OPENING SPEECH

 

YAB DATO’ SERI ANWAR BIN IBRAHIM

PRIME MINISTER

 

  

INTERNASIONAL YOUNG FUTURE LEADER SUMMIT

2025

 

 

13 OKTOBER 2025 (MONDAY)

WTC, KUALA LUMPUR

 

 

Assalamualaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh dan Salam Sejahtera.

 

Nahmaduhu wa nusalli ‘ala Rasulihil Kareem,

Wa ‘ala alihi wa ashabihi ajma’in.

 

YB YB Dato’ Seri Diraja Dr. Zambry Abd Kadir Menteri Pendidikan Tinggi;

 

YB Datuk Ts. Mustapha Sakmud

Timbalan Menteri Pendidikan Tinggi;

 

Rakan- rakan, semua yang hebat-hebat dan yang paling hebat anak-anak yang dikasihi sekalian.

 

Alhamdulillah kita dapat bersama-sama dalam acara iFuture. Gagasan diluncurkan oleh Saudara Zambry memberi ruang untuk wacana yang bebas, kreatif, kerana di antara tanda kejayaan satu sistem pendidikan ialah kesediaan kita untuk membuka ruang berbicara cara terbuka, cara kreatif, cara kritis.

 

So I think, may I begin by expressing my profound gratitude for the initiative taken by Saudara Zambry to create this awareness, to allow for young students, future leaders, and some of them are present leaders, to be more creative, more critical, by assimilation, assimilating knowledge and disseminating truth.

 

So I think the essence of my short initial remark is to encourage you to continue to absorb, to learn, to grasp enough facts. Because these days of growing fascism, religious fanaticism, Islamophobia, biasedness, racial hatreds, we must make a difference. The future is for you to decide. Either you choose a future of divisiveness, of inhuman attitude, dehumanizing, degrading or degradation of human values, or you choose the right path. And the right path is for truth, justice, and freedom. And I trust you to be champion of justice and freedom.

 

That is my short intro. Now open to questions. Difficult ones, Zambry will answer. Easy ones I will deal. That’s what the Prime Minister is for. (in joking tone)

 

Okay, ada soalan sila? In English, Malay, Urdu, Chinese, Bengali. I’m joking. English or Malay. Alright? No question, thank you very much. We will adjourn. (in joking tone)

 

Pelajar 1  – Assalamualaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh.

 

Dato’ Seri, I am Ade Angin Hakim. I am from Indonesia. Any Indonesian here? Okay, thank you very much. I am from UTHM, Universiti Tun Hussein Onn Malaysia, especially in Johor. Dato’ Seri, especially, I am very fans with you and many younger generation in Indonesia many fans also Dato’ Seri Anwar Ibrahim. Because why? Because the perjuangan dari Dato’ Seri yang berpuluh-puluh tahun and now to become a Prime Minister, the number one of the best number one in Malaysia.

 

Okay Dato’ Seri, thank you very much for this opportunity for you. And I many video watching you in YouTube because I know what is the best advice for you. At first question is, ini Dato’ Seri, for youngest generation in Indonesia especially between us, Indonesia and Malaysia, in social media, kita macam bergaduh Dato’ Seri. Macam contohlah orang Indonesia, dekat Indonesia yang belum pernah visit Malaysia, dia macam tengok orang Malaysia ini jahat macam itu Dato’ Seri. Macam like Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, kita saling bergaduh. Macam gaduh budaya, macam gaduh ini punya ni, punya ni macam tu Dato’ Seri.

 

Tapi in the fact, dekat, masa saya pergi Malaysia 2023, itu saya tengok orang Malaysia baik semua Dato’ Seri. Yes, of course. Especially in Semenanjung, Sabah, Sarawak. Sabah, Sarawak look like, he speak look like similar in Indonesia. Dia macam ada sedikit mirip dengan Indonesia Dato’ Seri, also in Semenanjung. Sangat friendship, sangat baik macam itu Dato’ Seri.

 

Jadi, contoh Dato’ Seri, ini menjadi ancaman Dato’ Seri untuk kita future generation, kalau in the social media kita tak maintain, kita tak buat apa yang perlu diperbuat, jadi the next generation, 10 years, five years now from now, 10 years and two years, kita macam hubungan kita tak baik macam tu Dato’ Seri. Sebab inilah persoalannya, apa yang kita perlu untuk youngest generation to, untuk tanggapi hal ini dekat, especially in social media Dato’ Seri. Sebab in the real we are good friendship. Baik. Thank you Dato’ Seri. Assalamualaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh.

