Barety appends the award to Ambiga\u2019s (left) dress during the conferment ceremony at the French Residence in Kuala Lumpur, September 23, 2011. \u2014 Picture by Choo Choy May<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\nKUALA LUMPUR, Sept 23 \u2014 Resplendent in a black-and-gold sari, Datuk Ambiga Sreenevasan was tonight conferred France\u2019s highest honour, the Chevalier de Legion d\u2019Honneur (Knight of the Legion of Honour).<\/p>\n
As he pinned the distinctive five-pointed medal on her sari, France\u2019s ambassador to Malaysia, Marc Barety, said the award was to recognise Ambiga\u2019s dedication to human rights and to boost the rule of law in Malaysia.<\/p>\n
Ambiga joins an exclusive club of some 20 to 25 Malaysians conferred the French award. Among them were the Yang Di-Pertuan Agong Tuanku Mizan Zainal Abidin, airline maverick Tan Sri Tony Fernandes and Ipoh-born Hollywood actress Datuk Michelle Yeoh, Barety said.<\/p>\n
Yeoh was recognised in 2007 for her contribution to film and the media.<\/p>\n
Bank Negara governor Tan Sri Zeti Aziz was another recipient this year, but was unable to attend the award ceremony, Barety said.\u00a0He added that a separate award ceremony would be arranged for her at a later date.<\/p>\n
\u201cAmbiga is the right person to get it,\u201d Barety told reporters, adding the latest announcements on political transformation by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak after the Bersih 2.0 street rally on July 9 demanding free and fair elections proved the merit of her fight.<\/p>\n
He noted the leadership of the then president of the Malaysian Bar in a 2008 forum on Orang Asli issues, jointly organised by the French embassy and the European Union, as having contributed strongly to the nomination of Ambiga.<\/p>\n
The order of the Legion of Honour is a merit-based award and there are only 55,000 recipients worldwide at any one time.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it reflects well on Malaysia\u2019s civil society,\u201d Ambiga said in her acceptance speech, with a nod to Najib\u2019s latest pledge to repeal the Internal Security Act and other security laws that allowed for preventive detention.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt really shows how important civil society is; they are the eyes and ears of the rakyat,\u201d Ambiga said, vowing to continue her charge to improve the rule of law.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
source:\u00a0http:\/\/www.themalaysianinsider.com\/malaysia\/article\/ambiga-conferred-frances-top-civilian-award\/<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n
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<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Congratulations to Datuk Ambiga for her second award in recent times. \u00a0It serves as a motivation to the younger generation. Recognising her dedication to human rights and the rule of law, France has awarded\u00a0Datuk Ambiga Sreenevasan\u00a0with its highest honour, the\u00a0Chevalier de Legion d’Honneur\u00a0(Knight of the Legion of Honour). French Ambassador to Malaysia Marc Barety […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,11],"tags":[90],"class_list":["post-7927","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-borninmalaysia","category-indian","tag-role-model"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/poobalan.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7927","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/poobalan.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/poobalan.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/poobalan.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/poobalan.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7927"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/poobalan.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7927\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7929,"href":"https:\/\/poobalan.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7927\/revisions\/7929"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/poobalan.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7927"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/poobalan.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7927"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/poobalan.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7927"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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