The Kingdom of Brunei
Peregrina's Journey
Peter and Margie Benziger
Wed 29 May 2013 04:12
Where in the World are Margie and Peter? The Kingdom of Brunei!
Our children usually sigh loudly, roll their eyes and
offer very little sympathy when we express the fact that we sometimes get a bit
overwhelmed and exhausted from the rigors of long-term cruising. Despite what we feel is a fairly balanced
report of our passage covering not only the “highs” of experiencing travel to
some of the most beautiful and remote places on earth but also the “lows” of replacing
toilet hoses or refinishing teak decks when it’s 95 degrees in the shade, some
people STILL think that we’re eating bonbons and, as Robin Leach on Lives of the Rich and Famous used to
say, “Enjoying champagne wishes and caviar dreams.”
The truth is closer to “…wishing for a cold beer to wash
down cream cheese on a Saltine Cracker!”
And, as far as dreams go, we’re usually so tired at the end of the day,
we hardly dream at all and certainly not about anything that involves caviar!
In fact, here’s a shot of one of our more glamorous
day-to-day activities…
So,
if we can’t live the life of the rich and famous, at least we could GO to where
the rich and famous live for a little vicarious pleasure. It was time for a little R & R in the
Kingdom of Brunei. The official name of
the country is Negara Brunei Darussalam -
which means Abode of Peace in Malay.
Peregrina
anchored just off the Royal Brunei Yacht Club.
Surprisingly, this little oasis was one of the most laid-back,
unpretentious, super-friendly stopovers on our whole trip! We planned on staying 2-3 days. We ended up reluctantly pulling up anchor
after two weeks!
I must admit I knew very little about Brunei. I knew that it was an oil-rich nation led by
a Sultan who was very, Very, VERY wealthy but, frankly, before we arrived on
the island of Borneo, I couldn’t have placed it on a map. If I did, I would have most likely put it up
somewhere near the Red Sea among those Bedouin desert countries with tents and
camels like Oman, Yemen and Saudi Arabia.
I had no idea that Brunei was this tiny little (almost-1st world) country squeezed in-between Indonesia
and Malaysia on the northwest coast of the island of Borneo with beautiful
rainforests and nary a desert, nor a camel, to be found! So for any other geographically-challenged followers of
these “Where in the World?” stories,
let me provide you with a couple maps to help you get your bearings…
Brunei covers an area of approximately 2,226 square miles
on the island of Borneo. That’s about
the size of the state of Delaware for our American readers.
It is bordered along the coast by the South China Sea and
surrounded completely by the state of Sarawak, Malaysia. It is the only sovereign state completely on
the island of Borneo. The rest of the
island hosts parts of Malaysia (Sabah & Sarawak) and Indonesia (Kalimantan).
FYI – Borneo is the 3rd largest island in the
world behind Greenland and New Guinea.
The population of Brunei is approximately 409,000, of
which around 150,000 live in the capital Bandar Seri Begawan or, BSB as the
locals call it.
GDP was a whopping $21,907,000,000 (That’s BILLIONS
people!!!) in 2012 with per capita income set at $50,440. However, that individual figure is somewhat
suspect as you will realize later when we talk about the lavish spending habits
of the royal family whose accounting practices are sketchy at best. There does not appear to be a huge “trickle
down” economic pattern in this country.
Don’t get me wrong!
Bruneians live well. Forbes ranks Brunei as the fifth richest
nation out of 182 nations due to its extensive petroleum and natural gas fields
and the “perks” of these natural resources are numerous.
No taxes and a generous welfare system that provides
subsidized housing, free medical care*, free education through university-level
for all who qualify plus the infrastructure of a modern 1st world country
make Brunei a pretty sweet place to live.
Gas is dirt cheap and, with one
private car for every 2.09 persons, Brunei has one of the highest car ownership
rates in the world.
*For medical
expertise not available in the country, citizens are sent overseas at the
government's expense!