 

PM: Kita Malaysia ini dengan negara jiran, kita ambil sikap yang sangat baik. Singapura yang terdekat, Thailand, Indonesia, Brunei, Filipina, Laos, Vietnam, Kemboja. Sebab itu, sebaik ada sedikit pertelingkahan di antara Kemboja dengan Thailand, kita cepat-cepat merunding dan mengajak mereka bincang. Semalam pun mereka ada di sini wakil-wakil untuk cuba meluruskan. So I think our attitude must be a friendly one. I mean we survive because of the stability and peace in this region.

 

You see, I announced the budget on Friday. The highest allocation, highest, and this is unique, is for allocation in the budget for 2026, the highest is for education. You know why? Because the region’s peaceful. If I happen to be in the Middle East, then my priority will have to be adjusted to consider defense as a major, as the first for example priority. That has to be done at the expense of education, health, and basic infrastructure.

 

So I think it is important to maintain this sort of understanding, more so between Malaysia and Indonesia. We are strong neighbors. We were one before. We speak the same language, somewhat similar culture, a majority of the same religion. Even if different religion, we are so familiar with one another. The, the even the, the minority, the tribes, we are very familiar. I mean you talk about Dayak in Kalimantan, we have Dayak in Sarawak. You have Kadazan, we have, I mean, so why don’t we see the positive aspects of our culture? The strength is our multiracial, multireligious entity.

 

In Malaysia, when Tunku Abdul Rahman envisaged the future, the motto was Bersekutu Bertambah Mutu. In Indonesia, Bhinneka Tunggal Ika. Lebih kurang sama, pak. Ya? So, the differences when you talk about enmity, prejudice is among those who are very ignorant. There are some Malaysians who look down on Indonesians, Indon, because they see them only as workers. Indonesians have the same prejudice towards Malaysia. They think it is, you know, some rural heartland or some of these other countries.

 

So it is important to understand culture, to understand differences is through knowledge, through understanding. Yes, a few days back I was in, on Saturday I was in Universiti UTP, Petronas University in Perak. I mentioned this classic article by Edward Said in his response to Huntington’s “Clash of Civilization”. Because according to Huntington, civilizations ought to clash because of the superiority of Western culture and civilization. So the Indian civilization, the Chinese civilization, most of the Islamic civilization to them will be proven to be a failure. So it has to clash.

 

 

But Edward Said’s debunking of that thesis, devastating rebuke, effectively in about eight-page in The Nation, just said as relevant to what you have said from some quarters, not many, I have many Indonesian friends and, and I follow their states, history, the struggle, the literature, they are great. But once you fail to understand and appreciate, out of ignorance, so what did Edward Said say? It’s not clash of civilization, it’s clash of ignorance.

 

 

You can showcase the failure to articulate, the failure to understand, the failure to reason out because of your total ignorance. So convey this message to Malaysians, to Singaporeans, to Indonesians who still have that sort of a prejudice. Look at the West. We thought Europe with this equality, fraternity, liberté of the French Revolution, the ideals of the French Revolution. But now many are talking about such a racist language. You know, anti-everything non-white. Anything un-Christian. I mean why, why is it so? I’m not, I happen to be born a Malay. So it’s a bit different color. Some are born as Indians or Chinese or Filipinos. So what? We, assess, value people due to their integrity, their character, not their color, or where they come from.

 

 

So I think, let me summarize by saying this prejudices stems out of ignorance. What did Edward Said say? Clash of ignorance. So don’t worry about the some offensive social media. You have the capacity, you are young, you are dedicated, you have the stamina, the energy, fight them. Fight those who are ignorant through knowledge and understanding.

 

 

Pelajar 2: Assalamualaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh. I am Asyriq Syahmi bin Sulaiman. I am from Universiti Putra Malaysia. Yang Amat Berhormat Perdana Menteri, as Malaysia strives to become an AI nation by 2030, how will the government specifically ensure equitable access to high-quality AI education and resources, particularly for youth in rural and underserved communities to prevent the growth of a widening AI-enabled digital division? That’s all from me.

