AWARD WINNER OWES IT TO MALAYSIANS, ASSOCIATES FOR HONOUR By Ravichandran D.J. Paul

KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 27 (Bernama) -- Merdeka Award 2008 winner Leslie Davidson says he owes it to the people of Malaysia and his associates in the palm oil industry for the honour he received as one of the five winners of the Malaysian prestigious award.

"The people of Malaya, and later Malaysia, are the ones who inspired me,
along with my associates.

"I am very proud to have received this esteemed award, and it is just
amazing that I have been selected along with distinguished personalities like
Royal Prof Ungku Abdul Aziz and the others," he said.

Davidson received the award for the Outstanding Contribution to the People
of Malaysia category and Royal Prof Ungku Aziz for the Education and Community
category. The Nipah Encephalitis Investigation Team of the Faculty of Medicine,
Universiti Malaya, and Prof Datuk Dr Khalid Kadir received the award for the
Health, Science and Technology category, and the Malaysian Nature Society for
the Environment category.

The Merdeka Award was established to recognise and reward individuals and
organisations that had made outstanding contributions for the advancement of
Malaysia and its people in the five categories.

Initiated by Petronas, ExxonMobil and Shell, the Merdeka Award was launched
by Malaysian Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi on Aug 27, 2007 in conjunction
with the country's golden jubilee.

It was so named to celebrate the true spirit of independence that drives
exceptional individuals or organisations to push boundaries in their pursuit of
excellence.
The award comes with a trophy, a certificate and RM500,000 cash. It was
presented on Nov 24.

"I never expected this award. A lady from Malaysia telephoned me saying
that I had won an award. Initially I thought this must be another of those
marketing gimmicks and told the lady to stop it but only when she arrived at my
doorstep was I convinced," said Davidson, 77, when met a day after receiving the
award.

Asked what he was going to do with the money, Davidson said: "I am going to
call Dr Rahman Syed in Pakistan and give him a surprise."

Dr Rahman is the scientist whom Davidson had enlisted from the
International Institute of Biological Control in Ascot, United Kingdom, in the
early 1970s. Dr Rahman's research resulted in the introduction of African
weevils in the pollination process and the doubling of the palm oil output per
hectare in Malaysia.

Davidson also indicated that the charitable organisations that he was
familiar with and his seven grandchildren and four great grandchildren would
probably be the beneficiaries as well.

When asked on his advice to Malaysians, he said: "I don't have any advice
for them. In fact, when I was in Malaysia I did not like the guys from London
advising me on how to run the show here. I think Malaysians know what is best
for them.

"But what I will like to say is that all the Merdeka Award recipients are
basically people dissatisfied with how things were and wanted a change and this
is what made them different."

Davidson, who later became the Unilever International Plantations Group
chairman, was instrumental in opening oil palm estates in Sabah and addressing
many of the problems relating to oil palm cultivation there with worldwide
implications. He first arrived in Peninsular Malaysia (then Malaya) in 1951 and
was posted to Sabah in 1960.

Now retired, the Scottish planter from Aberdeen is residing in Ditchling,
Sussex, United Kingdom.

He has written a book entitled "East of Kinabalu" which he says took him 37
years to complete.

Although he may have lost his fluency in Bahasa Malaysia, he still
cherishes the "datuk" prefix to his name.

He remains a luminary of the oil palm industry and has represented many
palm oil producing nations. He recently represented the Malaysian delegation in
Brussels in putting forward arguments over the feasibility of bio-fuel.
-- BERNAMA