Brunei
can trace its beginnings to the 7th
century. It became a Sultanate in the
14th century and was pretty much a sleepy little jungle nation for 600 years
where all the royals married their cousins.
(I can’t say that’s really true and
it’s not very nice but I DID read it somewhere!)
The current Sultan, Hassanal
Bolkiah, is the 29th Sultan of the House of Bolkiah and has been on
the throne since 1967. He hit the
jackpot when he led his country into independence from Britain in 1984 and, by
1987, he was personally worth an estimated $40 BILLION dollars.
He is the Supreme Head of State and, according
to a little addendum he inserted in the constitution, “…he can do no wrong in either his personal or any official capacity.” Now there’s a broad mandate for absolute
power!
Once the richest man in the world,
His Majesty’s fortunes have suffered somewhat in the past few years. Today,
it’s estimated that he’s worth a paltry $20-25 billion dollars! Good thing he doesn’t have to pay taxes on
his $400 million dollar home! See below one
little section of the Istana Nural Iman Palace.
It’s the biggest residence in the world and it’s impossible to capture
the entire complex in one image but you get the idea…
Now, the Sultan is a stand-up
guy! Whom else do you know that would
invite 100,000 strangers to lunch? In
fact, every year at the end of Ramadan, the Sultan opens his 1,788 room palace
with 257 bathrooms (Yes, you read that
right!) to the public for three days of feasting and more than 30,000 show
up for a gourmet meal each day. We’re
not talking hamburgers and weenies here! It’s a full spread with a gift for
everyone and even a traditional packet of small bills - with the Sultan’s
picture on each one - for the children.
What’s the tally for this chow-down
to end the month-long fast of Ramadan with 100,000 of his “peeps” you ask? No figures given out but it’s got to be
hundreds and hundreds of thousands….$$$$$$$$.....maybe even a million. Who knows?
But don’t cry for he, Hassanal
Bolkiah….The truth is it’s just lunch in the gold-leafed, marbled halls of a
wing in the palace that he probably only sees once a year! Chump change really…
Some of the serious money is tied up
in the garages (actually five HUGE aircraft hangars) which house a portion of his
collection of more than 7000 high-performance, custom-designed cars including
600 Rolls Royces, 500 Mercedes-Benz, 360 Ferraris, 175 Jaguars and 160 Porches
as well as private jets and two 747’s with gold-plated furniture.
Here’s a 24-karat gold trimmed Rolls
Royce that is in the Sultan’s fleet.
Now, that’s how to say, “Pimp my ride!”
Yes, it’s good to be Sultan and
may I remind you again how this all came to pass?
Oil
that is…Black
gold...Texas tea…Bubbling crude…
The first offshore oil well was
drilled in 1957. Not long after, a gas
field was discovered in 1963 making Liquified Natural Gas (LPG …same as we use
in our barbecue’s) an important segment of the economic pie. As of 2012, crude oil and natural gas production
account for about 90% of Brunei’s GDP. About 167,000 barrels of oil are
produced every day, making Brunei the fourth largest producer of oil in
South-east Asia. It also produces approximately 895,000,000 cubic feet of
liquified natural gas per day, making Brunei the ninth-largest exporter of the
substance in the world.
So the Sultan quickly became
the “man about town” in the 80's and 90's buying up real
estate in London, Paris, New York and Los Angeles, losing big in the gambling clubs, investing in a treasure trove of art
masterpieces including a Renoir for a record $70 million; and accumulating what
was called “a Smithsonian” of major jewels and a herd of over 200 polo ponies. He began transforming men into moguls:
bankrolling the early exploits of the Saudi arms dealer Adnan Khashoggi and,
allegedly, financing the purchase of Harrods department store in London for the
Egyptian entrepreneur Mohamed Al Fayed.
Back home, the Sultan
celebrated his 50th birthday with a concert by Michael Jackson in a stadium
built for the occasion. Jackson was
reportedly paid $17 million. Whitney
Houston also performed for the royal family and was given a blank check and
instructed to fill it in for what she thought she was worth which she,
modestly, determined was more than $7 million.
