Proud moment: Sultan Abdullah presenting the Chancellor’s Award to Siti Nur Amirah Abdul Hamid at UniKL’s 20th convocation ceremony at the World Trade Centre Kuala Lumpur. — Bernama
KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysians should always be grateful for the blessings of peace and freedom and never take these for granted, says the Yang di-Pertuan Agong.
In making the call, Al-Sultan Abdullah Ri’ayatuddin Al-Mustafa Billah Shah said the country should not be marred by polemics that stoked the flames of animosity, as disputes and wars would only destroy the dreams and future of a nation.
His Majesty cautioned that this would ultimately result in the destruction of the entire community.
“The world is dealing with a number of crises that have a direct impact on the young generation’s future. In my opinion, armed conflict, war and discord are the greatest threats to the future of the young generation and the world.
“Since the end of World War II in 1945, the world has never been at peace due to conflicts, disputes and wars that have occurred in various parts of the globe.
“Despite the catastrophic destruction of property, loss of millions of lives, humanitarian conflict and destruction of the world’s ecological system, people just refuse to learn from history,” he said in his Royal Address at Universiti Kuala Lumpur’s (UniKL) 20th convocation ceremony here yesterday.
Expressing sadness and concern over the current humanitarian crisis in Palestine, which has claimed thousands of lives, His Majesty prayed for God to grant the Palestinian people protection and fortitude, as well as peace, in the land of Palestine.
Drawing lessons from the plight of the Palestinian people, the King, who is the UniKL Chancellor, urged young Malaysians to continue to acquire knowledge, saying education was a powerful force capable of instilling good values, and reject all forms of violence.
“Besides acquiring as much knowledge as possible, the country’s younger generation must be educated and nurtured with a strong sense of patriotism to always stand firm and uphold the principle of loyalty to the King and beloved nation.
“They should also be inculcated with democratic values that defend the national identity, religion, national sovereignty and the supremacy of the Constitution so that our beloved homeland is not pawned off to foreign powers,” he said.
The King said that as heirs of the nation, the younger generation should be the primary force in shaping the future and must not just excel academically but they also needed to possess a wide range of skills, a good character as well as a noble personality.
His Majesty said he was pleased with UniKL’s accomplishment of producing the first batch of Al-Hafiz graduates via its Professional Huffaz programme at the convocation.
“UniKL has now taken steps towards shaping the nation’s future generation through a new approach to producing huffaz technologists who integrate both memorisation of the Quran and skill. Well done and congratulations!” he said.
At the ceremony, Bernama reported that the King also presented the Ulul-Albab Special Award to Izdihar Amri Saari Al-Hafiz, one of the 51 graduates of UniKL’s Professional Huffaz programme.
The maiden award is to recognise the accomplishments of graduates of the programme who memorised 30 juzu’ of the Quran and passed the memorisation test to receive the Malaysian Tahfiz Certificate from the Darul Quran Department of Islamic Development Malaysia.
Also present were Deputy Rural and Regional Development Minister Datuk Rubiah Wang, UniKL pro-chancellor and Mara chairman Datuk Dr Asyraf Wajdi Dusuki, Mara director-general Datuk Seri Azhar Abdul Manaf and UniKL chairman Datuk Seri Sh Mohmed Puzi Sh Ali.
A total of 6,039 graduates are to receive their scrolls at the convocation, which will be spread over eight sessions until Tuesday.
