KUALA LUMPUR, June 3 — Humility can be instilled from young if children are taught how to clean toilets, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim said today.

He said many children from rich backgrounds had no respect nor concern for the daily hardships the lower income groups have to face, and that his Malaysia Madani concept will not tolerate such behaviour.

He added that children of all ages and backgrounds can learn to appreciate what the common man does if they were made to clean toilets at home or at school.

"Kids must be taught to learn to clean toilets to learn what humility and good values are. If they’re taught so they will appreciate the work their moms or public lavatory workers do, they will know its difficulties.

"This was practised during my time when I was the minister of education. Even then I faced resistance when an upper class professional family wrote a telegram to me protesting their kids cleaning toilets. They said their kid was there to study, not clean toilets.

"See the mentality? Education is about respecting people, even those cleaning toilets.

"If our kids are taught this then they will learn to appreciate people and the hard work they do. And for those kids who don’t want to comply with the rules, so be it; they will be barred from using the school toilets,” Anwar said while opening the Selera Madani food court at Jalan Jujur, Bandar Tun Razak here this afternoon.

In his speech, Anwar said his government is focusing on people-centric projects rather than pushing out mega projects costing billions of ringgit.

He said places like Kuala Lumpur have enough six-star hotels, trendy restaurants and upper class areas to cater to the hip crowd.

However, he said there is a severe lack of public facilities such as parks and public toilets.

Anwar also announced a RM200 reduction in rent for food stall owners at the D’Anjung Selera food court that he just opened, under the Program Lestari Niaga.

The previous monthly rental was RM400. The food court houses 24 stalls and has a surau, toilet and a waste disposal section.