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RR RUEHCHI RUEHDT RUEHHM
DE RUEHBD #0051/01 0400826
ZNY CCCCC ZZH
R 090826Z FEB 07
FM AMEMBASSY BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 3713
INFO RUEHZS/ASSOCIATION OF SOUTHEAST ASIAN NATIONS

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 04 BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN 000051 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 02/09/2017 
TAGS: PHUM PREL BX
SUBJECT: RELIGIOUS FREEDOM IN BRUNEI: HOW ST. ANDREW GOT 
HIS CHURCH BACK 
 
Classified By: Ambassador Emil Skodon, Reasons 1.5 (B,D) 
 
 
------- 
SUMMARY 
------- 
 
¶1.  (C) The Anglican Parish of St. Andrew,s has finally 
received a permit to resume rebuilding its church in Bandar 
Seri Begawan, the first major construction project on a 
non-Muslim house of worship to be approved in Brunei in 
decades.  This follows several months in which the 
congregation was in limbo, having torn down their old church 
on the basis of a previously issued renovation permit, only 
to have that permit revoked before reconstruction of the 
building could begin due to concerns by conservative Muslims 
about abetting Christian worship.  The Government of Brunei 
(GOB) agreed to allow a resumption of work on the church only 
after direct intervention by the Embassy, the Ministry of 
Foreign Affairs and Trade, and the Sultan,s brother; the 
final decision had to be made by the Sultan himself.  The 
saga of St. Andrew,s illustrates the ongoing 
behind-the-scenes influence of an Islamic clerical 
establishment determined to maintain tight controls on 
non-Sunni Muslim religious practice despite the guarantee of 
freedom of worship contained in Brunei,s constitution.  End 
Summary. 
 
--------------------------------------------- ------------- 
ST. ANDREW'S: A TIGHTLY CONTROLLED PILLAR OF THE COMMUNITY 
--------------------------------------------- ------------- 
 
¶2.  (SBU) St. Andrew's Anglican parish is one of the oldest 
and most prestigious non-Muslim denominations in Brunei.  It 
was founded seventy years ago and counts among its 
congregation several prominent members of the ethnic Chinese 
merchant families that are the backbone of Brunei's private 
business sector.  Its school, which accepts students of any 
faith, has long been considered one of the more prestigious 
educational institutions in Bandar Seri Begawan; both the 
current Crown Prince and his wife received their primary 
education there. 
 
¶3.  (C) None of this prestige was reflected in St. Andrew's 
church building.  A small wooden structure that was built in 
1950, it had no air conditioning, was badly in need of 
repair, and had long been outgrown by its congregation.  For 
several years St. Andrew's had sought a building permit from 
the Bandar Seri Begawan Municipal Board to build a new, 
larger church, without success.  This reflected an unspoken 
GOB policy of keeping strict limits on Christian worship in 
the Sultanate, which many Bruneians trace to a 1964 fatwa 
issued by the then-State Mufti that advised Muslims against 
any action that would help non-Muslims to spread their faith. 
 Bruneian contacts tell us this policy was quietly enforced 
by the office of the State Mufti, the highest ranking Muslim 
cleric in Brunei.  (Tight control also extends to any 
practice of Islam outside the Sunni Sha'afi school; no Shia 
mosques are permitted, for example.) 
 
--------------------------------------------- --------------- 
A MARGINAL ADVANCE FOR RELIGIOUS FREEDOM IS QUICKLY REVERSED 
--------------------------------------------- --------------- 
 
¶4.  (C) In September 2005 the Bandar Seri Begawan Municipal 
Board took one of the sudden and, at least to an outsider, 
inexplicable actions so characteristic of Bruneian 
bureaucracy, and informed St. Andrew's that it was willing to 
consider issuance of a limited building permit.  The offer 
was far short of what the parish was seeking.  St. Andrew's 
would not be allowed to build a new, larger church as it had 
requested.  It could, however, renovate its rickety old 
building, as long as the end result had the exact same 
dimensions as the old church.  Quickly deciding that half a 
loaf was better than none, the parish executive council 
accepted the limitations and engaged an architect to draw up 
plans that would form the basis for issuance of a permit for 
renovation work. 
 
¶5.  (C) After investigating the condition of old St. Andrew's 
Church, the architect decided that it was essentially 
unsalvageable and drew up plans for the old structure to be 
rebuilt from the ground up with all new materials.  These 
plans were submitted to the Municipal Board and a letter was 
issued granting permission for renovation work to begin.  On 
that basis, worship services were moved to a temporary home 
in the parish administrative hall and the old structure of 
St. Andrew's was taken apart until, in October of 2006, 
nothing was left but the foundation.  The members of the 
congregation optimistically hoped that they might even be 
able to celebrate the Christmas of 2006, or certainly Easter 
of 2007, in a reconstructed church. 
 