 

 

PM: Thank you. Good question. Universiti Putra, smart. Ini, Idris Jala boleh jawab lebih baik ini. You know we have a policy in this country; we call digital transformation. The country must move, and AI becomes very pertinent, important basis to propel this change. But with new technology, we have also new challenges. Number one, the issue of connectivity. Can we ensure that connectivity for the elites in the urban areas, for the poorer segments of the urban population, for the rural heartland, from hulu Kelantan to Kapit, can you ensure that? So that, to me, will ensure the success of AI. Otherwise, it will lead to further inequity and inequality. The whole world, our whole economic strategy has to deal with the issue of growing inequality. Now, if AI is introduced without taking into consideration this fact, it will certainly have an impact and result in the failure of ensuring justice.

 

 

The second issue is which you must answer. All of you, thanks to the Ministry of Higher Education, have been given this task to introduce, to ensure that you are more familiar with AI. Some introduce faculties, some departments, but the AI as a subject must be then a subject that traverses all disciplines. Now, but you would realize that the limitation of AI, I asked for example Google chief, Microsoft, NVIDIA, and the answers somewhat the same. They say, “Well, what is produced and given by ChatGPT for example is what is loaded into it.” It has this rare, spectacular ability to churn out everything, but it would depend on what is given in.

 

So our duty, our task is to prepare our young intellectuals, academicians, technologists, and experts to be able to keep our own identity, our culture, our religious values. You can’t answer about the beauty of the Quran or the beauty of Malay culture, the beauty of Wayang Kulit from ChatGPT if what is being absorbed by them is limited to their understanding of wayang kulit. So it has to be ours.

 

 

So, while we absorb what is strong technological advancements either from China or America or Russia or Europe, we must also have that capacity to be able to submit and prepare so that AI serves humanity from a human perspective, not from the perspective, European perspective or the American perspective. This, this is not something different. When we study history, from, I remember since early 1960, 1961, Professor Hussein Alatas, a noted scholar, wrote this brilliant short paper at the World Conference of Historians or Asian Conference of Historians entitled The Reconstruction of Malaysian History. Because in the past, our history written, read, and studied from the perspective of the West. It was the colonial masters that determined how I understand my history. This is totally absurd. We can learn from the colonial masters, but we must decide from our own perspective. So, he talked, he referred to the issue of reconstruction of Malaysian history from Malaysian interest and Malaysian angle, not from the angle, not from the Western perspective, not from London.

 

 

Similarly, when you talk about AI, connectivity is one, access is, of course, necessary. But you must always remember that what is churned out by this technology is from the expertise, the experts that give significance and input into this technology. Faham, ya? Apa yang dimuntahkan oleh AI, ChatGPT etcetera, adalah apa yang dimuatkan, ditelan ilmunya dari pakar-pakar. Keupayaan AI itu luar biasa, menakjubkan. Namun, kekuatan kita ialah manakala kita dapat masukkan apa yang diperolehi dari Barat atau mana-mana, dari Timur, tetapi juga dari keyakinan dan nilai kita, budaya kita. Itu cabaran anak muda. Arigato Gozaimasu. Ada soalan lain?

 

 

Pelajar 3: Bismillahirrahmanirrahim. Assalamualaikum. Yang Amat Berhormat Dato’ Seri Anwar bin Ibrahim, dengan penuh hormat, saya Nur Hidayatul Munirah, mewakili para pelajar Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, UTM. Dari Fakulti of Artificial Intelligence, ingin merakamkan setinggi-tinggi penghargaan kepada pihak kementerian atas usaha berterusan dalam memperkukuh mutu pendidikan tinggi negara.

 

Secara keseluruhan, saya berasa gembira dan bersyukur menimba ilmu di UTM. Namun begitu, terdapat beberapa isu yang ingin kami kemukakan untuk perhatian dan pertimbangan pihak kementerian. Isu yang pertama, isu biasiswa JPA dan MARA. Para pelajar, saya, tidak dapat memohon biasiswa JPA dan MARA kerana program pengajian yang diikuti tidak tersenarai dalam senarai,

 

PM: Dah, dah masuk. Dulu tidak, sekarang dah masuk. Okey, next question.

 

Pelajar 3: Isu yang kedua, kemudahan makmal yang belum lengkap. Isu berkaitan kemudahan makmal.

 

PM: Makmal, makmal tahun lalu kita mula dengan RM20 juta. Sekarang dalam peruntukan sekarang KPT kita dah tambah supaya makmal di fakulti bukan jadi UTM di semua universiti ada fasiliti. Alright? Terima kasih.

