09 March 2013| last updated at 12:31AM
'Lahad Datu shows value of peace'
AN EYE-OPENER: PM reminds people not to take for granted what we have
Datuk Seri Najib Razak gets a rousing welcome from villagers during his visit to the home of Sabariah Ijam, a senior citizen, in Kampung Teluk Rhu before launching the 1Malaysia Family Care programme at Sultan Idris Shah Polytechnic in Sungai Air Tawar, Sabak Bernam, yesterday.
THE Lahad Datu crisis has given Malaysians who have never experienced life during war a glimpse of what a country without peace can be like. Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak said Malaysians who have enjoyed continued peace and harmony don't know what a country without peace is like.
"Those who are healthy can never imagine what it feels like to have their health threatened, it is the same for us who have enjoyed continued peace for decades. "We will not know and cannot imagine what we have to go through and what it is like to have a nation in turmoil. "There is nothing we can do without peace," he said in his speech before launching the 1Malaysia Family Care at Sultan Idris Shah Polytechnic in Sungai Air Tawar, here yesterday.
He said those who experienced life during the Japanese occupation understood the hardship if peace could not be maintained. These days, if we were given a choice between nasi lemak and ubi kayu (tapioca), we will choose ubi kayu but during the Japanese occupation, they did not have a choice.
"Ubi kayu was the staple. If the country is in turmoil, there will not be enough rice."
He said after what happened in Lahad Datu and Semporna, all Malaysians could witness the hardship faced by residents there. However, in facing this threat, Najib, who just returned from his visit in Lahad Datu on Thursday, reiterated that the government would not compromise in matters concerning the country's sovereignty.
"The sad thing is that while we are doing our best to safeguard the country, there are those who took the opportunity to gain political mileage and belittled the sacrifice of our security forces. "There are also those who tried to instigate the people by telling them that this was all a charade."
Meanwhile, speaking on the 1Malaysia Family Care programme, he said it was a joint effort between the Health Ministry and Women, Family and Community Development Ministry to implement a programme so that they could work outside their jurisdiction and deliver service to the people in a more holistic manner with minimum cost.
"What we are doing through the 1Malaysia Family Care programme is to complement our efforts in ensuring that the peoples' quality of life continues to improve. "If we are not healthy, it is meaningless."
Health, he said, must also be top priority for the public and stressed on the importance of healthy eating and exercise.
"This is why we have come up with the 1Malaysia Family Care programme, to make sure Malaysians become more healthy, through healthcare, health system and more than 130 1Malaysia clinics, with another 70 in the pipeline this year," Najib said.
Through the initiative, 7,000 senior citizens, 12,000 disabled and 5,000 single mothers have received medical check-ups, 4,000 received treatment while another 3,000 who were bedridden had those taking care of them given training.
Najib added that a pilot project to set up a kindergarten for special needs children had also been initiated.
