KUALA LUMPUR: Good leadership is not just about having a vision but also vital moral qualities like integrity and honesty in public office, said the Deputy King of Malaysia, Sultan Nazrin Shah.
The Sultan of Perak said Malaysia’s second prime minister, the late Abdul Razak Hussein, demonstrated these in abundance.
He said Razak shunned all manner of corruption and was obsessed that “not a penny of government funding” was used to pay for his personal needs.
“Indëed, he is famously remembered for admonishing his officers for mistakenly putting a tube of toothpaste on the government tab while on an official trip abroad,” Nazrin said when officiating the renaming of a lecture theatre at Oxford University’s Blavatnik School of Government (BSG) as the Tun Razak Lecture Theatre in the United Kingdom on Friday.
A copy of the text of his speech was made available here.
Nazrin, an alumnus of Oxford University’s Worcester College, said it was a great honour for Razak, known as Malaysia’s “Father of Development”, to have the hall named after him.
“As such, the commemoration of one of Malaysia’s founding fathers within these walls could hardly be more fitting.
“With his passion for good governance and deep concern for the well-being of the disadvantaged, Tun Razak would undoubtedly have felt at home here at the BSG.
“There is so much that chimes between the BSG’s stated vision of ‘a world better led, a world better served and a world better governed’, and Tun Razak’s own vision for his country.
“Within this lecture theatre, that same vision will no doubt be instilled in the minds and hearts of many generations of leaders to come.”
Nazrin added that the world is in great need today because every day in the news, “we hear stories of corruption, of abuses of power and of leaders who put self above country”.
“I find it most heartening then to observe that the notion of public service is instilled in the core values of the BSG, in its vision of a world better led, better served and better governed. Tun Razak would undoubtedly have approved!
“In its seven short years of existence, the Blavatnik School of Government has already educated and inspired numerous individuals now in leadership roles across the globe.
“It is my sincere hope that the achievements and ideals of that extraordinary man, Tun Razak – now commemorated in the name of this lecture theatre – will serve to inspire all those who are yet to pass through this prestigious institution, to become the leaders, the visionaries and the public servants of tomorrow.” - FMT
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