The Lavish Life Of The Sinister Sultan Of Brunei | Asia's Monarchies | Real Royalty

Asia's

monarchies

defy history in a modern era of democracy. Worlds of tradition, mystery and ritual that command fascination and respect like never before. Asian monarchs are symbols of continuity. Living connections to the past that are often loved and hated in equal measure on the north coast of the world. Third largest island, Borneo, home to one of the smallest kingdoms in the world, Brunei owes its extraordinary existence to the fact that it has had a

sultan

as monarch for the past 600 years; However, unlike the rest of Asia and most of the world, Brunei remains an absolute monarchy where the Sultan is head of state and head of government.

The Sultan is seen as divine, even his own cabinet ministers worship him. Brunei It is known throughout the world not only for its

sultan

but also for its oil. The royal family has become astronomically rich and has shared that wealth among the small population, but in Brunei you are not supposed to discuss it by talking about wealth. Brunei money is a taboo in this country it is constitutionally prohibited the monarch has control over his people like nowhere else in Asia it is a system that is difficult to understand from a Westernized democratic perspective, that type of system suits Brunei, yes Brunei under the Sultan is friendly to British values, I think that is quite a different question, but is the system sustainable?

What happens to the Sultan and Brunei when the oil runs out? Can this small state resist democracy when so many of its neighbors have embraced it? Brunei is one of only six remaining countries in the world that have retained systems of absolute monarchy. Power is centralized and hierarchical. Political parties and elections are almost non-existent. Brunei has been a sultanate since Muslim traders settled here in the 14th century. His Majesty Sultan Hassanal Bolkya Musaidin Wadawla is the 29th sovereign of Brunei as a country. Brunei would have completely disappeared in the 19th and 20th centuries if it had not been protected by Britain. created a residency system that ensured that Malaysia did not take over the country.

In those days the sultan was

real

ly in trouble, you know, there was not much money, even the sultans wanted to go to Singapore, for example, they had to borrow money from the British in the early 20th century, it was said that the sultans of Brunei were so poor that their clothes were threadbare and their palace was meager. Brunei's economy changed forever in 1929 after the discovery of oil by Shell Petroleum; However, the sultans were not allowed to share in the wealth that was being created at an astonishing rate. Nothing was for the sultan at that time because according to the residency agreement he was entitled to a monthly stipend say for example six thousand state dollars they did not receive. direct money the current father of sultan omar ali saifuddin iii subtly changed the relationship with the british throughout his reign so that

brunei

ans could share in the extraordinary wealth that was being created in the 1980s. the sultan of

brunei

had earned enough money from oil exports to be largely considered the richest man in the world.

Because the line between his personal assets and the countries had become so blurred with unimaginable, if not unmentionable, wealth, the sultan's position seems secure, but if 95% of Brunei's income comes from oil and gas , what will happen when these resources are finally exhausted starting in 1935, when oil was discovered this British man discarded the theory that within 25 years brunei will dry up I heard the story when I came 21 years ago by the will of God I hope the wealth Oil will continue and continue forever unless someone else discovers another source of oil energy and gas will not last forever, so it is very important that the country's investments are developed.

You benefit because it is a small country with a small population, so if investments are made properly you should be able to live off your investments for the foreseeable future. Human ingenuity is Limitless, you know, we always worry about something that didn't happen, we will find something. Brunei's development is currently unsustainable. You need to invest in other areas and quickly, since the 1990s alcohol bars and nightclubs have been banned so tourism is unlikely to win. a foothold due to their incredible wealth and small population Bruneians have a very good standard of living enjoy free healthcare education and pay no personal income tax the average household has three cars so very few people do questions about their sultan or the future they have enjoying too much their current situation is an oasis of calm many people like to be in bruin i like to work in brunei because it is a quiet place it is a very friendly and welcoming place it has not suffered the excesses of many other states because

life

is How good that the sultan and the royal family are

real

ly loved by the majority of people in Brunei, which made the Brunei royal family very very popular, I think for obvious reasons is that they are human or are they themselves, and if you look around when the royal family moves in brunei there is a minimum security that shows how safe and how loved they are and that is why the closeness of the people and the sultan is really very evident the question is how the sultan of brunei has survived as the last absolute Monarch in Asia, where power is completely centralized in his hands, to understand his preeminent position one must examine the history of the sultans of Brunei and the momentous events of 1962, when a rebellion army almost overthrew the monarchy.

