The Sultan of Brunei is the richest ruler in the world
If among “mere mortals” the owner of the Microsoft computer company Bill Gates still has no equal in the size of his personal wealth, then among the “chosen” of God, as before, the Sultan of Brunei Haji is considered the wealthiest (he made a pilgrimage to Mecca to Muslim shrines) Hassanal Bolkiah. At the age of 61, his personal fortune (or rather, it is nothing more than the national budget of his native Sultanate of Brunei) is $22 billion.
40 years ago, this man became the 29th Sultan of the small Malay Sultan of Brunei on the island of Borneo (it also contains two states of Malaysia - Sabah and Sarawak, and part of Indonesia), he actually inherited the wealth of the entire Bolkiah dynasty, which already numbers over 600 years.
The Sultan of Brunei simultaneously serves as the prime minister, minister of defense, minister of finance of his country, as well as the head of the local religious community. In general, everything is under sole control, so it is not surprising that His Highness remains the richest “royal heir” on our planet. In addition, world oil prices still remain very high, and since there is virtually nothing else in Brunei besides oil, the wealth of its Sultan will, apparently, continue to grow at an enviable pace.
The Sultan of Brunei has become bisexual again
Text: Marina Lemutkina Photo: Reuters
The Sultan of Brunei has again acquired a second wife. A TV journalist became his chosen one. He divorced his previous second wife, a former flight attendant, in 2003, depriving her of all royal privileges. With his first wife, whose middle name is Hysteria, the Sultan has been living in peace and harmony for many years.
Last weekend, the 58-year-old Supreme Ruler of the Sultanate of Brunei, Hassanal Bolkiyah, married 26-year-old Azrinaz Mazhar Hakim. According to Reuters, the wedding took place in the capital of Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur, and unlike previous family celebrations of the Sultan, it was not on a gigantic scale. This time, only close friends and relatives of the bride and groom were present at the event.
According to the British newspaper Daily Telegraph, new wife Sultana is a former journalist. She graduated from the Malaysian Institute of Means mass media, after which she worked first as a television reporter and then as a presenter of news programs on the TV3 channel of Malaysian television. 3 months ago, Azrinaz left television in order, in her words, to “devote herself to a different kind of activity.” Her marriage to the Sultan, as Mingguan Malaysia emphasizes, finally cleared up the mystery about the nature of these occupations.
Azrinaz is the second wife of Hassanal Bolkiyakh.
He divorced his previous second wife, flight attendant Mariam Abdul Aziz, in February 2003, depriving her of all royal titles. The Sultan’s marriage with his first wife, Raja Hysteria Penjiran Anak Hajah Saleha, still remains in force.
In accordance with Islamic norms, Brunei law allows men to have up to four wives. And the fact that the Sultan again acquired a second wife was immediately used by local ideologists to strengthen the propaganda of polygamy. There have been calls in the Brunei media for Bruneian wives not to prevent their husbands from entering into new marriages if they can afford it financially. As the Berita Minggu newspaper writes, married women need to think about “girls who are starting to leave marriageable age, who risk remaining unmarried, although there are men ready to marry them.” “This problem will remain unresolved if married women will be guided only by their own personal interests, neglecting the interests of others,” emphasizes the newspaper’s expert, calling on her compatriots to “give more freedom to maneuver” to their husbands.
Brunei – absolute monarchy, characteristic feature which for a long time were political and economic stability. The basis for the country's long-term prosperity were billions of dollars in profits from oil trading. Thanks to the constant influx of petrodollars, the country has accumulated significant wealth and created a relatively developed social protection system, including, among other things, the universal provision of free housing.
Thanks to petrodollars, the Sultan of Brunei was long considered the richest man in the world. There were legends about his treasures and expensive undertakings. So, in 1996, in honor of his 50th anniversary, the Sultan ordered Michael Jackson from the United States, who performed for free in front of his subjects. That same year, Hassanal Bolkiyah organized a week-long celebration for his eldest daughter's wedding with the participation of American pop stars Stevie Wonder and Whitney Houston.
