By IANS,
Kuala Lumpur : Former US President Bill Clinton has said that he was even more proud of his wife Hillary, now that she has been chosen to be the secretary of state in the Barack Obama administration.
“The country will have a good economic and national security team,” he said during his first visit here to receive an award named after an ethnic Indian rubber technology expert.
He admitted to having “differences all the time” with his wife, but said that conflict was “healthy”
“My wife, Hillary, and I also disagree on many issues but it is this disagreement that allows thinking. It is healthy to have discussions,” he said during the question-and-answer session after he delivered the B.C.Sekhar Memorial Lecture.
The late B.C. Sekhar, who migrated from India, dedicated his life to rubber research and development in the country and was fondly known as Mr Natural Rubber.
Clinton linked the differences with his wife with the conflict that the world was witnessing and stressed the need to respect each other’s views.
He noted that political conflict was a “good thing”, adding that disagreements or discussions only promoted thinking.
Mutual respect extended to people of different faiths, he added.
“It is this ability to respect people’s faith that I admire in Malaysia. If only everyone could look another person in their eye and welcome them to their common space, what a different world we would have,” The Star newspaper quoted him as saying Saturday.
Malaysia is a multi-ethnic, multi-religious society with majority Malay Muslims, about 33 ethnic Chinese and eight percent Indians, from different regions and religions.
“Malaysia is the model that there is hope for the future. The people here who are from varied races, religions and all sorts of background who have learned to work together and stay together.
“This is what the world should be like,” he said, adding that memories of “this remarkable nation will forever be in my mind”.