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Index to British press articles on the Fayeds' purchase of Harrods

With The Observer's articles providing more and more proof that the Mohamed Al Fayed had used the Sultan of Brunei's funds to buy Harrods stores group House of Fraser, The Sunday Telegraph published this interview with the Sultan, during which the young ruler denied that his funds could have been used by the Egyptian.
    This reproduction of the Sultan's denial, and its timing, seems quite possibly to have been an attempt by the paper's Conservative-supporting editor to pressurise the DTI Inspectors (who were in the final stages of writing their report) into refraining from stating explicitly that the Fayeds had used the Sultan's cash - and so save the Government's blushes.

The Sunday Telegraph
Sunday, 29 May 1988

In the first interview that he has ever agreed to give, the Sultan of Brunei last week rejected the tag of "the world's richest man" and uncovered the mystery of his role in the Al-Fayed brothers' £600 million cash purchase of the House of Fraser in January 1985.  He spoke to Peregrine Worsthorne, editor of The Sunday Telegraph, in the ornate audience chamber of his enormous palace.
THE SULTAN explained that he had finally agreed to talk to a journalist because he was angered by the "many false reports" appearing in the international Press about his personal life and, in particular, about how he was the richest man in the world.
    He could only assume that this evaluation was reached by attributing the entire oil wealth of Brunei to him personally.  But on that basis he could not understand how the Sultan of Brunei could be richer than the King of Saudi Arabia and many other sultans and sheikhs in the Middle East.  He suspected that one reason that the world's press had singled him out was the enormous amount of publicity generated by contractors who had boasted of their part in building the new royal palace.
    My interview, or perhaps I should say audience, took place in this most spectacularly vulgar edifice built on a scale and size more suitable for a super-power than for a country with a quarter of a million inhabitants.  The Throne Room and all the state rooms quite dwarf their counterparts in Buckingham Palace, and there is a council chamber into which the entire UN General Assembly could fit with plenty of room to spare.
    For two days previously I had been briefed on protocol for such audiences by highly nervous courtiers who explained that His Majesty was wholly unaccustomed to being asked questions by journalists and "greatly dreaded" the experience of being "interrogated" by me.  I was told that on no account was I to cross my legs during the interview since this would be taken as a sign of disrespect.  It was also mandatory that I should keep my hands folded on my lap throughout.
    In the event, the 41-year-old Sultan seemed much more relaxed than his courtiers and had renounced his normal uniform for the occasion, preferring to dress informally in what appeared to be black silk pyjamas.
    Asked why he needed such a Versailles-like abode, the Sultan said it was much more than a mere royal residence: it was also the seat of government; he is Prime Minister as well as monarch.  All his subjects were welcomed at the palace on public holidays such as that at the end of Ramadan a few weeks ago.  The gates of the palace were thrown open to all and sundry without any formal invitation or security checks.  He did not understand why the foreign Press had not reported that, but had dwelt exclusively on those activities which allowed him to be portrayed as a greedy and opulent autocrat. 
    Turning to the most celebrated of these "unfair reports", he told me categorically that there was "absolutely no truth" in recent claims that the money used by the Al-Fayeds to buy the House of Fraser had been swindled from him.  He had given the Al-Fayeds a small amount of money to cover acquisition expenses arising from the purchase by him of the Dorchester Hotel.  But that amount was so small that it could have been of no relevance at all in the House of Fraser deal, which brought the previously-unknown Egyptian entrepreneurs ownership of Harrods after a bitterly-contested battle with Mr Tiny Rowland's Lonrho group.
    The Sultan said he had given Mr Muhammed Al-Fayed a power of attorney for the Dorchester negotiations.  He thought it possible that Mr Al-Fayed had found this helpful in raising money for his business dealings but the power of attorney had subsequently been cancelled.  The Sultan said he no longer had any business dealings with the Al-Fayeds, with whom he is still on "friendly terms".  He now conducted his business affairs through a merchant bank.
    The Sultan had also been implicated in the Iran-Contra scandal.  He admitted he had been deceived by certain American groups who had assured him that his purely personal contribution to the Nicaraguan Contras would be used exclusively for humanitarian purposes, i.e. to purchase medical supplies.  Once it had become clear to him that this was not the case, he had ordered the money to be returned.  This had been done. 
    I got the distinct impression that the Sultan is now determined not to be so naive.  He accepted that because of his position many businessmen, whose credentials he found difficult to judge, had tried to exploit his wealth.
    Would Brunei, I asked, ever evolve into a constitutional monarchy on the British model?  While not ruling this possibility out, he saw no reason to move in that direction for the time being.  The Brunei people showed no signs of wanting to change a system that had worked well since time immemorial.  He travelled around the small country constantly and was well in touch with popular feeling.  His subjects already enjoyed free health care and free education for all, and most owned cars and had decent housing.  It was very far from being the case that only the royal family benefited from wealth.
    The Sultan struck me as being both intelligent and public-spirited.  Nor is it necessary to be in Brunei for long to discover how widely and deeply he and his throne are respected by the people.  Twenty-five years ago, it looked as if Communism was the way of the future in South East Asia.  Today it is Communism that is in retreat and monarchy that looks set fair to survive into the 21st century….at least in Brunei.
    If the old monarchical system under which he ruled had provided such blessings, it was difficult to see any commonsensical reason why it should be changed.  The only faint threat to Brunei's stability and good order that he could perceive came from Moslem fundamentalism and he was determined, as defender of the true faith, to keep a vigorous eye on that.
    He admitted, after the interview was over, that he had found the experience much less disagreeable than he had feared. "So would this be a precedent he would repeat in the future?"  I asked.  "That," he said, smiling for the first time, "remains to be seen."

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