 

Pelajar 4: A very good afternoon to Yang Amat Berhormat Dato’ Seri Anwar, other ministers, distinguished guests and other potential leaders all across the world. My name is Pamela anak Louis and I’m a student from University of Technology Sarawak. So, here is my question. Yang Amat Berhormat, Sarawak has a great potential to become a leading hub for artificial intelligence, or we call as AI development in Malaysia. With resources such as Bakun Dam and also Baleh Dam, which we, the Sarawak generate sustainable hydroelectric powers, Sarawak has the big capacity to support large-scale data centers and energy- intensive AI operations. So, here’s the question. In the line with Malaysia’s vision to strengthen our digital economy, will the federal government consider a deeper collaboration with the Sarawak government to position Sarawak as a national center for AI innovation, research, and development?

 

 

PM: Thank you. If you follow the development, the national policy from the 13th Malaysia Plan to the budget, I always make reference to Sarawak as the energy hub for the region. Okay? So you don’t only listen to some parochial politicians. You should read from the national agenda. And wherever I go, from Geneva to Japan, I always promote Sarawak as energy and now even semiconductor hub. And, I think this is important because they have the capacity not only hydro but green hydrogen, although it is the question of cost has been considered. I even promoted strongly in Japan for them to continue to invest in Sarawak. So, it is important to realize that we promote Kulim Hi-Tech, or Penang, or Johor, or Sarawak, or Sabah for that matter in the blue economy.

 

One of the ASEAN’s strategic pillars is the ASEAN Power Grid from Vietnam to Malaysia to Singapore, from Sarawak to Semenanjung to Singapore, Sarawak to Sabah to Indonesia to the Philippines. And that is a national agenda which we work together with Sarawak. So don’t worry about that. My concern is because some people, because of the strong influence of parochialism and tribalism, they intend  to look at it differently. But if they follow, again I should reiterate the point, if you follow the national strategy, certainly Sarawak when it comes to energy and now semiconductor. You know I was there with the installation to open the new factory in Kuching or near Kuching and have given a clear direction as a national policy to support the capacity of Sarawak in this area. Okay? Terima kasih.

 

 

Pelajar 5: Bismillahirrahmanirrahim. Assalamualaikum Dato’ Seri Anwar Ibrahim. Salam ilmu keikhlasan keseimbangan UniMAP dan juga salam Malaysia MADANI. Saya Iman Husaini Syahiri bin Abdul Halim daripada UniMAP. So, the question is, how does Budget 2026 create new opportunities for youth empowerment in education also entrepreneurship? And what steps will be taken to ensure these benefits reach youth in both urban and rural areas? So, to be simplified, what the opportunities that will youth get in every corner of Malaysia from the Budget 2026?

 

PM: Thank you. You see Budget 2026, you must realize this. In the framing a budget, what is required? Required firstly, to understand the national priorities. Of course, the country has to grow, we have to propel the economy, you got to be attractive as a destination for foreign direct investments and at the same time to attract domestic investments to be more vigorous in their efforts to invest. Now, this morning I was at 8:00 a.m. with the Prime Minister’s Department gathering. And I talked about, first you must understand the macroeconomic policy. Some of you of course specialized in economics or in various faculties associated with the political economy of just economics. We all talk about Adam Smith. Our generation in particular, we just absorbed the thinking about economic policy based on The Wealth of Nations, which to me remains a very important treatise. I’m not disputing that. But there’s one view, a prominent view and the problem is our education system. Sometimes we get obsessed with that particular view. But even then, even if you decide to place such an importance to Adam Smith’s work, Wealth of Nations, you must also understand and realize that Adam Smith has two masterpieces. One is Wealth of Nations and the other is a Theory of Moral Sentiment. You should read both. Wealth of Nations focus mainly on issue of growth of capital and of course, a capitalistic economy.

 

But the Theory of Moral Sentiments talked about concern, justice, concern for the welfare of the workers. So, it’s a bit balanced about the issue of moral sentiments. That’s why the title of this book is the Theory of Moral Sentiments.

 

 

Today is Unbalance. I was in a retreat with Amartya Sen and Michel Camdessus in Bilbao, Spain. Amartya Sen brought his wife Emma, philosophy professor of history from Oxford. It’s interesting that when we were discussing Adam Smith’s Wealth of Nations and Theory of Moral Sentiment, she made this very pertinent remark which surprised me.

