Dato Sri Ang Lai Soon of Sarawak presented to Queen Elizabeth II and The Prince Phillip at a State Banquet. The former King and Queen of Malaysia looked on.
KUCHING: Datuk Seri Ang Lai Soon joins the worldwide outpouring of tributes to Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, saying his passing has robbed the world of its most eminent environmentalist and founder of the conservation movement.
Ang recalled the occasions when he had the honour of meeting the Duke.
“It was a signal honour and privilege to have met and spoken to the Duke a few times, after being first entertained by the Queen and Prince Philip on board the Royal Yacht Britannia.
“The late Duke was a well read man and very witty. During our last meeting before a state banquet, he was telling me of his observations of the day,” he said in a statement here yesterday.
His great interest in voluntary and charity work is much admired by all and one of his pet projects was “The Duke of Edinburgh Award’ for young people.
Ang added that Prince Phillip was a passionate environmentalist and that if developed countries had taken Prince Philip’s warning of the consequences of irresponsible development and industrialisation seriously the effect of climate change would not have been as severe as we are now facing.
Ang who is the Sarawak St, John Commander pointed out that many people may not be aware that Prince Philip is most probably the founding father of the world’s conservation movement and he was once quoted as saying “The conservation of nature and the natural environment “which was soon” to acquire a totally new dimension – the conservation of the human environment.”
Whatever he has predicted and said has, obviously, come true.
Today the world is greatly indebted to him for his untiring and splendid effort, over a period of more than 60 years, to create awareness to conserve nature and the environment.
Starting in the late fifties, Prince Philip has been a most active and influential environmental activist extraordinaire. In 1961 Prince Philip co-founded the World Wildlife Fund which is today the world’s largest conservation organisation.
Fifty one years ago, Prince Philip also founded Australia’s first ever environmental organisation, the Australian Conservation Foundation and is today Australia’s most prominent environmental organisation.
Prince Philip, who would have been 100 years old this June, was the longest serving Prince Consort in the history of Britain. He was Patron, President or a Member of more than 780 organisations, and all these years he had attended more than 20,000 official engagements.