IPOH, July 21 — A nation may possess abundant resources, a talented population and a rich culture, but still fail its people if its institutions are weak, its leaders unaccountable, or its politics consumed by self-interest rather than public service, said the Sultan of Perak, Sultan Nazrin Shah.

His Royal Highness said good governance in practical terms means the successful coordination of several essential elements in which institutions are strong enough to outlast any single leader or administration.

“It means transparency in how public resources are raised and spent, giving citizens confidence that their contributions serve the common good. It means the impartial application of the rule of law, so that no one, however powerful, sits above accountability and no one, however humble, is denied its protection.

“And it means a political culture in which disagreement is conducted with civility, the opposition is treated as a legitimate check rather than an enemy and power changes hands peacefully when the people so decide,” Sultan Nazrin said in his address at the 8th World Conference on Islamic Thought and Civilisation (WCIT): “Everyone Matters: Pride and Unity in Islam” here today.

Also present were Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Fadillah Yusof, who is also the Minister of Energy Transition and Water Transformation, Perak Menteri Besar Datuk Seri Saarani Mohamad and Higher Education Minister Datuk Seri Dr Zambry Abd Kadir.

Sultan Nazrin said political stability is not the absence of debate as some of the most stable nations in the world are also among the most argumentative, precisely because their disagreements are channelled through legitimate institutions rather than through the street or the “sword”.

His Royal Highness said instability arises not from disagreement itself, but from the erosion of the shared rules by which disagreement is settled.

“When citizens no longer trust that elections are fair, that courts are independent or that public office is not for sale, the fabric of the state begins to fray, and it is invariably the most vulnerable, the poor, the marginalised, the voiceless, who suffer first and most acutely.

“This is why the principle that ‘everyone matters’ must begin in the halls of government. A budget is a moral document as much as a financial one; it reveals, in the starkest possible terms, whose needs a government has chosen to prioritise,” Sultan Nazrin said.

Sultan Nazrin said a civil service that acts in the interests of every citizen without regard to race, religion or political affiliation embodies state unity in its most concrete form, and leaders who govern with humility, listen before they legislate and remember that their power is borrowed rather than owned, do more to secure the loyalty and pride of their people than any slogan ever could.

On development, Sultan Nazrin said it cannot be pursued in isolation as no nation, however talented or resource-rich, thrives by closing itself off from the world because trade, investment, the exchange of knowledge and technology act as the currents on which modern prosperity travels.

“Cooperation between nations, between the public and private sectors, and between government and civil society is the operating condition of sustainable growth.

“We have seen time and again that economies which embrace open trade while building resilient, diversified industries at home, outperform those that retreat into protectionism or over-rely on a single sector,” Sultan Nazrin said.

His Royal Highness said that at the same time, cooperation must not become a euphemism for dependency, nor should openness come at the expense of a nation’s ability to chart its own course as among them is wisdom lies in balance and welcoming foreign investment and expertise while building domestic capacity.

Sultan Nazrin said Islamic finance, despite its enormous potential, remains one of the most underutilised tools for economic cooperation, as Malaysia has positioned itself, over several decades, as a global hub for Islamic finance from sukuk issuance to takaful to Syariah-compliant fund management.

“Yet the true promise of Islamic finance extends far beyond compliance with prohibitions on riba. It offers a fundamentally distinctive philosophy of risk-sharing, asset-backing, and equitable participation in economic gain.

“If we take that philosophy seriously, Islamic finance could become an engine for cross-border infrastructure investment for SME financing across the OIC and for the kind of patient capital that our development challenges, from clean water to renewable energy, desperately require,” Sultan Nazrin said. — Bernama