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Brunei



Every Wednesday night of this month, I have been keeping up with a travel show on local channel, Channel U where host, popular Hong Kong actor Eric Tseng ventured into the royalty residence of the Sultan of Brunei and introduced to viewers the sheer wealth of the Sultan and his family!

Gold has become almost part and parcel of the royalty’s accoutrements and possession. The suits of the Sultan are made of real gold! The immense wealth depicted in each episode is really overwhelming to me! A chair used by the Sultan could easily exceed millions of dollars! The wealth of the Sultan is really astronomical to a poor chap like me! Anyway, I just hope to earn a million bucks in my lifetime, that what I ask for in Singapore which has at least 66,000 people with a net liquidity of US $1 million excluding property asset.

Yesterday was the last episode of the travel show and in this last episode, it was highlighted that the wealth of Brunei is shared by the Sultan with its people. The people of Brunei are really fortunate as they enjoy free or very low cost of living with all residential, education and medical needs taken care of by the Sultan. It is no wonder that many hail the Sultan “Long Live, the King” !

A few examples of these benefits: swanky residential bungalows sold to citizens of Brunei at very low cost, the Sultan waived off medical cost for births, milk and tonics are even given to the family of the newborn. Fees and allowance for overseas education and medical treatments are given generously to the people who need them.
The Sultan and his people enjoy such great wealth due to geographical privilege: there are ample of oil fields in the sea of Brunei. It seems a bliss to be a citizen of Brunei! But being a Singaporean is not bad either.
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