Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak said Malaysians who have enjoyed continued peace and harmony, could not have known the hardship of living in a country afflicted by turmoil and war.
"People who are healthy, can never imagine what it feels like to have their health threatened. It is the same for us who have enjoyed continued peace for decades."
"We will not know and cannot imagine what we have to go through and what it is like to have a nation in turmoil.
"There is nothing we can do without peace," he said in his speech before launching the 1Malaysia Family Care at Sultan Idris Shah Polytechnic in Sungai Air Tawar here yesterday.
He said Malaysians who had experienced life during the Japanese Occupation during the World War 2, understood the ordeal if the country's peace could not be maintained.
"These days, if we were given a choice between nasi lemak and ubi kayu (tapioca), we will choose ubi kayu but during the Japanese Occupation, they did not have a choice.
"Ubi kayu was the staple. If the country is in turmoil, there will not be enough rice," he said.
He said after what had happened in Lahad Datu and Semporna, all Malaysians could witness the problems faced by the residents there.
However, in dealing with this threat, Najib who visited Lahad Datu yesterday, reiterated that the government would not compromise in matters concerning the country's sovereignty.
"What is saddening is that when we are doing our best to safeguard the country, there are those who took the opportunity to gain political mileage and belittled the sacrifice of our security forces.
"There are also those who tried to instigate the people into believing that this was all a charade," he said.
Meanwhile, speaking on the 1Malaysia Family Care programme, he said it was a joint effort between the ministries of Health, and Women, Family and Community Development to implement a programme so that they can work outside their jurisdiction and deliver service to the people in a more holistic manner with minimum cost.
"What we are doing through the 1Malaysia Family Care programme is to complement our efforts in improving the peoples' quality of life and health."
"Health is the greatest gift. Although we have vast amount of wealth or even for millionaires, if we are not healthy, it is meaningless," he pointed out.
Health, he said, must also be the top priority for the general public and stressed on the importance of healthy diet and exercise.
"This is why we have come up with 1Malaysia Family Care programme, to make sure Malaysians become more healthy, through healthcare, health system and more than 130 1Malaysia clinic, with another 70 in the pipeline this year," he said.
Under the initiative, 205 senior citizen institutions have been inspected while 7,000 senior citizens,12,000 disabled and 5,000 single mothers have undergone medical check-ups while 4,000 received treatment. Also benefitting were another 3,000 who are bedridden and their carers who received trainings.
Najib said a pilot project to set up a kindergarten for special needs children, was started to provide better care for children with down syndrome and autism.
At the same time, he said through this initiative, the welfare of single mothers would also be looked after.
"They will have access to health care and social support and opportunity for training to improve their skills to help them start small businesses via the entrepreneurship incubator.
"These efforts reflected our wish to secure a more conducive environment in the country where children can grow in the best possible situation and have more opportunities through better education system and healthcare," he said.
Also present were Health Minister Datuk Seri Liow Tiong Lai, Agriculture and Agro-based Industry Minister Datuk Seri Noh Omar and Women, Family and Community Development deputy minister Datuk Noriah Kasnon.
- New Straits Times
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