BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN - Amid global uproar over Brunei's move to implement syariah law, the country's government is stressing that the new legislation is not meant to discriminate, urging critics to hold back before they see how it is implemented.

In a series of interviews with The Straits Times in Bandar Seri Begawan this week, Brunei's second foreign minister, attorney-general, religious affairs minister and mufti issued a full-throated defence of the law - for the first time sharing details of how it works and the government's rationale for it.