The situation changed after the financial and economic crisis of 1997-1998, which called into question the myth of the inviolability of the Sultanate's economic prosperity. The emerging economic problems were complemented by a financial scandal that erupted in the financial empire of the Sultan’s brother, Prince Jefri. Jeffrey's personal losses alone then amounted to billions of dollars. At the same time, the wealth rating of Sultan Hassanal Bolkiyah also decreased. However, it is clear that he still has enough money to support his second wife.
22 AUGUST 14:41
The royal wedding of the future Sultan of Brunei, Prince Abdul Malik, with his chosen one, 22-year-old programmer Dayangku Raabi’atul ‘Adawiyyah Pengiran Haji Bolkiah, eclipsed in luxury even the wedding of the Crown Prince of the British throne, which in comparison with this one could be called very modest. The Prince of Brunei and his bride wore wedding robes embroidered with real gold, and the bride's bouquet was made of precious stones.
12 PHOTOS
The material was prepared with the support of the online jewelry magazine http://www.jewellerymag.ru.
1. Prince Abdul Malik is the youngest of the four sons of reigning Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah and the second in line to the throne after his father. The wedding ceremony took place 11 days after the engagement. (Photo: STRINGER / REUTERS / REUTERS). 
2. The bride's shoes from Christian Louboutin are decorated with diamonds and gold. (Photo: OLIVIA HARRIS / REUTERS / REUTERS). 
3. The bride's wedding necklace and tiara are decorated with diamonds and huge emeralds, the size of grapes. According to local traditions, the bride must wear something borrowed from her. IN in this case These were my mother-in-law's jewelry - a diamond tiara, a necklace and a brooch. (Photo: STRINGER / REUTERS / REUTERS). 
4. The solemn wedding ceremony took place at the Sultan's Palace in the capital of Brunei, Bandar Seri Begawan. Istana Nurul Imam Palace - the residence of the Sultan - has 1,788 rooms. (Photo: OLIVIA HARRIS / REUTERS / REUTERS). 
5. The Sultan of Brunei, the groom's father and a fuel magnate, is one of the richest men in the world. His fortune is estimated at 20-80 billion dollars. Hassanal Bolkiah has ruled his country since 1967. (Photo: OLIVIA HARRIS / REUTERS / REUTERS). 
6. The Sultan of Brunei, Hassanal Bolkiah, has five sons and seven daughters from three marriages. Prince Abdul Malik is second in line to the Brunei throne. The first son, Crown Prince of Brunei Al-Muhtadi Billa, married more than 10 years ago. (Photo: OLIVIA HARRIS / REUTERS / REUTERS). 
7. During the wedding ceremony. (Photo: STRINGER / REUTERS / REUTERS).
Brunei, a long-standing British colony of 400,000 that lies on the northwestern coast of the island of Borneo, is an absolute monarchy (sultanate). In Brunei, ruled by the 68-year-old Sultan, he is both head of state and head of government, minister of national defense and minister of finance.
8. Prince Abdul Malik with his father, the Sultan of Brunei. Members of the royal family have often been criticized for living too extravagantly. The Telegraph recalled that in 1996, Michael Jackson was supposed to receive 10 million pounds for a concert in honor of the Sultan's 50th birthday. However, dissatisfaction state system in the country is small, which is a consequence high level the lives of its citizens, as well as free education and healthcare. (Photo: OLIVIA HARRIS / REUTERS / REUTERS). 
9. Brunei is a country whose official religion is Islam. Last year, after the Sultan adopted Sharia law, which allows punishments such as stoning and flogging, a wave of indignation and discontent arose in the country. (Photo: OLIVIA HARRIS / REUTERS / REUTERS). Celebrations in honor of the 50th anniversary of the reign of Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah have ended in Brunei. After the death of the King of Thailand, he became the longest reigning absolute monarch in the world. His subjects, grateful for all kinds of social benefits, dote on their beloved Sultan. For them, he planned to introduce Sharia laws - although, apparently, he himself does not comply with these laws: he recklessly pursues women and wastes his life, wasting billions of government dollars on palaces, luxury cars and sex parties with minors from his harem. talks about the most controversial monarch of our time.
