17 Quotes by Hassanal Bolkiah

Asean is obviously a very important association for us. Over the past 30 years Asean has made great strides in regional cooperation covering a number of areas, although recently it has been under strain because of the financial crisis and other challenges.

There is no conflict between favouring Islamic and traditional values and being more open and international.

As a small country, both in size and population, our future hinges on the quality of our people.

The development of our human resources is an area in which we need to do well as it is decisive in determining the success of our diversification programme.

Future peace, prosperity and confidence depend not just on ourselves but on the success of all nations. Hence, we are all partners, no matter what our backgrounds, cultures, faiths and histories.

Our strength in finance has led us to set up an international financial centre with medium and long-term objectives, especially to develop Islamic financial and insurance services.

We will host the Asean summit in November this year. It will be an occasion to reflect on our achievements collectively and to look at how Asean can maintain its leading role in regional and international cooperation.

With faith and gratitude to Allah the almighty, I declare that tomorrow, Thursday May 1, 2014, will see the enforcement of sharia law phase one, to be followed by the other phases.

Theory states that Allah's law is cruel and unfair, but Allah himself has said that his law is indeed fair.