Famous trio to help promote peace and harmony

Malaysia’s first Angkasawan, Datuk Dr Sheikh Muszaphar Shukor and Malaysian Idols Jaclyn Victor and Daniel Lee have been appointed ambassadors for the upcoming Global Peace Festival 2008.

The three-day festival is to promote a vision of world peace and through service to others, inter-religious harmony and healthy families.

The pop stars will present the theme song of the festival entitled Where Peace Begins at the main celebration while Sheikh Muszaphar will share his experience in space through a talk entitled “Standing in the Eye of the World” at the Global Family Carnival of the festival.

Sheikh Muszaphar said the appointment is an honour to him as he has always been interested in making a change in the world.

“Ever since I came back from space, I found myself uninterested in small, petty things, so when the opportunity came for me to get involved in the Global Peace Festival, I was delighted,” he said at a press conference at The Gardens Hotel in Kuala Lumpur on Thursday.

For Jaclyn, what is important is the awareness that star presence, like herself, generate in such campaigns.

“We take little things for granted, like love and respect for each other.

“That’s why I think this is an important movement, to instill love and respect thus creating peace,” she said.

Festival chairman Tan Sri Zaleha Ismail said that the festival was “not a one-time event” but a continuous effort to promote peace and harmony in the world.

“The ambassadors are examples to society (with their achievements and merits). With them as the face of the festival and our hard work, this is our chance to help the society to become one Malaysian family or even one global family,” she said.

Later, a project of the festival - “Power of 10 Sen’’ - organised by Universal Peace Federation and United Nations Children’s Fund (Unicef) was launched in conjunction with the International Day for The Eradication of Poverty on Oct 17.

The project aims to collect funds from school children and corporate bodies to be channelled to Unicef, International Friendship Foundation and Yayasan Amal Malaysia.

The event also saw the launch of the festival logo by the ambassadors.

Festival patron Tan Sri Dr Saleha Mohd Ali, festival director Dr Teh Su Thye, Department of National Unity and National Integration of the Unity, Culture, Arts and Heritage Ministry director Datuk Azman Hassan and Unicef representative Youssouf Oomar were also present.

More than 20,000 people are expected to gather at the Bukit Jalil Stadium from Oct 17 to 19.

The festival is jointly organised by the Universal Peace Federation Malaysia, the United Nation Association of Malaysia and Pure Love & True Family Malaysia for World Peace in collaboration with the Unity, Culture, Arts and Heritage Ministry.