Playmakers
“With money like that of Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah and his brother Jeffrey, all the diseases in this world could be cured. The only problem is that they both don’t care about other people,” one of those close to the royal family once told Fortune business magazine.
The whole world learned in what luxury the monarch and his relatives are drowning in 2011, when Vanity Fair magazine published a scandalous article about a high-ranking playmaker. So the subjects, who, under threat of imprisonment, are forbidden to discuss what the monarch spends money on from the budget, learned: in the Sultan’s palace there are more than 1.7 thousand rooms, 257 bathrooms, five swimming pools, a mosque, a banquet hall for five thousand people and a garage for 110 cars .
But that's not all. The family also owns the luxury hotel chain The Dorchester Hotel, 17 aircraft, 9 thousand cars, 150 houses in 12 countries and much more.
Oil flows like a river, girls dance on tables
It would seem that with such fabulous wealth one can talk about a cloudless life in the sultanate. Everything was going in Bolkiah’s favor: in 2012, he reported that oil and gas-rich Brunei, comfortably located in the north-west of the island of Borneo, was among the five richest countries in the world. The state has been exporting oil since the 1970s (today, about 90 percent of the budget comes from the sale of black gold). That's when I came there. Brunei was even jokingly nicknamed the Shellfare state (“welfare state at the expense of Shell,” by analogy with the welfare state).
While the country grew richer, the Sultan and his relatives did not forget about themselves: receiving their share of the income, the monarch and his relatives became one of the richest families in the world. His Majesty's subjects do not know what political parties, the opposition, elections and independent media are, but they do not pay income tax, the country has free education and free medicine, high pensions and low interest rates when buying houses and cars on credit.
At his 50th birthday party, the Sultan invited him to sing for $17 million, writes The New York Post. He turned his personal plane into a palace, trimmed with gold and inlaid precious stones. And he spent a total of $17 billion on gifts to family and friends. In particular, for his daughter’s birthday, the Sultan presented an Airbus A340 for 100 million. And his brother Jeffrey, for example, spent an average of 747 thousand dollars a day on everyday expenses over the course of 10 years.
The sexual exploits of the Sultan are legendary. The Bruneians themselves live in ignorance, but the whole world has long known that Bolkiah, together with his younger brother, have created harems of dozens of underage girls and involve them in monstrous hours-long orgies. This was first discussed in 1997: then Miss America 92 Shannon Marketik filed a lawsuit against the Sultan and his younger brother Jeffrey, nicknamed “the main playboy of the planet.”
Shannon was promised a job in Brunei with a salary of three thousand dollars a day. Instead, the US citizen was turned into a sex slave, forced to dance at private parties from 10 pm to 3 am. She was drugged and then treated like a prostitute. The American woman demanded $10 million in compensation “for mental distress, nightmares, insomnia and other injuries.” However, the matter was quickly hushed up: the Sultan called such accusations “a crime worse than murder,” and the brothers themselves did not answer to the law, citing diplomatic immunity.
This incident might have been forgotten by everyone, but another American, Gillian Lauren, published the book Some Girls: My Life in a Harem in 2010. She, however, talked about life in Jefri’s harem, but she, one of the main favorites, was also once entrusted with pleasing the Sultan himself.
The Sultan celebrated the weddings of his children on a grand scale. In the photo - the monarch with his son Abdul Malik and his wife.
Lauren explains that upon arrival in Brunei, the girls, who will later be sent to the harem, have their passports taken away. They are not allowed to go out much, they are constantly watched, forced to sit on a strict diet. All the girls in the harem receive from two thousand dollars a week. They are mainly hired on a three-week contract, sometimes extended for several years. Many admit that having earned so much money, they simply do not want to leave there.
