HRH Sultan Nazrin Shah
Perak’s Sultan Nazrin Shah has reminded politicians and civil servants particularly Muslims to act as reliable trustees by remaining independent in discharging their duties.
“Here, I cannot but stress to our leaders and administrators who are placed by the public in positions of trust that they should act as reliable trustees and carry out their ‘fardu kifayah’ (collective obligation) and public duty with integrity and ‘taqwa’, on behalf of the rest of us and for the sake of all.
“They should recognise the great importance of preserving and strengthening our institutions and of maintaining their integrity and independence,” the sultan said in his speech at the World Islamic Countries/University Leaders’ Summit 2015 in Putrajaya yesterday.
He said recent developments in the country were God’s “stress test”, adding that upholding public trust was more important during periods of crisis.
“It is when the going gets tough, as Allah reminds us, that we will be able to find out those who truly have integrity. “That is the true test from Allah, the best ‘stress test’ for the institution, the truest measure of whether our institutions can weather the storm.
“Because once lost, once the trustee fails his or her test, once the ‘al-amin’ (the faithful) no longer remains trustworthy, it will be difficult to regain the trust, the integrity and the independence of our institutions, be it in education, administration, the judiciary, the regulatory and enforcement agencies and even the monarchy,” said Sultan Nazrin.
He expressed hope that leaders would improve the quality of the country’s institutions and not allow their integrity be undermined.
The Ruler also spoke on the importance of keeping universities and academic institutions free of materialistic demands of “progress” and industries”. He reminded academic administrators of the original role of education to create a well-balanced graduate, instead of producing cogs for the wheels of industries.
“This traditional humanistic role of universities has changed since the onset of the Industrial Revolution. It has increasingly diverged from its historical mission as a place of human transformation by seeking knowledge and understanding for their own sake, towards becoming a place for training graduates solely to meet the needs of our industries and businesses.
“That original humanistic transformative role of universities may be in danger of extinction if we continue simply to follow the requirements of our material world in its sheer materialism.
“It is for this reason that our university leaders and administrators today, I believe, should not forget that original ‘metaphysical’ mission and pay heed to the transformative role that universities ought to play in society.”
The Sultan also touched on the refugees crisis in Europe, and said Muslim nations should do more to assist them.
“I have been deeply moved by one Syrian refugee who recently compared the German Chancellor Angela Merkel to the Abyssinian Christian King Negus, who famously sheltered Muslim refugees during their first Hijrah in the time of the Prophet.
“And another Syrian refugee eloquently said: ‘We will tell our children that Syrian migrants fled their country to come to Europe when Makkah and Muslim lands were closer to them’.
“I hope the ummah can do better in handling our own refugee crisis,” said Sultan Nazrin.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.