Bangkok.- The Sultan of Brunei, Haji Hassanal Bolkiah, turns 80 years old this Monday as the longest-reigning monarch on the planet, with nearly six decades, with no signs yet of succession in the oil-rich sultanate.
The leader -father of 12 children- turns 80 days after having announced changes to his Cabinet, which keeps his firstborn, Crown Prince Al-Muhtadee Billah, as senior minister to the prime minister, a position his father has held since 1984, when the country became fully independent from the United Kingdom.
After 58 years and 8 months as head of state of the small Islamic nation, there is no sign of succession from the monarch, who has decided to retain the Defense and Finance portfolios for himself, while remaining the supreme representative of Islam in Brunei.
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On the other hand, he handed over the position of Foreign Minister to his fourth son, Abdul Mateen, the member of the conservative royal family apparently most open to the West, accumulating more than 3.2 million followers on Instagram.
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The monarch plans to participate this week in the commemorative summit of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) with Russia, which will be held in Kazan and presided over by Russian President Vladimir Putin, after spending nearly two months with limited appearances following knee surgery in January.
This small sultanate, with one of the highest GDPs per capita in the world thanks to oil, is located on the island of Borneo, is almost completely surrounded by Malaysia, and its territory extends over 5,270 square kilometers, a space smaller than Brasilia.
The Sultan’s lavish wealth has also been highlighted, which includes the world’s largest collection of Rolls-Royce cars (valued at 4 billion dollars) and living in the largest residential palace on the planet, spanning about 20 hectares, both facts certified by the Guinness World Records.
In April 2019, the monarch made Brunei the first country in Southeast Asia to implement a penal code based on stricter Islamic law nationwide, providing for the death penalty by stoning to punish homosexual relations and adultery, and the amputation of a hand or foot for thieves.