Most of the girls in the harem are Thai or Filipina and are 14 years old. Nights on end, according to Lauren, passed in some kind of frenzy: expensive alcohol flowed like a river, girls danced on tables for the prince and his friends in the palace or on a 46-meter yacht called “Tits”, and everyone hoped for that the prince will choose her alone or in company with other girls for the night. This is a chance to become the favorite, and the favorites are showered with money and jewelry. Those who are not selected during the night may be taken to Prince Jefri's office in the middle of the working day.
According to Lauren, Jeffrey, who asked to be called Robin in the American manner, was a fan of everything connected with the USA: cars, clothes, pop culture. “He would open any magazine and point at a photograph of a woman he liked, saying, ‘I want this one or that one,’ and then order them,” recalls Lauren.
Subsequently, the Sultan’s brother, who so recklessly squandered money on all kinds of pleasures, had to answer for the embezzlement of the treasury. Hassanal Bolkiah was forced to appeal to the London court. The litigation lasted about 10 years, ending in favor of the Sultan. Jeffrey returned some of the money. Despite the differences, the brothers kept a good relationship and continued to lead a wild life.
No money, but I'm a sultan
The “shared prosperity” faltered in 2014. Oil prices have fallen by half. Their third brother Mohamed had an extremely negative attitude towards the debauchery and wastefulness of the Sultan and Jefri. Assessing this, Bolkiah handed him a ministerial portfolio and set him the task of reforming the economy. Mohamed, without thinking twice, raked out another two billion dollars from the treasury for his own needs and was dismissed in disgrace.
The Sultan himself had to deal with the economy, taking the post of Prime Minister of Brunei, Ministers of Economy and Defense. He decided, firstly, to somewhat curb his appetites, and secondly, to seriously engage in diversification.
Thus, the Sultan actively encourages the development of private business, tries to make Brunei attractive to Tokyo and other financial capitals, and also attract tourists to the country. However, so far none of these attempts have been particularly successful. The situation is especially bad with foreign tourists. The lack of nightclubs and the ban on alcohol discourage travelers. Back in the late 90s, Australian writer Charles James described the sultanate as follows: “A more boring place than Brunei could only be a remote British village in the dead of winter.”
Santa hat for 15 thousand dollars
Against the background of problems in the economy, the Sultan, who had never been particularly pious, realized: if the loyalty of his subjects could no longer be retained with money, he could try to accustom them to modesty and fear of God. The country has set a course for Islamization. All children from Muslim families were required to receive religious education. Representatives of other faiths (30 percent of them in the Sultanate) also faced restrictions: they were prohibited from using the word “Allah” and discussing issues of faith.
In 2015, in the run-up to Christmas, Christians and Muslims were banned from wearing Santa Claus hats on the street. Violators were fined $15,000 or sent to prison for five years. By the way, the subjects themselves reacted with understanding to the introduction of such harsh laws, especially since the monarch explained: “Islam is a shield against globalization.”
Most Bruneians are not even aware that the Sultan and his family members violate most of these same laws. All media in the country are controlled by the monarch. At his command, one of them can be closed at any second. Only 60 percent of citizens have access to the Internet, but censorship is also rampant on the Internet. In 2013, independent journalists from Freedom House reported some inconvenient facts about the Sultan. The country called it “deceitful and vile,” and the reporters themselves were sentenced to three years in prison.
While Bolkiah's blissfully ignorant subjects learn the verses and verses of the Koran, and he himself has fun with underage girls, stability is flowing out of Brunei barrel by barrel. Experts predict that by 2035 the country's oil reserves may run out and the sultanate will go bankrupt overnight.
Brunei has an absolute monarchy. The head of the country is the Sultan. And although this state received complete independence from Great Britain only in 1984, one should not think that the kingdom is ruled by some newbie impostors. The dynasty of the Sultans of Brunei was founded back in the 14th century! The current Sultan, Haji Hassanal Bolkiah, is considered the 29th in this long chain of rulers.
Hassanal was crowned king in 1968, when Brunei was still a British protectorate. He is now 70 years old.
