Heir to Brunei throne installed

The sultan wore military dress and a sword at his belt. On either side were his two wives in green and pink sequined gowns reflecting the palace lights. But the royal pomp and pageantry at the 1,788-room palace on the banks of the Brunei river mask a growing unease in the southeast Asian kingdom, which has withstood liberal tides to remain one of the world’slast absolute monarchies.

It comes at a time of economic troubles for the oil-soaked sultanate and amid an embarrassing family feud brought on by the wayward financial dealings of the sultan’s younger brother, prince Jefri, who is now in self-imposed exile. “Everything in Brunei is behind closed doors,” said Abdul Latif Chuchu, a former chief of a political party, now banned from politics for his anti-palace views. “We don’t know what is going on.”

Analysts say economic pains are forcing the royal family to stop expanding its fleet of Rolls-Royces and Mercedes, its squadron of private jets and even to quietly sell off some of its prize race horses.

In the run-up to today’s investiture, the palace has attempted to portray the future ruler as a devout muslim with the necessary modicum of modernism. Yesterday, the young prince sat in a gold-domed mosque for nearly three hours for evening prayers attended by more than 1,000 Brunei men answering the muezzin’s call.

But official pamphlets have alsocarried pictures of the prince playing snooker in a waistcoat and bow tie and posing in a tuxedo at Oxford University, from where he recently received a degree in diplomacy. The crown prince’s carefree years may be coming to an end as he joins a royal battle to keep Brunei a fairy tale kingdom where there is no income tax and education and health care is free.