SHAH ALAM, April 1 — Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad today shared his formula for Malaysia’s success, boiling it down to the values of hard work combined with knowledge and integrity.
In his keynote address at the “Rise of the Asian Tiger” convention meant to push for Malaysia to regain such recognition as an up-and-coming economy, Dr Mahathir went off the cuff and heavily emphasised the need for Malaysians to be hardworking.
Dr Mahathir said the importance of being hardworking does not only result in different outcomes for individuals, but also for an entire race or nation.
“We find also that a people or a race is hardworking, and another race is lazy, we will see the hardworking one succeed and the lazy one fail.
“That’s why having a good life value is very important for the development of a country, a race or a nation,” he said at Universiti Teknologi MARA’s (UiTM) campus here, as he espoused the benefit of repeated efforts to enable success.
Dr Mahathir said he felt it was possible for Malaysia to become a developed country as its citizens have the same capabilities as others, but highlighted hard work as a key element for such success.
“That’s why if we want to be a successful people, we must at least have these two values — hard work and expertise in the field of knowledge that we pursue.
“And that expertise comes from being hardworking in pursuing knowledge, so being hardworking is more important,” he said in his almost hour-long speech.
“That’s all we ask from the younger generation... We don’t ask much — be hardworking, be diligent, put in effort repeatedly,” he said.
He also elaborated on the third value which he felt Malaysians must have, namely integrity.
“If we have such values, we will succeed, our people will succeed, our country will succeed, we will achieve developed nation status,” he said, referring to these three life values which he said would determine the country’s success.
Even before his Pakatan Harapan coalition had won power in the May 2018 elections, Dr Mahathir had as early as January 2018 spoken of past recognition of Malaysia as an “Asian Tiger”.
Dr Mahathir had last October also spoken of ambitions for Malaysia to regain the “Asian Tiger” title, including in the mid-term review of the country’s national blueprint 11th Malaysia Plan which determines the country’s direction between 2016 and 2020.
Singapore, Hong Kong, South Korea and Taiwan were previously dubbed as Asian Tigers, and had experienced rapid economic growth in a phenomenon known as the “Asian Miracle”.
Malaysia and three other countries ― Indonesia, Philippines, Thailand ― were previously known as Tiger Cub economies due to the similar economic growth rates.
The convention held at UiTM’s Dewan Agung Tuanku Canselor was jointly organised by Akademi Harimau Asia, Idris Association, the Youth and Sports Ministry and UiTM.
