Amidst extended cheers and clapping inside council chambers at City Hall on May 16, the City of Los Angeles has added itself to the list of people and entities challenging Brunei’s policies against adultery, homosexuality, and religious practice.
A unanimous City Council swiftly voted in favor of condemning the Southeast Asian country of Brunei. The Brunei Investment Agency, an arm of the Brunei government, has an ownership interest in the Dorchester Collection, an international holdings group whose properties include the Beverly Hills Hotel and Hotel Bel-Air.
Hotel Bel-Air is within Los Angeles’ city limits.
Councilman Paul Koretz, who represents Bel-Air and several other Westside communities at City Hall, introduced the resolution at the council’s final session of the week, calling for support for “legislation and/or administrative action which condemns the government of Brunei.”
“We have to say ‘No’ to intolerance and blatant disregard for human life,” Koretz told his colleagues. “Despite the fact that this would help reduce the business in Council District 5, where the Bel-Air hotel is, I think we have to make it clear that these kinds of unbelievably oppressive laws have to be spoken out against.”
Koretz said if the vote to condemn Brunei does not cause the country’s government to alter its policy or at least divest itself from Dorchester Collections, the City Council should consider taking further, more stringent action down the line against the Southeast Asian nation.
Los Angeles’ City Council follows the lead of their colleagues in Beverly Hills, which unanimously supported a similar resolution at its council meeting earlier this month.
Hassanal Bolkiah, the Sultan of Brunei, shepherded in a new national policy that took effect on May 1 and criminalized the failure to pray, adultery, and gay sex.
Specifically, the first phase of Brunei’s new policy would impose fines and jail terms for anyone who fails to attend Friday prayers or, according to Koretz’s resolution, “indecent behavior and pregnancies outside of marriage.”
Brunei is a Muslim country.
That first phase is already in effect.
Phase 2 rolls into play later this year and, according to the council’s resolution, “prescribes the severing of limbs and flogging for property crimes.”
The third and final phase becomes official in late 2015 and punishes adultery and gay sex with death by stoning.
Coincidentally, the council’s vote was followed-up with the news that singer Babyface cancelled a reservation he had at Hotel Bel-Air this weekend in protest of Brunei’s policy. Babyface was scheduled to get married there on May 17.
The council’s vote was 11-to-0 in favor of condemning the government of Brunei. Councilmen Joe Buscaino, Gilbert Cedillo, Paul Krekorian, and Bernard Parks were not present for the vote.
