Thank you: Sunway Business School dean Prof Lim Weng Marc (far left) and Sunway University president Prof Sibrandes Poppema (far right) looking on as Sunway Education Group chief executive officer Prof Datuk Dr Elizabeth Lee presents Prof Muhammad with a token of appreciation.
STUDENTS must be taught to redesign the world’s economic “engine” to create a new civilisation based on human values instead of greed, says Nobel Peace Prize recipient Prof Muhammad Yunus.
The world-renowned social entrepreneur, who was in town to deliver a public lecture on “Entrepreneurship for a better world: Achieving the three zeros agenda”, said achieving zero net carbon emissions, zero wealth concentration and zero unemployment was key to combating the challenges faced by humanity.
It is time to get rid of the old ways and introduce an engine that can take us in a new direction, he said.
Covid-19, he said, caused the world’s economic engine to come to a halt.
This, he added, was a good good thing because an engine built on profit maximisation would lead to destruction of civilisation.
“Students must be taught to redesign the old engine, which has turned us into money-making robots.
“We need new economic frameworks, systems, structures and institutions to create a civilisation that is built on human values, not greed,” the Bangladeshi economist and civil society leader told an audience at Sunway University on July 31.
The event was part of the varsity’s ongoing “Campus With a Conscience” campaign.
Zero net carbon emissions, zero wealth concentration and zero unemployment, said Prof Yunus, must be the cornerstone of the new civilisation.
“Universities should have ‘three zeros’ clubs where students can adopt these values in their personal lives so that they do not end up contributing to the mega problems of the world later on,” he said.
During his recent visit to Malaysia, Prof Yunus also attended a dinner dialogue hosted by Asian Strategy and Leadership Incorporated (ASLI) in collaboration with Sunway Business School, where he addressed an audience of over 130 industry leaders, including from the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW).
Prof Yunus, who opened the Yunus Social Business Centre at Sunway University in 2017, emphasised the role of corporate and non-governmental sectors in leveraging their connections, resources and innovative capacity to help build a sustainable economy during the dialogue.
ASLI chairman, as well as the founder and chairman of Sunway Group Tan Sri Dr Jeffrey Cheah, in a press release, said Sunway and the Jeffrey Cheah Foundation would encourage more corporations and individuals in the region to adopt and promote the sustainability agenda.
