CROWN PRINCE WORRIED ABOUT WRITING TREND

KUALA LUMPUR, April 21 (Bernama) -- The Crown Prince of northern state of
Perak, Raja Dr Nazrin Shah, on Tuesday expressed concern over the trend whereby
authors in the country are more interested in writing political books that run
down certain individuals.

He said this popular trend of producing destructive political books for
short-term political and commercial objective chose themes that denigrated
certain individuals, occurred on a seasonal basis and was closely linked to the
timing of certain political organisations' activities.

"If this trend continues to grow, I fear that it will create an unhealthy
writing culture, a writing culture which nurtures lies, a writing culture which
is unethical and ready to ignore fact and one that will have a negative
influence on the development of the people's minds," he said.

He was speaking when launching the book, "Keberanian Menggapai Harapan", a
translation of the book, "Audacity of Hope", by US President Barack Hussein
Obama. The translation was done by the National Institute of Translation.

He said such writing culture would surely cause a loss to the race in the
long run compared with whatever short-term profit motivated by the narrow
objectives of certain groups or individuals.

Raja Nazri said he had been informed that the National Institute of
Translation was implementing a project to translate the premier works of
Malaysia from the Malay language into English, among them the Malaka Laws
and the Laws of the Sea as well as the old folks tales.

These premier works reflected the height of culture, an invaluable social
capital of the race. They clearly showed that the Malays were a race with high
culture, a supreme civilisation with customs, good manners and values in their
daily lives, good relationship among the rulers, ulama, dignitaries, leaders,
traders and people and a system of government based on the law, he said.

He said a race that had attained such high culture and supreme civilisation
was then left adrift by the tide of colonialism until its majority was sidelined
by the development which later occurred in its culture.

"It's written in these premier works how the greatness and pride of the race
were destroyed by friction within the race, how the tussle for region and state
among the race, the hatred, jealousy and lies, the greed and the struggle for
power in the Malay world became the source that facilitated the colonisation
process.

"And ultimately, the social, political, cultural and economic price that had
to be paid by the race due to colonisation," he said, adding that finally the
motherland was conquered and the race received its fate and was sidelined on the
land of its forefathers.

On Obama, Raja Nazrin said it was clear that the United States president was
efficient in using modern communication instruments to win the minds, hearts and
emotions of the US citizens to get elected as president.

"Whether by design or accident, Barack Hussein Obama had crafted an
infrastructure for a political path to get to the White House. He had chosen a
path that let him through each toll gate. The political path that he chose had
been accepted by the large majority of the American people," he said.

He said Obama was a product of the premier education system in the US, spoke
the language and practised the culture of majority of Americans, chose to follow
Christianity, the religion of the majority of the Americans, although his
grandfather, Hussein Onyango Obama, was a Muslim and his father, Barack Hussein
Obama Sr, was born to a Muslim family.

He said Obama could be likened to a true American in all aspects with the
true qualities of an American who held to the principle of adapting to the
environment.
-- BERNAMA