BANDAR SER 00000051  002 OF 004 
 
 
 
¶6. (C) Those hopes were dashed when the Municipal Board 
suddenly notified St. Andrew's that the building permit had 
been revoked and all work had to cease.  The explanation was 
that the parish was going beyond the bounds of its original 
renovation permit by undertaking new construction.  St. 
Andrew's executive council argued that the architect's plans 
for completely reconstructing the unsafe old structure had 
already been submitted to the municipal authorities and 
approved before the renovation permit was issued.  This 
protest was to no avail, however.  The parish board was told 
that it could apply for a new construction permit, but was 
given no advice on what might be acceptable and no assurances 
that a new permit would ever be issued. 
 
--------------------------------------------- ----------------- 
A CONGREGATION LEFT IN LIMBO DUE TO CONCERNS OF MUSLIM CLERICS 
--------------------------------------------- ----------------- 
 
¶7. (C) Although details remain murky, informed Bruneians tell 
us that the State Mufti's office was almost certainly behind 
the revocation of the original permit.  They maintain that 
the Mufti and conservative clerics in his office had agreed 
not to stand in the way of the original construction permit 
only as long as it was strictly limited to renovation and 
allowed for no expansion of church facilities.  When they saw 
that the old church had been completely razed -- a 
development that St. Andrew's made no effort to hide and 
which was plainly visible from the street in front of the 
church grounds -- they assumed that the Anglicans were trying 
to use the cover of a renovation project to sneak in the new, 
larger church they had long desired.  That was apparently 
beyond the pale, and so the Mufti's office quietly advised 
officials at the Municipal Board to do their religious duty 
as good Muslims and revoke the permit. 
 
¶8. (C) As the head of another established (non-Anglican) 
Christian church in Brunei told us, the problem with St. 
Andrew's was that it failed to play the game as Christians 
needed to play it in Islamic Brunei.  Had the Anglicans built 
a large wall around the church site to mask what they were 
doing, or found some way to prop up the old church's wooden 
frame while reconstruction went on, they probably could have 
gotten away with completing the work on the basis of their 
original renovation permit.  By proceeding in plain view, 
however, the work on the church was an affront to pious 
Muslims who had been taught to beware the threat of Christian 
missionary "crusaders," and an invitation to a backlash.  The 
leaders of St. Andrew's parish had forgotten that they had to 
keep their heads down and remain unobtrusive if they wanted 
to continue practicing their faith in Brunei.  Because they 
did not, they found themselves in limbo, with their old 
church building gone and work halted on its planned 
reconstruction. 
 
--------------------------------- 
THE U.S. EMBASSY GETS INVOLVED... 
--------------------------------- 
 
¶9.  (C) The Embassy had been following the saga of St. 
Andrew's closely from the start.  When the original 
construction permit was revoked, we let it be known to 
members of the parish council that we would be willing to 
intervene with the GOB on their behalf if they wished. 
Initially, the reply was that they were grateful for our 
interest but preferred to submit a new permit request and try 
to work things out quietly with the government, for fear of 
digging themselves into an even deeper hole if they were seen 
to be enlisting the aid of a foreign embassy against the GOB. 
 We respected their wishes, recognizing that what would pass 
for paranoia in many other countries constituted realism in 
Brunei.  Embassy officers never met officially with church 
leaders to discuss their situation, but rather stayed abreast 
of developments via the Ambassador's conversations with 
parish council members he saw at various social events and 
official functions. 
 
¶10.  (C) Finally, in early December, one of the members of 
the parish council discreetly let the Ambassador know that 
the parish was becoming so pessimistic about the possibility 
of resolving the impasse on its own that it would welcome any 
low-key help we might provide.  Accordingly, the Ambassador 
asked to see First Deputy Permanent Secretary Datin Maimunah 
at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade to discuss a 
human rights issue.  At a December 5 meeting he outlined the 
St. Andrew's problem for Datin Maimunah, and told her the 
Embassy would have no choice but to include a description of 
the situation in its draft of the Human Rights Report due to 
Washington in early January.  If a new building permit was 
issued beforehand, we would give the GOB credit for allowing 
the first major construction project on a non-Muslim house of 
worship for many years.  If it was not, however, we would 
 
BANDAR SER 00000051  003 OF 004 
 
 
report that fact forthrightly and it would probably be 
interpreted by many as evidence that the GOB was deliberately 
suppressing Christian worship. 
 
¶11.  (C) Datin Maimunah told Ambassador she was not aware of 
the St. Andrew's situation and would have to look into it. 
Two days later, she phoned Ambassador and related a 
legalistic justification of the GOB action, stating that St. 
Andrew's had exceeded the terms of its original construction 
permit and therefore had to halt work on the church while its 
application for a new permit was reviewed in accordance with 
existing laws and regulations.  Ambassador thanked her but 
said that he did not wish to debate the details of Bruneian 
zoning law; he only wanted the MFAT to be aware that Brunei's 
international image was going to be affected by the St. 
Andrews' situation because we were obligated to report on it 
in our Human Rights Report, one way or the other. 
 