Portraits of the Sultan and his first wife, Anak Saleh, hang in every establishment in the country. He later had two more wives, but he divorced them, and they were deprived of all royal titles and palace privileges. During his second and third marriages, he remained married to his first wife. That is, the Sultan had two wives at the same time, but never got to three, as in the famous song. Apparently he was really frightened by the possibility of so many mothers-in-law.
All banknotes of the country also feature only the Sultan. Just like Lenin was on all Soviet rubles. But unlike Ilyich, the Sultan is depicted in various funny headdresses.
Yes, since we are talking about money, I will tell you that Brunei has oil, the proceeds from the sale of which made the Sultan a fabulously rich man. With an estimated personal fortune of around $20 billion (that's "million" with a "B"!), the Sultan of Brunei is one of the five richest monarchs in the world. In the same 1984 that the country gained independence, he built himself a huge palace. simply huge, and the largest in the world! The residence called Istana Nurul Iman (“Palace of Light”) contains almost 1,800 rooms, including more than 250 bathrooms! In total, the building has more than 200,000 square meters square!
It is practically impossible for mere mortals to get here; only the courtyard of this luxurious residence is open to the people, and then only once a year, on the holiday of Eid al-Adha.
By the way, our Sultan is quite well educated. He holds PhD degrees from universities in Thailand, Singapore, Scotland and Indonesia. Of the more famous educational institutions, he was awarded an honorary doctorate by Oxford in England and even MGIMO in Moscow!
The Sultan works for his people like a galley slave. In addition to being the monarch and head of state, he is also the prime minister and head of government. And also the Minister of Defense, the Minister of Finance and, of course, the Supreme Commander-in-Chief Armed Forces Brunei. And if this is not enough for you, then the Sultan works part-time as the head of the Islamic clergy in the country - the caliph. Further, he is also the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade, the head of Customs, and the Inspector General of Police.
I can’t imagine how he has enough time for all this! I'm
Life of the world's richest monarchy
After the King of Thailand died last fall, the “silver” (after Elizabeth II) record for the longest stay on the throne passed to the Sultan of Brunei Hassanal Bolkiah. He is also considered the richest monarch in the world. The tiny state he rules is not easy to find on a world map, but Bruneians boast one of the highest standards of living in the world.
The Sultan of Brunei met with Putin in Sochi at the Russia-ASEAN summit (2016).
In October 2017, 71-year-old Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah celebrated his half-century anniversary on the throne of Brunei, a very small country (its area is only 5.8 thousand sq. km). The population is also very small: about 400 thousand people. But in other rankings, the small sultanate, which has huge oil and gas reserves, ranks first, including in terms of its wealth. From 1999 to 2008 GDP grew here by 56%. According to the IMF, the sultanate is the world's fifth-largest economy in terms of GDP per capita. Education here is free, as is medical care - and this is only part of the social achievements that Bruneians enjoy.
FROM THE MK DOSSIER
Hassanal Bolkiah was born on July 15, 1946. Graduated from the Victoria Institute in Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia) and the Royal military academy in Sandhurst (UK). Since 1964 - Crown Prince, proclaimed Sultan on October 5, 1967. Since 1984 - Prime Minister, Minister of Finance and Minister of Defense of Brunei.
He is considered the richest monarch in the world - in 2010 his personal fortune was estimated at $20 billion. Built in 1984 for the Sultan, the Nurul Iman Palace has an area of 200,000 square meters. m, has 1,788 rooms, 257 bathrooms, a state hall for 5,000 people, a mosque with a capacity of 1,500 people, a garage for 110 cars.
Hassanal Bolkiah, who has ruled Brunei for the last fifty years, found himself in power by virtue of belonging to the ruling dynasty - half a century ago, his father, Sultan Omar Ali, abdicated the throne in his favor. And here the question arises: what is the merit of the monarch if he reigns in a small state with very large hydrocarbon reserves? After all, making it prosperous is much easier than making a country big size with small mineral reserves.
