“VALUES AND BELIEFS: THE COMPASS FOR THE YOUNG TOWARDS

CREATING A BRIGHTER FUTURE”

UNITEN Tun Mahathir Lecture Series 2009

Royal Address By
His Royal Highness Raja Nazrin Shah Ibni Sultan Azlan Muhibbuddin shah
The Crown Prince of Perak Darul Ridzuan
3 Disember 2009
Universiti Tenaga Nasional, Putrajaya

Bismillahi Rahmani Rahim.

Assalamulaikum Warahmtullahi Wabarakatuh

Salam Sejahtera.

Beta bersyukur ke hadrat ILAHI kerana dengan izin dari Nya juga Beta dapat
berangkat ke Universiti Tenaga Nasional pada pagi ini untuk menyampaikan titah
dalam siri UNITEN Tun Mabathir Lecture kali ke-enam.

I am very pleased to be the sixth speaker in this lecture series. Going before
me have been a Nobel prize-winning economist, several distinguished scientists and
technologists, and Malaysia's fifth Prime Minister, Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad, after
which this lecture series is named.The topics have certainly been diverse, ranging
from the birth of the universe to financial market volatility, and from innovation and
technology commercialisation to crisis management. These lectures have led to a
rich exchange of ideas and I want to commend UNITEN for having organized them.

Today, I would like to address a down-to-earth subject, that of young people

of this nation. Looking around this room, I can see that this includes most of you
here. There are also some of you in, this room from other parts of the world, and
although the youth of Malaysia is the focus of this lecture, most of what I will speak
will apply to you and your countries as well. I assume that most of you are looking
forward to having a good break when your courses are over, after which you will start
searching for a decent job and build a career for yourselves. No doubt, you will then
want to settle down and start a family. The more ambitious among you will probably
postpone taking on family commitments until your careers are on the rise. Some may
even aspire to public office. Whatever the case, these are the typical dreams of
young people everywhere in the world.

I was once in your shoes – albeit a long time ago. And I remember having the
hopes and expectations that I imagine you now have. Not just my own, but also the
hopes and expectations placed upon me by family, by teachers and professors, and
by society. Today you are bombarded with many promises of hope and expectations
of the future. Open the newspapers and you will see catchy advertisements for
educational institutions that sound like this: "working for a degree that really works";
"expect a seamless transition upon your graduation'; "world class education that
ensures greater prospects in your chosen career".

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 But you must be prepared for a reality that may not be as rosy as the picture
you have envisioned or have been promised. Consider those who graduated into the
present economic situation where output has plummeted, property prices have
fallen, businesses are shrinking, equity values are at an all-time low and
unemployment at an all-time high.

The economic climate has become harsh and extremely unforgiving

everywhere. For young graduates seeking to establish themselves, this environment
will prove extremely challenging. In 2009 alone, the United Nations Development
Programme expects 18 million additional youths to be unemployed. Degrees are no
longer the passports to jobs that they once were, let alone long and rewarding
careers. This is the hard reality that youths everywhere, including you in this room,
have to face.

On the bright side, all of you are at a formative stage of life and I'm going to
assume you are at an age when you are idealistic – that you wish to improve
conditions around you – that you would rather build than destroy. The Malaysia of
tomorrow will be made more in the image of your generation than of mine. The
Malaysia of tomorrow will be the product of your hands, hearts and minds. You are
the new green shoots being nurtured in a nursery of opportunity. In the next two or
three decades, you will be largely responsible for what Malaysia is or is not – its
strengths and weaknesses, its abilities and failings. This may sound exciting to
some, nerve-racking to others, a cliché to still others, but the reality is that this is
your country and all of you have a mammoth responsibility for the well-being of your
fellow Malaysians.

So how do you think you will fare? Are you being given the best possible
education that the country can provide? Do you think you Will be able to compete on
the global stage and fulfil the high expectations of world-class employers? Are you
able to think critically, creatively and independently? Are you a product of a
university that faculty members can be proud of?. Can you make the Malaysia of
tomorrow among the best economies in the world? These are questions that must be
faced and answered truthfully and boldly.