-------------------------------- 
...AND THE ROYAL FAMILY JOINS IN 
-------------------------------- 
 
¶12.  (C) Datin Maimunah's anodyne response to the Ambassador 
belied other behind-the-scenes developments.  The day after 
her phone call to the Ambassador, a prominent Bruneian 
businessman who was also a member of St. Andrew's parish went 
into a meeting with His Royal Highness Prince Mohamed, the 
Minister for Foreign Affairs and the Sultan's brother, to 
discuss economic issues in conjunction with Prince Mohamed's 
role as Chairman of the Ministerial Economic Council.  He had 
determined to use the opportunity to raise the St. Andrew's 
issue, only to have Mohamed cut him off by saying he knew all 
about the problem because the American Ambassador had already 
"complained" to the Ministry.  As the story was later related 
to the Ambassador by someone who was at the meeting, an 
obviously agitated Mohamed told Second Minister of Foreign 
Affairs Pehin Lim Jock Seng, who was also present, to work 
with other ministries to get a new building permit issued. 
When Pehin Lim replied that he had already started the "due 
diligence" required to understand the facts of the matter, 
Mohamed reportedly barked "We don't need due diligence.  We 
know the facts.  Just fix it." 
 
--------------------------------------------- --------- 
AT THE SULTAN'S ORDER, ST. ANDREW GETS HIS CHURCH BACK 
--------------------------------------------- --------- 
 
¶13.  (C) As things turned out, "fixing it" took considerable 
time and effort, even with the Sultan's brother pushing for 
the issue to be resolved and Second Minister Lim, considered 
one of the most effective members of Cabinet, working for the 
issuance of a new building permit.  A GOB source told us the 
decision went "to the top," meaning the Sultan himself, who 
finally ordered that work on the church be allowed to 
continue.  Even after that instruction was issued, however, 
there was difficulty in finding an appropriate GOB official 
willing to sign the required letter notifying St. Andrew's 
that it could resume construction.  The old fatwa warning 
against abetting the spread of Christian worship apparently 
had lingering potency in the minds of many Bruneian 
officials.  Ambassador was told that, at one point, the draft 
letter had to be redone because the official scheduled to 
sign it had decided to take early retirement; the source of 
this information speculated, only half in jest, that the 
bureaucrat in question made this decision after deciding that 
his continued employment was not worth putting his immortal 
soul at risk. 
 
¶14.  (C) Finally, on January 31, St. Andrew's received a 
letter renewing the construction permit for its church.  The 
parish member who conveyed this news to Ambassador was 
generous in conveying the church's gratitude to the USG, 
stating that our intervention was one of the keys to getting 
the permit issued, and that the low-key way in which it was 
done had avoided a backlash that could have caused even worse 
trouble for St. Andrew's.  This parishioner believed the 
other key was the determination of Prince Mohamed himself. 
In his view, His Royal Highness was motivated not only by a 
desire to avoid the international approbation that would have 
resulted from leaving St. Andrew's in limbo without a church 
building, but also by a genuine conviction that the GOB had 
to respect the rule of law and provisions of its own 
constitution, including that which allowed religions other 
than Islam to "be practiced in peace and harmony by the 
person professing them in any part of Brunei Darussalam.". 
 
--------------------------------------------- ------------- 
COMMENT -- THE BOUNDARIES OF RELIGIOUS TOLERANCE IN BRUNEI 
--------------------------------------------- ------------- 
 
¶15.  (C) In our view, there are three lessons from this 
episode: 
 
BANDAR SER 00000051  004 OF 004 
 
 
 
-- First, although it is not readily visible to 
non-Bruneians, the pervasive influence of the conservative 
Islamic clergy here should not be underestimated.  In this 
case, for example, not even a prominent member of the royal 
family could immediately override clerical interests.  This 
is largely because the national philosophy of the country as 
a "Malay Islamic Monarchy" is drummed into Bruneians from an 
early age and instills a sense of near-awe about the 
authority of those who interpret Islam for the lay community. 
 
-- Second, as a result of this clerical influence, while 
there may be widespread tolerance for the personal practice 
of other faiths in this officially Islamic nation, tolerance 
does not equate to freedom for those religions to do what 
they please.  Limits on their activity may be unspoken but 
are still expected to be respected and not questioned. 
 
-- Third, in the Bruneian context, the most productive human 
rights advocacy is often that which, while forceful, takes 
place quietly behind the scenes and avoids the public 
confrontations that are such anathema in this society.  In 
this regard, post requests that information in this cable not 
be cited publicly in any recounting of USG human rights 
policy, particularly not until reconstruction of the Anglican 
church in Brunei is complete and St. Andrew really does get 
his church back.  End Comment. 
SKODON