 

 

She said, “Anwar, notwithstanding your concern and criticism of Adam Smith, which I share because of the need to be more concerned with the welfare of the poor and the marginalized, is she said at least 14 or 17 times in the Wealth of Nations where Adam made reference to the word inequality”. It was shocking because what we read or when we studied or we taught, purely capitalist adventure. What more if you look at Theory of Moral Sentiments?

 

 

So, in crafting a budget, I have to consider, for example, growth, confidence, domestic, foreign, direct investments. At the same time, what is growth? To whom? I mean, to welfare, the majority. To the people. How can you have a country booming with we used to have 10%, now 4.5% and still we have abject poverty. People who don’t have enough to eat or can’t buy school uniform. To me it’s not acceptable. We have to try and find ways and means to help resolve them.

 

 

In order to disburse more funds to education, to health, to infrastructure, then you need to tax. That is the conventional theory. In the past there has been that you have to tax in order to get revenue to spend. But if you do that, what is the assumption? The assumption is everything is right. Everything is not right. Not even in this country. Why? There are many leakages. There’s still corruption. There’s still smuggling. There are still cartels. Why do we deal with this first? But this involves big tycoons, big players, powerful people. They’ve squandered not RM100 million but billions. Take it back. The government has to take them back and spend on the people, on education and on the young.

 

 

Now, it’s not easy. I’m telling you. We used to subsidize in a form or other, for chicken to help. Okay? The rational is what? To help the people, we have to subsidize. How much? Average RM1 billion per year. Just subsidize so that the price of chicken is low. Okay?

 

 

Then we look, why is it the price of chicken in Thailand is much lower? So, we say no. Withdraw that support because it’s controlled by the cartels. Talk to the cartels. If they threaten to increase the price, we’ll import the cheap chicken from Thailand put in the cold storage and then bring it out and distribute if they start imposing a higher price. We did those two years back. We saved RM1 billion per year and the price of chicken is still low.

 

 

That’s what policy is all about. We don’t tax. We withdraw that subsidy to the rich, to the cartels. Same in case of chicken. We introduced two years back this tariff for electricity. It became a big issue. PMX is unjust. Increasing price of tariff to the people. But 85% of the people, your families here don’t pay. The rich industries pay. They’re very rich people. You have 6 aircond in your house. Why must the government subsidize you? You pay. Why is it so difficult?

 

 

So here you have Members of Parliament, particularly in the opposition, talking and opposing this. So, I asked them, whom do you represent? You represent the rich. You go to the village. You say “we are the champion and the conscience of the people”. You go to parliament; you support the rich. I mean the rich, we are not even penalizing them. We’re not imposing a higher fee. We’re just saying you pay the market rate. We’re not subsidizing you. How much did we save? About RM5 billion per year.

 

 

Okay, now RON95 subsidy, petroleum. We reduce to RM 1.99 for Malaysians and the foreigners. my apologies many of you. You pay and still it’s cheap. Don’t complain. Our price of petroleum, RON95 is cheaper than Saudi Arabia or Qatar. Okay. How much can we save? RM2.5 billion. So, I don’t need to tax. Just break that monopoly. Break the cartel.

 

 

So, similarly we have smuggling, rampant smuggling, poor enforcement. But. the last two years, I announced on Friday, we shocked many of my colleagues. Even Zamri was surprised. I don’t know why he should be surprised, but he was. Because we thought probably we are able to take back from corrupt money from the syndicates, from smugglers, from all sort of cartels and syndicates. You know, in two years we collected RM15.5 billion. This is why I’ve been talking about governance, tatakelola. Leadership must be clean and stop this nonsense, this corruption in our country. Yes, and I need the support of the young. You must take the lead. You must say no more corruption in this country. No smuggling, no syndicate. Yeah.

 

 

Now, because of that, I’m able to start something which is close and dear to my heart. Education should be free. So, I started. I can’t go, I mean, in a radical way. I got to do it, make sure it is done in phases. So, from next year, the very poor in this country will get free education until university. And insh-Allah, if the governance is right, we will slowly graduate that. So, PTPTN they can borrow, but they didn’t pay back. It becomes a scholarship. See, we can. Why do I get to do this? Because I’m able to make sure and crack these excesses and leakages.

