The Star Tuesday September 16, 2008 MYT 1:16:56 PM Stop quarrelling, Raja Nazrin urges leaders
IPOH: The Raja Muda of Perak, Raja Dr Nazrin Shah, on Tuesday called on the country's leaders to stop quarrelling among themselves and to instead focus on developing the nation's resources for the well-being of the people. He said the world was now facing a gloomy economic climate with the prices of fuel and food at unprecedented levels. "All efforts must be focused on easing the burden of the people. The country's productivity must be raised, investors must be given confidence, new jobs must be created and essential items must be assured. "This is a big challenge for any government. It will not be achieved through political rhetoric alone. It will not be achieved if the leaders, both within and outside the Government, continue to quarrel," he said Tuesday at the 162nd Conference of the Perak Islamic Religious and Maly Customs Council here. Raja Dr Nazrin said the country's leaders, both within and outside the Government, must see the grim economic situation in the world as a challenge facing the country and people which needed their concerted thinking and efforts to do productive work. Raja Dr Nazrin said that if this heavy challenge was not tackled, he feared that stability and order in the country would be affected and all the achievements of the last 51 years since independence would be wiped out. He also said that the spirit of Ramadan, as the basis to mould noble morals, followed by the spirit of Syawal to build brotherhood, must be reflected in the daily activities of the family, society, government and nation. "It is such a big blessing if unity is fostered, in fact the blessing will spill over to the people and country who are in harmony; on the other hand, friction will result in disunity and prosperity may not be achieved," he said. Raja Dr Nazrin, who is president of the Perak Islamic religious and Malay Customs Council, also called on the Muslim and Malay leaders to set a good example, spread the spirit of brotherhood, strengthen unity, stop disputes and concentrate on developing the well-being of the Muslims. He said the differences in approach and method, ideologies and interpretetation should not be allowed to reach a level as to split the Malays and Muslims. Earlier, at another function, Raja Dr Nazrin presented donations from the Sultan Azlan Shah Foundation to 59 voluntary organisations and charitable and welfare bodies run by various religious and ethnic groups in the state. He said the Sultan Perak, Sultan Azlan Shah, had donated RM20,000 to each organisation and the total amounted to RM1.18mil. He said each organisation would be asked to submit its statement of account six months from now to show how the donations had been spent so that the foundation's secretariat could make an assessment before recommending future donations. - Bernama