It is difficult to separate the current Sultan and the former monarch, because in the early stages the Sultan actually ruled together with his father, who acted as a mentor monarch - there is such a historically established concept in South-East Asia, when the father went behind the scenes, but continued to guide his heir on the right path until he gained the appropriate experience and became a full-fledged monarch, says the author of a number of books dedicated to world leaders, including the biography of Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah “Just and Noble” , Sergei PLEKHANOV, who personally met with the Brunei monarch. - Such a case happened in Brunei. By the way, since Sultan Omar Ali was a great friend of Singaporean leader Lee Kuan Yew, this model was also borrowed in Singapore. When Lee Kuan Yew left power, he made his son prime minister and left himself the position of minister-mentor. Omar Ali was a very interesting and influential figure in the regional context - it is no coincidence that another such interesting and influential figure as Lee Kuan Yew perceived him as a kind of guru.
So, the main merit of the tandem Hassanal Bolkiah - Omar Ali is not that the country became rich thanks to oil. The oil wealth was ensured by the fact that the oil fields here were discovered and developed by the British. The merit of the monarchs lies in the very preservation of Brunei as an independent state. The fact is that the Sultanate was under very strong influence - both from the metropolis, Britain, and from the Malayan Federation in the early 1960s, to force it to join the newly formed state of Malaysia, which consisted of the Malayan Federation itself and two British colonies in the North. Borneo (Sarawak and Sabah). And tiny Brunei was sandwiched between them, and it had little chance to survive in this situation.
At this time, the British were promoting similar projects in several places. They discussed in detail the prospect of leaving the colonies and began to form three federations. These are the Federation of Sultanates of South Arabia (in what is now Yemen), United United Arab Emirates(in addition to the seven current emirates, Qatar and Bahrain were to be included there) and the creation of Malaysia. Lee Kuan Yew wrote in his memoirs that the Sultan of Brunei showed great foresight and wisdom in resisting this pressure (by the way, Singapore withdrew from Malaysia a couple of years after joining it, and left with a scandal, with a cry).
That is, Brunei, “surrounded” by the territory of Malaysia, had very little chance of establishing itself as a separate state. If they had eaten it then, no one would have remembered that there was such a Brunei, and all its riches would have gone to Malaysia. Naturally, this would affect the well-being of the Bruneians...
His Majesty himself sits at the helm of the airliner.
As an independent state, Brunei has not existed for so long - only 33 years: the British protectorate was officially abolished only on January 1, 1984. This sultanate broke away from the “mistress of the seas” almost later than all other parts of the once huge British Empire.
It was a very multi-step combination of Sultan Omar Ali and his son: delaying the declaration of independence as long as possible,” explains Sergei Plekhanov. - Here we see one of the rare cases in history when a protectorate forced the protector state (in this case, Great Britain) to serve its interests. That is, Britain was used as a political, military, etc. umbrella, which did not allow its neighbors to “gobble up” Brunei. And the delay in declaring independence was caused by the fact that the country needed to train personnel - military, managerial, diplomatic. If Brunei had left the British orbit back in 1963, then, of course, it would not have been ready and would have been “swallowed” by its neighbors...
Nevertheless, Bruneians feel a kinship with neighboring Malaysia. It is no coincidence that Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah called his concept an “Islamic Malay monarchy.”
“Bruneians always emphasize that they are part of the Malay civilization,” confirms Sergei Plekhanov. - But at the same time they feel like a separate nation. The concept of the “Islamic Malay monarchy” has a hidden subtext: “We are the one and only full-fledged Islamic Malay monarchy, because those nine sultanates that are part of Malaysia are rather decorative state formations that do not have real power" Moreover, Brunei is not just a monarchy - an absolute monarchy. Hassanal Bolkiah often meets with Malaysian monarchs, but he feels himself to be an order of magnitude superior.
