Ruler: We need courageous leaders
KUALA LUMPUR: Sultan of Perak Sultan Nazrin Muizzuddin Shah yesterday emphasised the importance of having courageous and visionary leadership, saying it is something needed now more than ever.
He said these traits were crucial in me eting ch alle nges and when taking advantage of opportunities in a fast-changing world.
“Every new day, new challenges are thrown at us, and every new day, a leader emerges.
“The progress the world has seen, especially the rapid changes experienced in the last 100 years, is a result of innovative leaders who have not allowed themselves to be cowed by challenges,” he said at the opening of the Leadership Energy Summit Asia organised by ICLIF Leadership and Governance Centre here.
Sultan Nazrin said the same qualities of vision, courage, drive and tenacity in leadership not only made global leaders shine better than others, but had made a greater mark on humanity.
These leaders include Indian freedom fighter Mahatma Gandhi, United States civil rights activist Martin Luther King and South African anti-apartheid revolutionary Nelson Mandela who all had a clear vision of freedom, conviction in their beliefs, a strong moral compass, and worked tirelessly to make the world a better place at a great personal cost and left behind a powerful legacy as a result of their leadership, he said.
“They stand out for their determination and courage, as well as for the magnitude of their achievements.”
The ruler also named Tan Sri Dr Jemilah Mahmood as among the individuals he admired, noting that it was her leadership, energy, tenacity and vision that had propelled Mercy Malaysia, the non-governmental organisation she founded in 1999, to become a leading player in domestic and international disaster response and humanitarian relief.
“Dr Jemilah had a successful career in Kuala Lumpur as a gynaecologist.
“Yet she was motivated, driven, in fact, to leave behind her comfortable middle-class life and take ‘the path less-travelled’, as she puts it. Inspired by a duty to help those less fortunate, she has devoted her humanitarian mission to providing assistance to some of the neediest people in the world.
“In her case, those affected by natural and man-made disasters,” he said, concurring with her peers who had described her as someone who represented and lived her humanitarian values.
He was confident that Dr Jemilah’s legacy would last , just as she had set a shining example of leadership in the present.
Sultan Nazrin named Sulabh International social service founder Dr Bindeshwar Pathak; Microsoft Corporation founder Bill Gates; and the paramount leader of China, the late Deng Xiaoping, as among the leaders he admired who had made an impact on people’s lives.