World Political Leaders Should Seriously Practise Good Values - Malaysian DPM

KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 29 (Bernama) -- Muhyiddin Yassin Tuesday said that political leaders should continue to emulate good values that were practised by their forefathers and ancestors to successfully transform politically, economically and socially at the global stage. The deputy prime minister of Malaysia said they needed to respect diversity of civilizations and promote good-neighbourly relations by respecting each other's choices of development path and efforts to promote economic and social development and improve people's lives. "We need to translate the diversity of our world into a driving force for more dynamic exchanges and cooperation, increase mutual understanding and trust and take our cooperation to higher levels," he said. Muhyiddin said this at the closing of the international forum on "Politics of Economic and Social Transformation in the Era of Global Crisis" in conjunction with the Umno General Assembly 2011, here. The United Malays National Organisation,(abbreviated as UMNO) is Malaysia's largest political party; a founding member of the National Front coalition, which has played a dominant role in Malaysian politics since independence. The UMNO emphasizes as its foundation the struggle to uphold the aspirations of Malay nationalism and the dignity of race, religion and country. The deputy prime minister said the world political parties also needed to transform the development pattern and promote all-round development. "We should transform the economic development pattern in keeping with global trends, restructure our economies, build capacity for scientific and technological innovation and develop the green economy," he said. Muhyiddin, who is also the Umno deputy president, pointed out that they should work for balanced development of the real economy and the financial sector. He said they should also focus on the speed and quality of development and ensure both efficiency and equity, by integrating effort to develop the economy and improve the people's well-being. "We need to share development opportunities and meet challenges together. We should intensify macroeconomic policy coordination, expand shared interests and work for the common development. "Large countries should support small ones, rich countries should help poor ones and all countries should help each other so as to seize opportunities to tackle challenges together," he said. He said mutual benefits also needed to be promoted, and cooperation mechanisms strengthened, while political leaders should follow the principles of consensus and incremental progress, respect the common wishes of all parties and encourage the coexistence of different mechanisms. We should adhere to open regionalism and respect the presence and interests of countries, he added. Muhyddin also said the path out of the global issues such as starvation, human-trafficking and a massive world economic crisis would not be easy and it should take courage to transform as the previous practices had fallen short. "But as long as we remain committed to create an effective multilateral process, we will be able to build a more stable economy, politically and socially that will benefit our generations to come," he added. Sixty-five representatives of 25 political parties from 22 nations, attended the two-day forum. -- BERNAMA