Brunei Bay was an important port since the 9th century. As traders from China and the Middle East used it as a landing point and place to purchase important jungle products, the history of Southeast Asia is based in its first centuries on what we call talisocracies, these are kingdoms of the sea, if not you want to control them. the land but the control of trade routes and the most desirable commercial objects the first sultan was said to be allah, who reigned from 1363 and took the name sultan muhammad whom he married into the royal family of johor and embraced islam at that time as it still exists today bruneians lived by the sea in water villages to escape the stifling heat of the dry land later sultans built brunei's first mosques and preached strict adherence to islam sultans were revered by the people it became almost an act of sacrilege to criticize the sultan in a situation because he has this aura that I think has been passed down from generation to generation.

Their support is reinforced by the palaces and by the wealth and by all the objects of prestige and all the ceremony that accompanies them during the 15th and 20th. In the 16th century, through war and trade, Brunei built a empire that covered Borneo and parts of the southern Philippines. There were two famous kings, Sultan Bulky, he was known as Nakoda Raga, the man who was on the boat singing, and he plus the ninth sultan, Sultan Hassan, were the people who were actually known on the Brunei street for having caused This expansion since the 16th century the history of Brunei was dominated by the arrival of European seafarers, first the Portuguese, then the Spanish and finally the British.

We have positive evidence from Anthony Pigafetta, who was in Magellan's Italian fleet, who came to Brunei and left a very vivid account and talks about the people of Brunei drinking from gold cups and wearing a very expensive dress and was also treated with a 54-course meal. Brunei achieved this opulence primarily through commercial means, it was the importance of establishing and maintaining the spice trade that made the country a tactically important location for the Europeans, while the Spanish failed to invade Brunei, the British arrived in the 20th century. 18th century seeking a foothold in the bay to keep their trade routes open at the time the brunei empire was in decline the sultans of brunei were caught between competing and expanding interests in bonio after a succession crisis in 1828 omar ali saifudin ii became the 21st sultan of brunei executed members of his own family who had claimed the throne, but needed to be british Increased concern about the british presence began to be felt not as a result of the interest of the british government at first, but due to James Brooke who was an adventurer, a free raider who came and made a deal with a Brunei aristocrat to take control of Kuching which later became the nucleus of his kingdom would be Sarawak in 1842 james brooke became governor of the british colony of sarawak to the west of brunei and for the next 100 years the history of brunei was dominated by the brook family who became known as the white rogers brunei was on the verge of extinction when raja broke brook was very active along with the mismanagement of brunei a lot of corruption and ineptitude was going down which made the people turn against the rulers so raja brook was welcomed as a savior at that time the british had established a diplomatic link with brunei and the british felt that it might not be in their best interest to allow James to take complete control, but they also felt it was a matter of honor to protect Brunei from further loss of territory.

Brunei was in danger of disappearing from the map completely. charles brooke, nephew of james and now a renegade rajah, sailed down the limbang river in brunei and claimed the territory as his own, yes his ultimate goal, once he started, he tried it, he wanted to one day wipe out brunei and bring it under his control. ruled in 1888 Sultan Hashim signed a protectorate agreement with Great Britain that guaranteed that Brunei continued to exist. The harvest was small. In those days the sultan was very difficult. You know, there wasn't much money. I think they welcomed the presence of the British as a stabilizing force at that time.

It was time to establish what should be done with Brunei. The British sent an envoy, Malcolm McCarthur, to write a report on the governance of Brunei and how the territory could be maintained. He wrote an interesting report in 1904 called the Bakkhat Report. He had two options, he argued. Brunei, of course, can be taken over by Sarawak, but he said doing so would be a huge travesty of justice because like England, Brunei is also under an ancient monarchy, so it is not fair to do away with that monarchy. The second reason for his problem was that Brunei was so poor.

At that time it was very difficult to maintain it, so that is another reason why brunei should be given to sarawak macarthur gained many friends in brunei with his sensitivity towards the sultans and his position in society; However, he called the impoverished Brunei a collection of dilapidated huts where even Sultan Hashim wore ragged clothes and had fallen through the floorboards of his palace and stilts. McCarthy's mission was basically to figure out what to do with Brunei. It required that the sultan be well treated and respected. There was a certain feeling that the brooks were too greedy and perhaps unpredictable in the long run.

