When I first heard about the laws in Brunei wherein someone convicted of adultery, abortion or same-sex relationships could be publicly flogged or stoned to death, I thought that, like many countries around the world who trample on human rights, this was another example of religion run amuck and being used by a dictator to control the populace. It was offensive to me and doesn’t reflect the level of sophistication that the United States brings to matters of personal choice. Members of our society are free to act in ways that individuate who we are and what we believe with only one caveat – those choices cannot harm others. Freedom of choice is a fundamental right, one that every human being on this planet should enjoy. There is simply no excuse for such denial of free choice.

The question is: What do we do about it? Our city and the surrounding community have, for the most part, decided to boycott both the Beverly Hills Hotel and Hotel Bel-Air. The mayor of Beverly Hills, at a City Council meeting that was later televised, said she wasn’t calling for a boycott but wouldn’t be going to the hotels herself. Major employers who have historically frequented both are publicly stating they’ll no longer be going there. The bandwagon is quickly filling up and the leaders of our community have taken their positions. Righteous, right-minded and together they stand.

Yes, you have detected a hint of sarcasm. Because of what the sultan has done, this is an easy bandwagon to jump on. It is understandable. Here’s the problem. Our community’s method of showing its distaste and full disdain for the sultan misses who is affected and how they are affected, that group being the members of our local community, the employees of the Beverly Hills Hotel and Hotel Bel-Air. Our community’s chosen method of protest hurts people who work to serve us faithfully every day, whether we are gay or straight or make choices to act in certain ways in our free society. They, the employees, do not judge us, they serve us.

Our community’s response doesn’t recognize the nuances of this circumstance, our chosen method of protest wrongly pointed. What should we or can we do?

We should fully stand against ownership while supporting the staff. We should wear a button saying this whenever we frequent those hotels. The United States and Brunei are part of a 12-nation pact called the Trans-Pacific Partnership that seeks to establish common standards on issues ranging from labor laws to intellectual property while cutting tariffs on trade goods. A group of 117 lawmakers signed a letter two weeks ago condemning human rights abuses in Brunei and suggesting Brunei end such abuses as a condition of the United States remaining part of the Trans-Pacific Partnership. Let’s contact our lawmakers and join that more impactful protest.

No impact

Our community’s protest, by contrast, will have little or no impact on Brunei’s practice of Sharia law. We will hurt only our community members. There are approximately 33 countries that practice Sharia law in “personal” matters (marriage, divorce, inheritance and child custody). Kuwait, India, Egypt, Singapore and Morocco are among those countries. There are approximately 12 countries that strictly practice Sharia law in both personal and civil matters. Most notably among those countries is Saudi Arabia (less notably but worth noting is Maldives).

What local assets (buildings, hotels, companies, films, etc.) are owned fully or partially or financed by Saudi interests? Wouldn’t a logical extension of this boycott be to boycott any local business, building, hotel or film owned or financed by a country with full or partial Sharia law? How about the gasoline we buy each day in Beverly Hills? As a country, we purchase 100 million barrels of oil a day from Saudi Arabia. I’m only suggesting that if we are going to protest and boycott, let’s be consistent. They are likely not viable protests and maybe those boycotting the two hotels feel it’s a small but important statement. I’m not so sure.

Our method of protest punishes our local family and leaves the perpetrator penalized with a financial slap on the wrist, if that. The sultan’s wealth is likely greatly underestimated; he essentially owns a country. We hurt those who did no harm but happen to work for a place whose ownership, worlds away, makes choices completely divorced from their own. The legal and technical ownership of the hotels is 8,000 miles away in Brunei but the true owners of any great establishment are those who enjoy it as a community asset. That’s all of us. 

As the information revolution has exploded, we are made aware of travesties of justice every day – countries that imprison their citizens for opposing viewpoints, use religion as a tool for the oppression of women and demean those whose sexual orientation differs from their own. Differences in cultures and religions around the world that disregard human rights make being a consumer and citizen of the world very complex. Oil from Saudi Arabia, more and more goods made in China, films partly financed with money arising from countries with human rights abuses – the world grows more economically linked every day and where and how to take a stand more complex. Ultimately, we must depend on our elected officials to make incremental progress over time using the economic might of the U.S. economy as leverage with our trading partners.

I implore one of our local and influential organizations to jump off the bandwagon and lead us in a more thoughtful and nuanced response to all this. To voice our support for our community members, the employees of the Beverly Hills Hotel and the Hotel Bel-Air, while noting our disdain for Brunei’s practice of Sharia law, wear a button or armband when we visit those hotels. On this page, you can see a mock-up of such a button. Some will criticize this as a meaningless gesture that will cause the sultan no harm. It is, admittedly, a symbolic gesture. It voices our protest appropriately while caring for our local community members and community assets.

Leadership is, at certain times, about taking a seemingly unpopular and counter-to-what-the-polls-say position and getting others to see a difficult situation in all of its rich details and unintended effects. This is one of those times.

Robert H. Kerrigan Jr. is a private investor who has resided in West Los Angeles for the past 23 years.