You are already well aware of the prerequisites for prosperity, such as
knowledge, skills, analytical thinking, creativity, innovation. I am not going to take up
your time reiterating these. What is more fundamental to the nation's future
prosperity are the values and beliefs of our future leaders. This is the aspect I want
to focus my speech on today. If knowledge and skills represent the powerful
microprocessors that store information in a computer, then values and beliefs form
the operating software that organizes, prioritises and enables the power to be
unleashed. Without upright values, knowledge is enfeebled, and without enlightened
beliefs, abilities are meaningless.

Values and beliefs such as honesty, integrity, empathy, openness, tolerance

and loyalty are integral to who we are as individuals and what we are as a country. If
these are part and parcel of the national psyche, Malaysia can be ensured of 3

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things: first that the principles of good governance will be held sacrosanct; second,
that people will be willing to serve the country to the best of their ability; and third,
that there will be unity among the people. If we have these three things, we can be
certain of a prosperous future for Malaysia.

But just as the right values and beliefs will enable us to forge a prosperous
Malaysia, the wrong ones could lead to its eventual break-up. Long before there are
violent conflicts on the streets, there are cultural conflicts and ideological conflicts,
ones involving not just different ways of doing things but of perceiving things. When
a country becomes fragmented, it stays fragmented for a long time. In fact,
differences grow and intensify. What were splits become rifts, and what were rifts
become chasms. This is why it is absolutely imperative that we never allow anything
to threaten the unity and stability of this nation. Unlike a computer, we cannot just
press the reset button and start from where we left off. It is not that easy.

Young friends:

Let us consider some so-called realities of the modern age. We are faced with
an increasingly informed society, enlightened by the mass spread of information
through ICT, ranging from the internet to the mobile phone. Ironically, we are also
living in a vastly misinformed society, where wrong information can spread as quickly
and as widely as correct information. At no time in our history has information been
of more value to the average human being, to his or her government, and to the
private and public enterprises that serve the individual. And at no time has the value
of accurate information been more important. We are also faced with a much
shrunken world, where distances have been immensely shortened not only
physically through the development of affordable and reliable transport systems, but
also temporally, where ICT has again made distance an irrelevant feature of
communication. For the first time in history, we can share ideas across oceans in
real time, without needing to wait for conquest for our ideas to be spread. We are
also watching a shift in the value of social and economic priorities as the globalised
economy comes into its own. We now place more emphasis on non-material assets
such as knowledge and skills than on material assets that have defined human
society for so long.

When I was your age, my family like most other Malaysian families subscribed
to one or two national newspapers and watched the news from one broadcast station
airing on just two television channels. Today you are inundated with numerous
information sources. This has led to two categories of people in society – the super-
informed and the sub-informed. The super-informed which I assume constitute all
those gathered in this room, access multiple news channels and have mastery of the
internet to draw the information they need on politics, socio-economics and
business. The sub-informed avoid these subjects in favour of entertainment.

Two more closely related factors need to be given vital consideration. Firstly,
global trade has created a vastly wealthier society at all levels and has opened up a
consumerist hunger that is historically unprecedented. What was once the domain of

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kings and emperors is at the reach of millions of people, with consumer goods
driving economic growth as never before. Riding on this growth, we have seen new
economic powers emerge in just the space of a generation. Nations like China and
India stand pounding at the door of the west, wanting a voice, a presence, and
recognition of their culture and their values. Sadly, we have also engendered a vast
impoverished and disenchanted segment of society who have either been abused by
the developments in the globalised economy, or have been left out of these
developments altogether. They pose a significant challenge both to our economists
who must suggest ways of including them in our miracle and to our philosophers and
moralists who must explain how we can live side by side with our vastly more
impoverished brothers and sisters while watching our own wealth and well-being
grow. And while we continue to debate the whys and the wherefores of the poor and
disenfranchised, they are making themselves increasingly more noticed by drawing
attention to their plight in ways both benign and violent.

