Malaysia hopes that the transition of power in Egypt will run smoothly following the resignation of president Hosni Mubarak yesterday, said Prime Minister Najib Razak today.

"I hope the process of power transition in Egypt will run smoothly without any undesired incidents such as tension and violence.

najib razak meets umno division leaders "I'm confident that the people of Egypt can determine their own destiny and I hope the situation can be handled properly until the time comes for the general election," he said at a press conference after a meeting between the Umno president and Umno divisional leaders at the Putra World Trade Centre.

He also hoped that the people of Egypt who were hoping for change would get a new government that would meet their aspirations, that is, a change that would satisfy the people.

Mubarak eventually conceded to pressure by the people's revolution and announced his resignation after having ruled Egypt for 30 years following the assassination of Anwar Sadat.

The announcement was made by his Vice President Omar Suleiman through a statement broadcast live over television at about midnight Malaysian time.

Tenang was a good omen

Asked on the possibility of certain groups wanting to emulate the moves taken by the Egyptians who carried out violent demonstrations, Najib said Malaysians were mature and were rational in their thinking.

"They know how to differentiate between what is right and what is wrong, and which would be exploited by certain (irresponsible) groups.

egypt revolution mubarak steps down huge crowd 1 "I have already made this point. In the midst of the developments in Egypt, the majority for the Barisan Nasional in (the) Tenang (by-election) increased. So, this is a good omen," he said.

On the Facebook community which were against the construction of the 100-storey Menara Warisan, he said it was to be expected as it was part of the global phenomena and part of change in communication technology.

"We had two options, we can close Malaysia to the global phenomena of be part of it, and we have chosen to be part of it. But that means that we have to manage it more in an educated, technology-savvy society and therefore the challenge is more to manage this political environment," he said.

He said it was not going to be easy (for the government) because it did not have the monopoly on information, monopoly on dissemination of information, and in fact the social networking disseminated in real time did not mean the views were correct.

Managing the Internet is not censorship

Najib said managing was not about Internet censorship, but the most important was that people understood the intention of government policies.

azlan "The intention is good but sometimes (the government) gets wrong assessment about what we are going to do. What is the difference between 100-storey building and 80-storey building for example," he said.

The prime minister said it was all about Malaysia in the year of 2020 and it was going to be a very different Kuala Lumpur.

This project would not use public or taxpayers' money which had been a wrong perception by the public, he added.

Meanwhile, Deputy Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin said the government would inform the Malaysian students who had returned to Malaysia following the uprising in Egypt on the developments there, and when they could return to their respective universities in Egypt.

In addition, they would also be informed about the examinations that they had to sit and so on, although the deputy prime minister did not elaborate on it.

Najib had earlier announced that Higher Education Minister Mohamed Khaled Nordin and the Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Jamil Khir Baharom, would think of follow-up measures for the affected students.

Egyptian revolution a beacon for the oppressed

The president of the International Movement for a Just World (Just), Dr Chandra Muzaffar described the Egyptian revolution which had ousted Mubarak as "the triumph of human dignity".

lebanon forum 050906 chandra muzaffar "Mubarak fell at the feet of people power. The Egyptian people showed tremendous courage in their struggle against the dictatorship. They persevered against great odds. Their sacrifice was monumental," he said in a statement today.

The professor of Global Studies at University Sains Malaysia said, the Egyptian revolution, which began on Feb 11, would become the beacon that inspired the masses to stand up against corrupt, greedy rulers who betrayed the trust of the people and would provide fresh impetus to the Palestanian struggle for self-determination.

- Bernama