I wanted to preserve the remaining part of brunei as long as britain could impose a kind of hegemony over brunei, not directly, through a form of indirect role in which they appointed a british resident to be the advisor to the sultan but the real powers were in the hands of the british resident, this is how brunei was saved in my writings i say that makata was the real savior of brunei the british had already established a successful residential system in the federated malay states having resisted the temptation to sell brunei to charles brooke sultan hussain died in 1906 after having saved his beloved kingdom macarthur became the first resident and set about creating a new system of government and taxation while the sultan was left in charge of religious affairs, the resident assumed control all the threads of the administration becomes the governor, the de facto governor and the sultan, usually, according to these treaties, the sultan had to accept all his so-called advice, whatever he advised, which meant that in reality the sultan had lost his autonomy , the British settled in the house of 12 gables a building disused since 1984 when the british left today it is a poignant reminder of brunei's recent colonial past due to the death of his father jamal alam in 1924 he became sultan of brunei at the age of only 11 years. with a minor on the throne it was no surprise that the british were making most of the decisions for the country the british did modernize brunei but compared to the rest of

asia

the country was relatively poor this was about to change dramatically the discovery of oil by Shell in 1929 meant the country's roads, railways and housing were built at an incredible rate by 1936 the country's debts had been paid off out of nowhere Brunei became the third largest oil exporter in the community, but sultan tajikin did not personally seenone of the oil money went to the sultan at that time, because according to the residency agreement he was entitled to a monthly stipend, say, for example, 6,000 state dollars, they did not receive direct money and only some profits were transferred, between 20 and 30 percent, and the profits were not transferred directly to

royalty

.

Separate accounts were maintained managed by the resident and his assistant until 1950 the sultans of brunei played a secondary role to the british residence. All this changed when Tajirin's half-brother, Omar Ali Saifuddin III, ascended the throne on the first day of his accession. Ali Shaifadin was eager to take control and reverse the historical process since 1905, in which power was concentrated in the hands of residents. He slowly began to take away the powers and authority of the ants from the residents and he knew the power of Brunei at that time. and he did not want the British to completely dictate his terms as far as money was concerned.

Brunei's oil revenues were growing at an astonishing rate, from $1 million in 1946 to $30 million in 1959. With some of this wealth Omar Ali built a majestic mosque that bears his name and remains the most magnificent building. from the country. Its main dome is said to be made of real gold. The 1950s saw the development of nationalist and democratic sentiments in Brunei. The British were interested in Brunei joining. Neighboring Sabah and Sarawak in the newly formed Malaysia did not want to leave behind an anachronism, an absolute monarchy in the middle of Southeast Asia which, on the one hand, the British thought would be very vulnerable. to the communist takeover.

Sultan Omar Ali was offered an incentive by the new Prime Minister of Malaysia, Tung Gul Abdulrahman, he came up and said: I am going to make you King of Malaysia if you join Malaysia, who wouldn't want to be? You know that you preside over the rest of the sultans and here, why not? I think they were quite adamant about joining Malaysia on those terms, yes, but then Tunngle Brahman came back to Malaysia and consulted the rulers and the rulers said there was no way, in the late 1950s, the Brunei People's Party had formed under the leadership of Amar Azahari. a radical who was pressuring the British and the sultan to hold elections and form a constitutional monarchy. azahari wanted to go too fast basically saroma raleigh-saifully was understanding but at the same time he was a practical man and still wanted to make sure that the future of brunei would be safeguarded the wealth would not be wasted in 1961 the sultan finally agreed to call elections and the people's party of Azahari won 54 of the 55 legislative council seats when they won in a landslide.

The question then was whether the council should be summoned to the legislative assembly to allow them to pass a resolution against Malaysia, so when finally, after weeks and weeks of tension, they set the date for the first meeting of the legislative assembly, the resolution they were going to talk about was postponed, it was not allowed and it seemed to the PP that the sultan and the resident were responsible for refusing to allow this resolution against Malaysia to be debated , who believed he had the support of Indonesia, was the last straw and from the beginning I was against the federation. of Malaysia because actually this is not a federation, it is a transfer of power from one golden power to another, actually we are not rivals, but we are independent lovers and freedom lovers and we adhere to the principle of democracy on December 8, 1962, to everyone's surprise, Azahari declared independence. to brunei and led an armed rebellion against the sultan, no one had seen it coming.

I sent one more peace message saying that rebellion had broken out in Brunei to Reuters, I saw they came back and said again please the British moved quickly to mobilize their Gurkhas and royals. commandos stationed in singapore suddenly someone arrived in a land rover and said: let's go back to the camp we fly at dawn brunei has been invaded by the rebels we have to leave and we have to go and liberate the city it's a mystery why the Azari rebellion broke out until its Death did not recognize the fact that he was the cause of the rebellion.