 

 

Now, similarly to the GIG, we are now giving so much assistance. First, the GIG economy, because a few hundred thousand young people are involved in that. Additional training, additional exposure. Now, if you get to the right disciplines in the universities, there’s no issue about graduate unemployment. We will have to make sure that there is no mismatch. We have to make sure that people are more trained and qualified in the right discipline. We must make sure the universities provide better education.

 

 

We are short of 30,000 engineers in this country and now AI and accountancy, law, even proficiency in languages, English in particular. So, I think we’ll do whatever is necessary. Because I think if you look at the 2026 budget, the focus is not offending our parents, but more so to the young and students, primary school, secondary school, and graduates and youth in general. A lot of focus is given for training, including TVET, and opportunities for retraining, upskilling, reskilling, etc. Okay. Terima Kasih.

 

Pelajar 4: Hello, Assalamualaikum and good afternoon Datuk seri. My name is Abdul Akil Naim. I’m from UTEM University Technical Malaysia, Melaka. So I’m gonna keep it short and simple. My questions are regarding our brothers and sisters from Palestine. My question is regarding our stance and the GSF issue. What are the tangible steps the government is currently taking or planning to translate Malaysia’s strong words into impactful global actions? And the second one is what do we, the young leaders here, can do to actively take part and participate regarding this issue?

 

PM: Thank you. That’s the correct attitude. You know, why do you focus on education? What do you learn? Learn, of course, in the very phase of specialization. But. the whole idea of education, as I said, is to assimilate knowledge, but to disseminate what you understand as truth and justice, and you value freedom. Whether your parents or your grandparents fought against the British and attained independence, whether Indonesians fought against the Dutch or the Vietnamese against the French, and then later the Americans because they value freedom, they value human dignity they fight against colonialism because colonialism is a policy, is degrading men and women, it is exploitation par l’autre in French.

Exploitation of man by man so similarly in the case of Gaza or the Palestinians, that’s why I hear some small minority Malaysians who question why, why give money to the Palestinians? I mean, we have spent RM400 billion in this country, can’t we give RM100 million ringgit?

 

I mean, I can’t understand so they are so I, I’m thank you because at least you represent the conscience of the majority. That’s what students are for you represent the conscience of the majority what is right, what is just, what is free, and you understand why your parents, your grandparents, fought against the colonial masters because you respect human dignity you want freedom for your people.

 

 

Why do you deny freedom for the Palestinians? Because different color, different religion, of course, majority Muslims, there are Christians why do you allow colonialism? why is it possible to be colonized? Europeans just issued a statement, more sanctions against Russia because of their policy in Ukraine, why the silence against the Palestinians?

 

 

That’s why I say many of these countries try and preach us, talk to us about freedom about human rights, about democracy such hypocrisy we don’t want to hear anymore. So, we do whatever we can flotilla is one initiative, not my initiative I can’t claim credit, some young Malaysians wanted to take the lead. Oh, I say okay, they move on we support, facilitate them then I said, okay, they want me to be fully supportive and endorsed I said yes, and I happen to be the first leader in any country to support officially.

 

 

Then recently Colombia endorsed, thank you very much and then now I suggested them okay, now that today’s peace we of course express our appreciation to President Donald Trump, Qatar, Egypt and all these countries that supported the peace initiative we hope it works and it is important for the region and for humanity at large and they are now a Sharm el-Sheikh working on the initial phase.

 

 

But I’ve told our friends in Sumud Nusantara Flotilla to say now you don’t need to go by sea, go by land I hope to communicate to President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi the next few days to suggest to him that, you know, allow our contingent to go via Egypt to Rafah and continue to assist with complete devastation.

 

 

That’s why, you know, I know ours is a small country, we don’t have big defense establishment, but we value dignity you know, why are we involved in the squabble between Thailand and Cambodia as I said, they are here. They were here yesterday working with our team to try and facilitate why did I send the foreign minister to Myanmar last week to try to tell them, look, stop this fighting, try and negotiate, find a makeable settlement, we did send our military field hospital in Myanmar. What was the condition?

 

 

Stop the shooting, allow access to humanitarian aid I know that I agree with their policies, but that’s the minimum so that in a small way, things that we need to do now the focus by the Arab countries, the neighboring countries and many some European countries I think President Donald Trump is convening a meeting some 15, 20 countries in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt to try and resolve.

