 billion so this is actually peanuts to him.

I have no doubt that this man is far from the hero his people make out (the Bruneians appear to be devoutly loyal to him, so you have to hunt for it). For starters he is a dictator who has also self-appointed himself as (ready for this….) the Prime Minister, Minister of Defence, Minister of Finance, Supreme Commander of the Royal Brunei Armed Forces, an Honorary General in the British and Indonesian armed forces, an Honorary Admiral of the Fleet in the Royal Navy and Inspector General of Police (IGP) of the Royal Brunei Police Force. Wowsers he must be busy!! He has appointed practically all other Governmental roles to a cherry-picked group of his old classmates.

The Sultan Omar ali Saifuddien Mosque in a thunderstorm!

The Sultan is also the head of a devoutly Muslim country, ruled by Sharia Law, and in which alcohol is banned, and homosexuality, adultery and pre-marital sex are against the law, yet we hear both he and a number of his crazy family (look up Prince Jefri and Prince Azim if you want a taste of the scandal) have quite the taste for alcohol, parties and the ladies. A little hypocritical don’t you think.

I mentioned Sharia Law…hot topic as it was only recently introduced in Brunei. When you mention Sharia Law to a Bruneian, they smile and shake their head and will tell you that the West has totally blown this out of proportion, and entirely honed in on the part where some offenses can result in death by stoning. In actual fact no-one has been stoned here nor is likely to be. For one, for every offense that someone may be accused of, there must be a minimum of four witnesses. Of these witnesses, all must be men, and each one must have an absolutely clean record, and each of his fathers must have a clean record. In addition, if you were to say, accuse someone of drinking alcohol, then they could come back to you and say “you say I was at X drinking alcohol, well why were you there and what were you doing?”. Therefore implying that they may have been drinking too, and therefore they would drop the accusation. For this reason, it is very rare for there to be any witnesses to any crime, and therefore in practice little gets taken to court. They will then tell you that Sharia Law is actually a guideline for living peacefully, spiritually and with a moral conduct, and that it fosters a culture of mediation. The critics might say its motives are less noble…perhaps to attract greater investment from Islamic economies? Or to gain tighter control over his people? My knowledge of this is so limited that I am certainly ill-equipped to pass judgement on the moral rights or wrongs of this system, but for all of its funny ways, the people are quick to point out that there is no evidence of poverty around, no beggars, very little crime, and Brunei does appear on the surface to be a happy, content and peaceful people who, from what we gather, consider themselves relatively fortunate, and that can’t be said for vast majority of people on this planet.