And the concept of the “Islamic Malay monarchy” is very reminiscent of what was once formulated in our country by Count Uvarov (Orthodoxy, autocracy, nationality). In practice, this is a complete analogue: religion, absolute monarchy and nationalism. It stands on these three pillars. Why is it important to emphasize the word "Malay"? Because not only Malays live in Brunei - there are a lot of Chinese and representatives of other nations there. Malay is the official language. Islam had been powerfully introduced in Brunei since the time of the previous Sultan, and as soon as the British left, significant changes in the country's way of life were carried out. Strict Islam (not fundamentalism!) is also perceived as a condition for survival in the outside world. And the autocracy there is real. Everything clearly comes from one person.”
The Sultan of Brunei received a military education.
Several years ago, rather strict Sharia laws were adopted in Brunei, which caused a wave of criticism in the West and even a boycott of hotels owned by Bruneians. In particular, they talked about stoning gays and cutting off the hands of thieves. On the other hand, criticism was based on allegations that against the backdrop of such strict laws The Sultan himself leads a luxurious lifestyle and has a considerable staff of concubines.
“For all the harshness of the Islam practiced in Brunei, it is merciless to all kinds of extremism and terrorism,” assures Sergei Plekhanov. - In this country, extremist and non-traditional movements are consistently cut off.
As for concubines, once upon a time, when the current Sultan was young and the blood was running, he probably had concubines. But now, on the contrary, over the years he has become an increasingly reserved person. He had three wives, but then he divorced the second, and then the third. So now he has only one - his first - wife. And talk about a harem is completely irrelevant. The current Islamization carried out by the Sultan is also a reflection of his age-related changes. As far as is known, no one has been stoned there yet. There is a certain implicit opposition in the country. There, the prosecutor general - a lady - says that all this needs to be explained in detail to citizens, including those of non-Islamic origin, what this Islamization means. By the way, this Islamization does not apply to the Brunei Chinese. Their girls calmly walk around in shorts; no one forces them to wear any hijabs. This is not Saudi Arabia. The clothes in Brunei are very colorful, and ladies are present at all events, there is always a whole flower garden around the Sultan - his wife, sisters, daughters-in-law...”
When it comes to the royal family, it is impossible not to mention the Sultan’s younger brother, 63-year-old Prince Geoffrey. He not only became famous for his wild and extravagant lifestyle. In the late 1990s, the prince was accused of embezzling $14.8 billion. Although Jeffrey denied the charges, he still had to hand over his personal assets to the government in exchange for avoiding criminal prosecution and permission to own a personal residence in Brunei.
Yes, he sinned a lot,” says Sergei Plekhanov. - But now Prince Geoffrey has also settled down, sits quietly, lives in Brunei (at one time he was banned from entering the country, but the Sultan forgave him, although much of his property was confiscated from the prince). In its time it caused considerable damage. This guy really was a playboy, a real playboy, he had many affairs...
Although Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah is not a young man (he is already over 70), age does not prevent him from piloting his own Boeing when visiting abroad.
And not only during trips abroad, says our expert. - Every week he does pirouettes on a Boeing in the skies of Brunei - he trains so as not to lose his dexterity. He flies a helicopter, sitting at the helm himself. He never sits with a driver - he always drives the car himself...
When talking about small Brunei, one can resort to the formula “size doesn’t matter”: the country is actively foreign policy, primarily at the regional level.
“Brunei wealth is converted into political influence,” says Sergei Plekhanov. - The country actively participates in regional organizations (ASEAN, APEC, East Asia Partnership, the planned Trans-Pacific Partnership). Brunei is very actively establishing relations with China - and at one time the PRC, as a communist country that supported rebel organizations, was a “taboo” in the sultanate. Now the Bruneians are very pragmatic - for last years The Sultan met with Chinese leaders several times. The monarch has excellent relations with Japan. And in general, he is pursuing a truly multi-vector policy. He is not locked into any one foreign policy line. Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah came to Russia several times. He has an excellent relationship with Putin, he respects him very much, he feels a kinship of souls: one flies with cranes on a hang glider, the other on a Boeing.
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