Speech by Datuk Zaid Ibrahim at LAWASIA 2008 31 October 2008 @ 9.00am Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre Malaysia
1. Let me start by inviting you back into history. Imagine that it is the morning of the 31st of August 1957. At midnight, an independent nation calling itself the Federation of Malaya is to be unveiled.
Conceived as a cutting edge model of multiracial and multi-religious co-existence and cooperation, it is poised to stand out as an example of what can be achieved through diplomacy and a respect for the spirit of democracy.
It is of great historical significance that the transition from colony to independent nation, so often achieved only at the great price that turmoil and unrest exacts, has been achieved peacefully.
Though this is a process that may have been made more difficult without the skill and fortitude with which negotiations to that end have been carried out, they do not define it.
That honour goes to the aspirations of all those who call Malaya home. The quest for self-determination has not been one that recognised race. It has been, simply put, a Malayan one. ... MORE from The STAR
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