But,
the Sultan’s biggest extravagance and, what led to what was described as a huge
“scandal” for the man who could “do no wrong” was his indulgence of his younger
brother, Jefri, who he made Minister of Finance despite the fact that Jefri had
left school at the tender age of 14 – long before he might have signed up for
Economics 101 or Introduction to Accounting.
The two brothers enjoyed
nearly two decades of hedonism together - racing Ferraris down the streets of
BSB at midnight, wining and dining the most beautiful women all over the world and
sailing the oceans on their fleet of mega-yachts.
Of course, we all know “money
can’t buy good taste.” Jefri named the mega-yacht below, Tits along with her tenders, Nipple
1 and Nipple 2. My, this story is getting racy - Parental Guidance Advised!
The brothers routinely emptied
entire inventories of stores such as Armani and Versace, buying 100 suits at a
time. When they partied overseas, they indulged in just about everything forbidden
to observant Muslims. Afforded four
wives by Islamic law, they left their multiple spouses and scores of children back
home while they sent emissaries to comb the world for the sexiest women they
could find in order to create a harem that made Hugh Hefner’s little warren
look like chopped liver!
But, it was always
Jefri who had the insatiable need to shop ‘til he dropped. After all, the Sultan had to run the
country! All Jefri had to do was “party
on!”
Vanity Fair once described
Jefri as “Brunei’s notorious royal playboy, who has probably gone through more
cash than any other human being on earth.”
It is said his personal expenses totaled over $50 million a month! On top of what he and his brother managed to
fritter away just for fun, he was charged in 1997 with stealing $14.8
billion from Brunei while serving as Finance Minister. He appeared to do so with blank checks from
the Brunei Investment Agency which was also under his jurisdiction. In fact, Prince Jefri – high school dropout -
was the person in charge with handling all of Brunei’s foreign
investments! He basically had a carte
blanche for siphoning billions to finance a personal lifestyle of extravagance. This might have gone on forever - his brother
casting a blind eye to the dwindling assets of the Brunei Investment
Agency. But, a rising tide of public criticism
and legal actions threatened the monarchy.
His brother finally woke up and set out to recover the fortune Jefri had
supposedly hidden and, most likely, squandered.
After court proceedings in
Brunei, the UK and the United States, Prince Jefri was forced to liquidate his
assets to repay hundreds of millions of dollars to the Brunei government and
various civil suits against him. He was banished
from the Kingdom and lived in Europe quite comfortably on $10 million a month for several years before the two
brothers reconciled and Jefri returned to Brunei quietly in 2009.
So, all’s well that ends well and, as they
say…“Living well’s the best revenge!”
I suppose, Prince Jefri, just
like Prince Harry and all the other little “Royal Brothers” that will NOT grow
up to be King simply because they popped out second in line, felt the need to sow
a few wild oats at the people’s expense.
It sure makes for a great
story and considering that there doesn’t appear to be an end to the supply of
oil and gas bubbling up from underneath Brunei’s territorial waters, under-writing
the royal family’s decadent lifestyle seems like a drop in the bucket!
It’s just a shame they couldn’t
fork over a few million to cure cancer or something like that…
But, anyway, so ends our story. For a couple
weeks, we peeked into the lives of the rich and famous and we decided that we’d
be lost in 1788 rooms and we can only drive one car at a time so we’ll pass on
the fleet of Ferraris. We like our
little sailboat with 700 square feet and a spacious 6’4” of headroom. We’re grateful for our family and our health
and the good fortune to travel around this beautiful world making true friends
along the way.
We’re happiest when we have
an opportunity to hang out with the locals like this group below that we found relaxing
by the beach near the Royal Brunei Yacht Club one day.
The Sultan of Brunei and
Prince Jefri may feel that money can buy you happiness but we subscribe to the
theory that…
“If you want to feel rich, just count the
things you have that money can't buy.”