Secondly, we are potentially entering an age where we will for the first time in
history share a global calamity of our own making in the guise of man-induced
climate change. Not only can we share information and knowledge and hard
technology across borders as never before, we can also share our pollutants and our
toxins, to the point where all the inhabitants of our planet may potentially need to
make serious adjustments to their lifestyles and their livelihoods to continue living on
this planet.

These are precisely the kinds of issues that, as adults, you will increasingly
have to deal with. You must have a strong set of values and beliefs to guide you in
making decisions. These values and beliefs are the product of your home
environment. They are also formed in schools, universities, religious institutions and
among peers. This is why it is vital to expose yourselves to positive, constructive
influences and not negative, destructive ones. Employers also seek to implant the
beliefs and attitudes that they want, both through their management systems and by
a process of acculturation. Those who are best able to adopt these will identify
strongly with their companies and naturally rise to the top.

So what can you do to create a bright future for your country? Let me suggest
a few ways. First, you must be constructive. It is very easy to be cynical – to stand
on the sidelines and shout obscenities at the opposing players and the referee. It is
much more difficult to go down to the field, practice and get involved in the game.
You can stand outside a room and curse the darkness within, or you can light a
candle and start brightening up the room. The decision is yours, as are the
consequences. Responsibility means being engaged with issues and not leaving it to
others to decide. If you do not get involved, then the future of this country will be
constructed based on someone else's blueprint.

Second, set yourselves high standards of conduct. Demand good governance

practices and be fully aware of the debilitating effects of corruption and the high
costs to society of poor governance. But do not just insist that others show qualities

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of honour and integrity. You must internalise these qualities yourselves. Strive at all
times to uphold the rule of law.

I notice that society today has become excessively politicised and polarised.
Positions have become deeply entrenched and goodwill and cooperation have
markedly decreased. More worryingly, there no longer seems to be any restrictions
as to what Malaysians are prepared to say or do. Whereas we had an unwritten code
of civility before, some of the things that are said and done in the name of
democracy today go far beyond common decency.

We all claim to want to live in a democratic society. In such a society we

should be able to disagree without wishing ill will on those we disagree with. We
should be able to voice a different opinion without being insulted or threatened with
humiliation. We should attempt to bring others to our point of view not through
coercion but by the force of our arguments and the justness of our cause. Have the
courage to change your views if they come into conflict with the facts, instead of
trying to tailor the facts to suit your beliefs. Always keep an ounce of humility within
you. No matter how many degrees you earn, knowledge is no one's monopoly. The
world has no shortage of knowledge but it could always do with more understanding.
Reject the politics of hate. Instead, accept only civilised democratic practices, one
that is based on respect and regard for one another.

Finally, I challenge you to look toward a future beyond purely material reward.
Instead focus on the rewards of seeing your nation prosper because of your efforts.
All of you represent the valuable future human capital this country needs. The
outside world knows this, which is why they set out to attract our best brains,
creating a brain drain for us. Do not exacerbate the problem of the brain drain but
strive to reverse it. We are, whether we like it or not and whether we know it or not,
an inter-connected society. We are impacted by, and have a very strong impact on,
one another. It is only when we look beyond ourselves and beyond our individual
communities that we are prepared to make national-level sacrifices and attain things
that are of national significance. I challenge you to take personal ownership over the
wellbeing of your fellow countrymen. If you can do this and do this well, I can
guarantee you that the material benefits will follow.

Ladies and gentlemen:

There are many more things that one can say about your role in creating a
bright future for Malaysia. Today, I have deliberated on one aspect which I deem the
most critical, namely, to develop strong and robust core values and beliefs. Looking
around this room and seeing your eager faces, I am developing a measure of
confidence.

Search within yourselves and transform yourselves, and in so doing,

transform this country. I leave you with this thought and the challenge to follow it up
with the actions that will bring them to fruition. For this, you need a bedrock faith in
what you and our country stand for. I wish all of you the very best in your future.

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Thank you.

New Straits Times, Saturday 5 December 2009