He said this was designed by other factors to suppress her. What I can tell you is that the corruption there was as deep as I saw. the government was so bad that although I was a British soldier serving my queen and serving my flag to counter the rebels and take back Brunei, I was well aware, even at that age, that if I had been Brunei I would have been there. with the The revolt of the rebels was a mistake, it really was not the most advisable time, it was broken and they were not organized, they did not know where to go and what to do.

It was complete chaos. The next morning, we did the raids on Limbang in which five of my colleagues were killed and five were wounded and I raided Laos in the fifth division of Sarawak and we went to rescue quote unquote the district officer and we discovered that he was a pretty man large soaked in gin with a I like to think of him with a pink Nissan gin but I think he just had a wobbly revolver that had actually been surrounded by the rebels um uh threatening his

life

and he had come out and said I am the representative of majesty the queen surrender and everyone did on December 20 the rebellion was over the sultan declared a state of emergency something that surprisingly still exists today a paranoia that has lasted almost 60 years omar ali was a unique gentleman and believed quite a bit in the people A little until the rebellion changed his whole point of view, yes, he became a little paranoid because he trusted his people a lot and felt that they had turned the tables on him and let him down quite a bit.

Only 40 rebels had died in the uprising. and 2,000 captured would have been pardoned if they swore allegiance to the sultan some refused would spend the next 20 years in prison in 1962 a democratic experiment by sultan omar ali saifuddin iii went horribly wrong when elections did not go his way he dissolved the legislature and sparked a rebellion which occurred without warning in just 12 days the uprising had been put down many believe that it was brunei's incredible oil export reserves that were at the center of the rebellion and the reason why brunei has not had meaningful elections since So At that time I was referring to the people of Brunei, many of them were taxi drivers and workers and how could democracy exist?

How could elections be held? How could these people be given power? They would have made a mess of it. They already made a mess of the rebellion now you're talking about 19 billion dollars. I admire the sultan because I mean, if he had this amount of money and backed me and called me, I would probably go crazy in the mid-1960s, the British government was urging the sultan. to introduce elections and allow Brunei to become independent the British wanted the Sultan to move towards self-government but it had to be democratic self-government they wanted him to become a constitutional monarch the Sultan however was reluctant he feared without a British presence in Brunei the country he was susceptible to attack from hostile neighbors, but at the same time omar ali wanted the british to give him full control of the country's finances, eventually the british friends demote him, you know they have nowhere to go, yeah, so he said, look, He said if you don't do that I'm going to go you know I'm going to abdicate and that didn't move the whitest room at all so you want to go you go The sultan surprised everyone by suddenly announcing his abdication in 1967 in favor of his first-born son, Hassanal. polka, one theory was that his son was going to fail his military education in britain and it was a way to avoid embarrassment.

I can tell you the official reason why Sultan Omar believed that his young son should receive proper training in statecraft and he had enough because he founded the kingdom he spent money and promoted the constitution and with the British he defeated the rebellion and he has a very good son who could really take over, no doubt they would have told him that he was going to take over the reins of government and at least learn to be a sultan, but even though that was what his father said, the story of the following years, until 1984 or Even later, it shows that the elder, the abdicated sultan, had no intention of handing over power at just 22 years old.

Hassanal became sultan in an elaborate coronation ceremony in 1968. Symbolically it was his father Sultan Omar Ali who placed the solid gold crown on his son's head his father would remain the power behind the throne in In his early years, the current sultan gained a reputation for being bored with his position of power; Soon he discovered that it was a very easy life, with no responsibilities except appearing on ceremonial occasions whenever the sultan appeared with those dark glasses and peaked cap. his eyes drop, it's very possible that he just returned from manila or bangkok and was hungover.

The 1970s saw a notable rise in the price of oil from one dollar per barrel in 1970 to 11 dollars per barrel in 1974. Skyrocketing with the discovery of gas and oil, the country soon had the highest per capita income in throughout Asia during this period, many social welfare activities are being carried out and quite a lot of money has been spent in the real estate sector. Bruneians have the right to free education and you can see the overall development in the country. The infrastructure, like the road system, the electrical system, has been taking over in leaps and bounds.

However, the state of emergency imposed after the 1962 rebellion remained in force and the constitution suspended in 1975. The United Nations called on Brunei to accept elections and become independent from the British, but the sultan's father was still resolute. against both ideas. brunei was seen as an anachronism, the last absolute monarchy in

asia

, when assange came to power everyone was looking at him, oh my god i mean. Saromar is gone, what should I do? I mean, can this guy do it? And it took a little time for the current sultan to focus on his own legs and imprint the image of him on the political situation of power in 1981.

