KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 4 — The Yang di-Pertuan Agong Al-Sultan Abdullah Ri’ayatuddin Al-Mustafa Billah Shah graced the 15th National Laureate Award Ceremony tonight.

Al-Sultan Abdullah and the Raja Permaisuri Agong Tunku Hajah Azizah Aminah Maimunah Iskandariah arrived at the ceremony held at a hotel here at 8.45pm and were greeted by Senior Education Minister Datuk Mohd Radzi Md Jidin and his wife Datin Balkis Zakaria.

Also present were Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka (DBP) board chairman and the chief panellist of the 15th National Laureate Award Prof Datuk Seri Awang Sariyan and DBP director-general Datuk Abang Sallehuddin Abg Shokeran.

Radzi introduced the recipient of the 15th National Laureate Award, Datuk Rahman Shaari, to Al-Sultan Abdullah and Tunku Azizah.

His Majesty then presented the award to Rahman before the latter read out his speech.

Rahman in his speech said Malay Literature should continue to be streamlined by applying the focus and experiential learning method.

He said the selection of works to be used as school texts should also be done carefully.

"If these two aspects are successfully developed, we have no reason to see literature as a subject that is below science or any other subject or stream,” said the author who has produced a number of poetry books in addition to novels, short stories and drama scripts.

On June 22, Rahman was announced as the recipient of the 15th National Laureate Award, which carries the title of National Laureate.

He was picked for his lifelong contribution to the development of literature in the country. — Bernama