In Brunei there is no parliament to demand an explanation, no court to appeal to, and no press conference where somebody might ask why. There is only state television, which read out the decision. Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah stripped every title and dignity from the wife of his son, Prince Abdul Malik, who is fourth in line to the throne. With immediate effect. Without explanation.

The decision was announced by the acting Grand Chamberlain on national television. Princess Pengiran Raabiatul Adawiyah is no longer a princess. The palace statement says the withdrawal is due to conduct unbecoming of the wife of a member of the royal family, conduct that tarnished the „good name and showed a lack of respect towards His Majesty, Her Majesty Duli Raja Isteri Pengiran Anak Hajah Saleha and towards the Royal Family”.

Notice what is missing from that sentence: what exactly she did. It is neither stated nor hinted at. The statement says there was a transgression, says who was offended, but does not say what the transgression consists of. When an institution has the power to remove you without explaining why, the explanation becomes unnecessary - and that is precisely the message.

A ten-day wedding, a one-sentence revocation

In April 2015, the Istana Nurul Iman palace - the largest and most opulent palace in the world - hosted one of the most expensive weddings this century has seen. Prince Abdul Malik married Dayangku Raabiatul Adawiyah Pengiran Haji Bolkiah, then a twenty-two-year-old data analyst. The ceremony ran for around ten days.

At one point during that wedding, the sultan took his son's hand and placed it on the bride's head - a gesture of blessing that sealed the marriage. In the same act he granted her the title Yang Amat Mulia Pengiran Anak Isteri, equivalent to princess and royal consort, and formally brought her into the dynasty. Eleven years later, the same man who brought her in erased her.

The title arrived as a gift from one person. So it leaves as that same person's decision. This is not a marriage you enter - it is a position you are lent.

Eighty years and one knee

The timing of the decision is not accidental. It comes in the middle of the celebrations for the sultan's eightieth birthday, at a time when he himself has warned that his health is fragile. In January he underwent successful surgery - he received an artificial right knee.

An eighty-year-old ruler who starts tidying up the line of succession is a scene the Balkans know from a different context, but the logic is the same: when the question of inheritance draws near, the first thing to fall is not the prince, but the people around the prince. Raabiatul is not fourth in line to the throne - her husband is. She is simply the part of the picture that can be removed without touching the order.

Brunei is a small country of around half a million people, rich in oil and gas, ruled by the same man since 1967. That is longer than the entire lifetime of most of its citizens. When one person rules that long, the court stops being an institution and becomes a household - and in a household, decisions are not explained, they are announced.