The arsenal angered his father by marrying. commoner as second wife became more conservative as he had fallen in love for the first time sultan hassanal began to take his religion more seriously and brunei acquired an increasingly islamic atmosphere the country became proud of its history but also of its faith in 1984 brunei Finally agreed to become completely independent from Great Britain as a member of ASEAN (Commonwealth) and the United Nations. Shortly afterwards, in January 1984, the British residency system in operation since 1906 formally came to an end. The country became known as Brunei Nagara Darussalam, an abode of peace and the sultan became prime minister and minister of defense his brothers held other positions of power the royal family now had full control of the country they became untouchable with independence in 1984 Sultan Hassanal Bulkier assumed full control of Brunei the huge state reserves that had been controlled by the British were suddenly at his mercy.

The question for the sultan and his family was how to achieve royal control without the mediation of a finance official. They wanted to exercise direct control themselves. Seromar Ali said it at that time before independence. He had accounted for every cent of Brunei. If everyone had been invested with the crown agent every year, the lazy council would meet and the account of Brunei would be read, so there would be no problem, but it all happened after independence, there was a change and the sultan took total control. Forming the Brunei Investment Agency and putting his brother, Prince Geoffrey, in charge of the country's finances became a state secret; it was necessary to find some legitimate procedure by which money could be allocated to the royal family without going through any type of legislative process and the mechanism that the expenses were discovered to be charged to an expense account outside the national budget, was more difficult to know What part of the oil revenues really went to the royal family?

The Brunei auditor, an Englishman, tried at one point to carry out an audit and was not allowed through the gate. He was not allowed to enter the offices of the investment agency. The distinction between his own wealth and that of the state became so blurred that he was listed as the richest man in the world. His car collection alone was said to include 500 Rolls-Royces and hundreds of other classic cars for his personal use. He had a jumbo jet customized with special accessories believed to be worth $233 million. to the outside world he was the king of bling he built the largest palace in the world the astana neural iman its golden dome rises over the brunei river and the water villages below each year for the muslim festival of harraya the sultan opens the palace doors to his subjects and more than 100,000 people receive food and gifts from the sovereign because of his incredible expenses, the sultan won areputation that put brunei on the map only hassanal and his brother prince geoffrey knew the state of brunei's finances lack of transparency as to where the money goes and where it comes from i think it is a major problem for the period with a great expense generous spending has fallen into a kind of disrepute if you like to talk about money and how much money the sultan has become something forbidden The subject talks about wealth.

Brunei money is taboo in this country. It is constitutionally prohibited. The centralized financial system created after independence was open to abuse, but the sultan could never have imagined that it would later be his own brother who would be accused of stealing from state coffers. In 1984, the Brunei government decided to introduce a philosophy known as mib in Malay, which encouraged people to believe in the three pillars of the Brunei system, Malay Muslims and the monarchy. Mib is a behavioral parameter that allows people to observe certain rules that they saw that they thought if a real riot for a true Muslim and if you believe in the monarch you will behave well because the government is involved it sounds like propaganda people are indoctrinated in the benefits and the virtues of mib are now taught in schools are taught in universities and people are constantly reminded that that is the plan they should try to conform to.

Brunei is not that 100 Malay workers or 100 Chinese Muslims make up a significant proportion of the population, so this ideology excludes them, although the government claims it is inclusive. Mib as a philosophy is largely Symbolic This symbolism has been important in projecting the image of the Sultan as a man of God, although in his private life, when traveling abroad, he may not be behaving at the level of the Islamic ruler to reinforce the increasingly Islamic atmosphere in Brunei. In 1991 the country officially closed dry bars and nightclubs and banned alcohol Sultan Hassanal was establishing the cult of personality so beloved of totalitarian regimes It is similar to a totalitarian regime It is similar to what one has read about the Nazi Germany, communist Germany and the communists.

Soviet Union feels like what you imagine those countries would have been like if you were part of it and I had worked. There it is, it is totalitarian and the way they manipulate and control also one noticed how there was a constant flow of propaganda on television to support the monarchy, supporting the Islamic religion, etc., but there was a general sense of fear in such a climate there is no opposition to the regime in fact, even speaking ill of the sultan was considered a crime, even if you are related to him, there are some issues taboo that we are not supposed to write about, which is uh religion sex the government and the sultan too and the members of the royal family I think this is also for security reasons and for the harmony of the country you don't touch the family royal or the sultan don't abuse them as a News Fanatic, I can say that we have more freedom of press in Brunei.

