UMW Regional GeogBlog

His Majesty

Updated January 2010

The face of His Majesty Sultan Haji Hassanai Bolkiah Mu’izzaddin Waddaulah, Sultan and Yang Di-Pertuan Negara Brunei Darussalam, the 29^th monarch of Brunei, gazed down from just about every building in the capital city, Bandar Seri Begawan. It was July 2006, and I had the good fortune to be in Brunei during this small oil-rich country’s month-long celebration of His Majesty’s 60^th birthday.

The Sultan’s birthday, according to the guide who showed me around Bandar Seri Begawan, is the occasion for the biggest celebration of the year. There are ceremonies, concerts, and festivities. Corporations erect banners lauding the Sultan,  newspapers carry stories of birthday celebrations and the congratulations of the citizenry; indeed while I was there one newspaper even published a full page of poems lauding His Majesty (below right.) The in-flight magazine of Royal Brunei Airways had a cover story on the Sultan (“Under the benevolent leadership of Sultan Haji Hassanai Bolkiah Mu’izzaddin Waddaulah, Brunei has enjoyed peace and prosperity”) and the front page headline in the daily Brunei Times was “Brunei’s top brass pay tribute to their Supreme Commander.” Magazines, newspapers, and billboards carried advertisements of congratulations from Shell, Total, Citibank, and Rolls Royce.

A poem in honor of His Majesty's birthday

It is impossible even to begin to understand this strange country without learning something about the Sultan (or “The Big One,” as he is known in some circles.) And it is impossible to visit this country without seeing ample evidence of its leader. My day tour of Bandar Seri was a case in point.

The tour began with a visit to the huge mosque built in honor of the Sultan. Its Italian marble staircase has 29 steps, there are 29 domes atop the building, 29 chandeliers inside, all symbolizing Brunei’s 29^th monarch. There are two pulpits inside the main prayer hall, the lower of the two for the imam leading prayers, the higher one reserved for His Majesty. An escalator at the mosque’s main entrance is covered; it is only uncovered when it is used by the Sultan himself.

Coronation chariot. Royal Regalia Museum, Brunei.

Next stop on my tour was the Royal Regalia Museum, a place which showcases, with no apparent embarrassment, some of the excesses of the Sultan. There is the Sultan’s coronation chariot, a large gold land-boat (below), with a gold throne atop it. It was used at the coronation in 1967, and was pulled by a team of 40 men dressed in black. This vehicle pales in comparison with the Silver Jubilee chariot, a monstrous affair similar in concept but much larger in size than the coronation chariot. It is motorized, being too large to be pulled by forty men, but was ceremonially accompanied by forty men in black, represented in the museum by full sized headless mannequins in full costume.

Omar Ali Saiffuddien Mosque, Bandar Seri Begawan

Each of these two giant chariots was used only once, apparently also a common fate of the 5,000 or so smaller vehicles currently in the possession of the Sultan. Hi collection includes at least 350  Rolls Royces,  Ferraris (production models and concept cars), Lamborghinis, Bentleys, BMWs, Audis, Porsches, and various very limited edition Italian sports cars. The Sultan also owns a collection of Formula 1 racers, but only those that have won races. He has bought many of these vehicles himself, but many have also been given to him as gifts by those wishing to gain his favor. And gaining his favor is important in this country, where the Sultan’s power is absolute. Indeed, his title is Sultan and Yang Di Pertuan – absolute ruler – and, in the words of my tour guide, “If you live in Brunei, he owns you.” But the Sultan himself is not the most avid automobile fanatic in the family. That honor goes to the Crown Prince, who apparently buys a new fancy sports car or two every few weeks, then tires of it, and purchases another. His latest purchases were two very limited edition Italian sports cars so exclusive that I didn’t recognize the name. One is blue, for himself, the other pink, for his wife, who can’t drive.

All of this information was relayed to me in awed tones by my tour guide, and I was wondering how much of it to believe as we left the museum. Just then, sirens sounded in the distance, and shortly thereafter two police motorcycles drove by, lights flashing, clearing the traffic. Following behind was a bright yellow sports car that looked to me like a Lamborghini from the quick glimpse I got of it as it whizzed by. The Crown Prince, apparently, was out for a drive.

The Royal Palace complex is another example of the lavishness of the royal lifestyle. It is off limits to the public, but I did get to glimpse its rooftop from the river. It has 1,788 rooms, cost US$450 million to build, and has a staff of hundreds. The household is managed by Hyatt. The Palace at the moment houses 17 members of the Royal family, plus whatever guests are in residence at the time. These guests, if my guide is to be believed, are a major reason for the size of the palace. There just aren’t enough hotel rooms in the country to house the Sultan’s foreign guests, and they have to stay somewhere (“The Sheraton isn’t big enough.”)