 

 

We’ll support I may have differences with many of them, doesn’t matter but on issues of peace, on issues of human dignity we should be together. So thank you very much and we will certainly do whatever we can and I appreciate the sentiment of the young because these are the seeds of awareness that is implanted in you from now if you don’t care, I mean, you don’t value education, you don’t care about human dignity,  you don’t care about injustice. Oh, never mind after all, he’s somewhere in Ulu Rajang what do I care? I have enough problems here, that is the beginning of the dehumanizing attitude it doesn’t matter well, doesn’t matter he’s a Hindu somewhere in the estate see, I’ve heard some friends say that or some now Indians, okay.

 

 

Oh, why must you have so much program for the Bumiputera? What is this dialogue? What did you ask? Oh, you’re doing this for fair, but what else can you do for the Indians? I mean, that should be the language in Malaysia, then we work together you know, because this is how a country can evolve and grow as united one but more important in my mind that if you understand the Madani framework is about human values it’s about trust, about respect, humanity, you know you are born a Dayak So what? You know, I’m born a Malay, but there is human respect there and trust and when you see the dancers, the culture, I mean, I love it I mean, this is part of my country and I think these things that we rejoice, we need to add oh, they are different they are different.

 

They are different. Why? so when you talk about your concern, your care for those who have been oppressed anyway, as I mentioned, we say, oh, only Palestinian, no, we work hard.

 

Yesterday again, I was in touch with the Prime Minister in Thailand and Cambodia and we work hard and last week I met twice the Prime Minister General of Myanmar, and I sent again the foreign Minister last week that’s Myanmar because they are our neighbors.

 

This is our concern I mean oh, never mind. Why do you care? We have enough problems here of course we have enough problems here but that’s how humanity is about so thank you very much. I appreciate. Thank you again. Yes.

 

Pelajar 5: Greetings, Dato’ Seri I’m an international student from Bangladesh studying at University Bangladesh.

 

 

PM: Okay. Bangladesh is a country Biplob and Shongram. Yes, you translate to them what is Biplob o Shongram

 

Pelajar 5: Sorry, I couldn’t get to you. Biplob means to fight against the wrongdoings and Shongram means the way you fight against it. My question to you is, what do you think is the most important thing young Malaysians and international youths can do to build a nation and promote understanding along with closing divides in this digital age? Thank you.

 

 

PM: Why do you ask me difficult questions at the end? Okay, first, as I said, students must acquire knowledge you see you must really love knowledge it’s not just studying and passing exams it’s what Sayyidina Ali bin Abi Talib referred to as Lazatul Ma’ Rifah is love for scholarship you continue to learn and read. Why? Because your knowledge is limited even when you think you are smart or brilliant, you always have to have that humility to acquire knowledge.

 

 

Many of you have heard that one of my favorite poets is T.S. Eliot and I can recall exactly when he referred to humility in Islam is to be “Tawadduk” the only wisdom one hopes to acquire is the wisdom of humility.

 

 

Humility is endless that means humility once if you are humble, you realize that you need to listen and learn but that is a major you have to excel in your studies of course you have various disciplines.

 

 

But as you know this great Spanish philosopher, when he talks about barbarism of specialization, there’s our failure in many of our education system that’s why I think the minister and the ministry is trying to get people to understand values. In MADANI framework, of course you have to specialize you have to AI engineering, whatever, new technology, energy, transition but you have to understand that your studies is to understand yourself, your family, your society and human needs otherwise is barbarism of specialization.

 

 

You know how to build bridges, but you don’t understand that there’s also need to have a bridge between peoples and cultures. Okay, so that to me is number one, the priority to imbibe knowledge then of course you have to imbibe this sense, the belief, this strong conviction and with this conviction, courage of conviction to defend the truth, justice and freedom but with knowledge otherwise you can see as our friend from Indonesia was saying, ignorance.

Ignorance is not knowledge, so before you decide, before you listen to all these jokers and pedestrian talk you must try and understand and appreciate values and through that you give a better sense of conviction because you have a purpose.  This is another term; tenacity of purpose you know what you want in life? Oh, you have to succeed, you have to be great professional but for what?

 

 

Just to enrich yourself, to buy expensive cars and have a beautiful house is that all? Then that’s not educated you are not educated you had some form of specialization so there must be a higher aim in life, and I believe looking at the enthusiasm of the young here I am deeply encouraged.

 

 

Saya sangat terkesan kerana saya lihat semangat anak anak, saya ucap terima kasih.

 

Assalamulaikum Warahmahtulaahi Wabarakatuh