I can tell you this that in Malaysia or Singapore. I covered a royal wedding before and I got a call from the Prime Minister's office and they said yes. You can talk about this and that, don't try to talk about the wife, who is the sultan's daughter, that kind of stuff like, you know, maybe the food she eats or something that still baffles me a little bit, as you know, especially when I was interviewed was His Majesty's son-in-law in the 1990s political activity became non-existent and the parties that were allowed to continue had almost no members and could say nothing about the power of the sultan in 1997 the scandal of the spectacular appearance of prince geoffrey the expenses made the headlines he was minister of finance and had a reputation as a playboy wasting millions through his own company on projects that he had supposedly put in his name and not that of the country that the sultan initiated a process judicial against his brother and then abandoned him when he realized how embarrassing the scandal would be Jeffrey's extravagant purchases were auctioned 2004 Prince Jeffrey's two most famous projects were built next to each other when the park first opened jerodong attracted more than 5,000 people every day now that it has been left to decay and an average of less than 200 people visit it daily the second project was one of the most expensive hotels in the world the 1 billion empire of 600 rooms with gold leaf authentic covering the walls and suites that cost up to 14,000 per night it was said to be a project that would have to be filled every night for about 100 years to recover the investment.

It was a hotel and Brunei does not have a very active tourist trade and most of the tourists who come would not be able to afford to stay. in a hotel like that like gerardo the empire is barely used and has created a huge black hole in brunei's finances brunei is riddled with projects started by prince geoffrey and never completed he was so ambitious and what is happening in dubai now too it happened in a small one in brunei because spring jeffrey started to build many palaces, many apartments and many dream buildings, which was useless for brunei.

He was accused by the sultan of embezzling 15 billion dollars from the country's accounts, scandals related to the use of the money in the past weakened the prestige of the monarchy Prince Jeffrey described himself as the scapegoat of the successes of his family. I'm sure the sultan felt deeply betrayed by geoffrey and must have realized that he, the sultan, had some kind of character flaw in that he had been overconfident, he trusted international opportunists like Khashoggi el-fayed, but he never realized that. had damaged; However, in the case of his own brother, I think he really realized how careless and overconfident he had been, and I think it must have had a profound effect on him.

Brunei suffered in the Asian economic crisis of the late 90s. As a country with incredible reserves and a budget surplus suddenly found itself dangerously low on funds the era of superspending came to an end the sultan became much more prudent with money, also replacing his brother as finance minister, unable to entrust state funds to no one else, we should go back to more transparency when it comes to Brunei's wealth, we should know where the money is going, where it is being invested what is being done and unless we do that you know there will be problems like misuse of funds by prince jeffrey in 2004 the sultan declared himself infallible and immune from prosecution freed from brunei's colonial masters today his hold on power knows no bounds brunei has been very It's good for Britain, we are working hard to help and support their armed forces, so Britain is considered a friend of Britain, but whether Brunei under the Sultan is a friend of British values ​​of democracy, freedom and the ability to express your views, I think a question quite different: the sultan has survived for more than four decades on the throne.

Many cannot imagine a day when he is not around. His Majesty is a father, a leader, a friend and most importantly, a Bruneian. the majesty of him is all that, you know, so whatever the people feel, he can also feel what he has done for the country. I'm really impressed, you know? and sometimes I wish he would stay longer as sultan. as possible also um and my new has been running the country for 40 years and I am always impressed that you know that the international relationship that it has with other countries is very strong in recent interviews, the sultan has admitted that the current system of absolute control It can't last forever he knows things must change and he said when the time comes I will change too I think there will be some steps towards a constitutional monarchy in due time there has to be some public participation in the government by the time the last absolute monarchy in Asia seems safe, its people are content to keep things as they are, we are all used to the political system at the moment, if he were to change it would really shake up the Brunei event for the foreseeable future I think.

Brunei people would say yes we have a good lifestyle it's a good place to live if it ain't broke don't fix it yeah bro Monica has been a good influence with the president sultan, the past sultan. This is the best thing that has happened to brunei the man brunei simply calls hm is a benevolent ruler who truly wants the best for his people a population totally indebted to him and his iron grip on power can his dynasty survive when oil is finite and a new, more vocal generation moves into positions of power, how long can politics be left on hold?

These are questions that only the sultan can answer at the moment, it seems he and his people are happy with the status quo.