The Billionth Barrell Monument, Seria, Brunei.

Citizens of Brunei benefit from what has been called the country’s “Shellfare state” (an allusion to the largest oil company operating here). Health care is essentially free for Brunei citizens; they pay a token B$1 (about 60 US cents) for a visit to the doctor, including, consultation, medication, and surgery if necessary. If a citizen requires treatment not available in the country, the government picks up the tab for that too. Permanent residents pay B$3. K-12 education is free. So too is education at the local university, where students also receive a government stipend while they study. Students studying abroad can also obtain government scholarships. There is a catch, though. When they return to Brunei, students are required to work for the government for 3 years. This doesn’t seem like such a bad deal: Government employees are reasonably well paid and many receive free housing. (Civil servants got their first pay raise in 20 years in celebration of the Sultan’s 60th birthday.) Like everyone else, government employees get to keep their entire pay, there are no taxes. Subsidized gasoline is currently about B50c per liter, diesel about 30c.

“The Sultan is a very generous man,” explained my guide, who apparently saw no distinction between the State coffers and the Sultan’s personal assets. This is not surprising, since it seems that members of the Royal Family have suffered from the same confusion. The Sultan himself has not been the worst offender in this regard. Indeed, his ways are almost frugal by comparison with those of his younger brother, Crown Prince Jefri. Jefri’s name is not mentioned much in Brunei, and my guide because very uncomfortable when I asked him why. He would only let on that Jefri had engaged in unspecified “un-Islamic behavior.” Perhaps this included naming his 152 foot yacht Tits and its two speedboats Nipple 1 and Nipple 2. Or perhaps it was because billions of dollars of the family’s (Brunei’s?) assets went missing while Jefri was running the Brunei Investment Agency, the government’s main investment arm. It isn’t clear exactly where all the money went, but the BBC reported in 2001 that some off Jefri’s assets were seized and auctioned off. Items for sale included 8,500 slabs of Italian marble, 200 wrought iron Victorian lampposts, two fire engines, a flight simulator for an A-340 airliner, and numerous gold-plated toilet accessories. The Prince’s other assets included 2000 cars, including the latest Ferrari, Rolls-Royce and Aston Martin models.

(Update: In 2008, it appeared that the decade-long feud between Jefri and the Sultan apparently continues. In June 2008 a warrant for his arrest was issued by a British Court, after he failed to show up for a hearing relating to his alleged misappropriation of  $8 billion from the Brunei government. But he still owns a $100 million home in London, an opulent apartment next door to the Ritz in Paris, hotels in New York and Los Angeles, and properties in Paris, Singapore, Malaysia, Indoensia, Japan, Britain and the US. But Jefri’s compatriots in Brunei won’t be reading any of this in the local press. In 2004, the Sultan issued a decree which provided that ”No person shall publish or reproduce in Brunei or elsewhere any part of proceedings … that may have the effect of lowering or adversely affecting directly or indirectly the position, dignity, standing, honour, eminence or sovereignty of His Majesty the Sultan.”

Further update: The Independent reported in October 2009 that a photograph Prince Jefri alongside his brother had appeared in a Bruneian newspaper, apparently indicating some kind of rapprochement  between the brothers. The paper speculated that this might cause some disappointment in the London legal fraternity, which has earned in excess of $500 million from the dispute. )

In terms of Brunei law, none of the Sultan’s excesses are against the law, since the Sultan is the country’s “supreme executive authority” or absolute ruler. In a 2004 amendment to the country’s constitution, the Sultan conferred upon himself the equivalent of papal infallibility:  ”His Majesty the Sultan … can do no wrong in either his personal or any official capacity.” (According to the Constitution, the Sultan alone has the right to amend the Constitution.)

No elections have been held in Brunei since 1962 (when a party opposed to the royal family won), and the country’s 16 member cabinet (which contains several members of the Royal Family) serves only to advise the Sultan. The Sultan himself serves as Prime Minister, Minister of Defense, and Minister of Finance. The country’s Parliament was abolished at independence in 1984; it reconvened in 2004 (without elections.) According to an article in Brunei Times (July 28, 2006), the new Legislative Council consists of 30 appointed members and 20 elected members. Details of the new body seem a bit hazy: in a description of the country’s system of government, the Brunei government’s official website inexplicably makes no mention at all of the country’s Parliament.

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Brunei seldom makes it into the news in most parts of the world. For a local perspective, see the Brunei Times.

For some basic information about the country, see Scoop.com, BBC News, or the CIA World Factbook.