DAP today called o­n the government to institute an annual prize in memory of the late Tunku Abdul Rahman Putra Al-Haj to be given to those who made distinguished achievements in various fields of human endeavour.

Party national chairperson Lim Kit Siang said the awards should be comparable to the Nobel Prize Awards to give credit to Tunku and the nation.

He said since the country could spend from RM200 million to RM1 billion for the recently concluded 13th Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) Summiy in Kuala Lumpur, there was no reason which a similar amount of money and resourses could not be poured into the creation of the awards.

"The wisdom of expenditure of such vast sums of money (for NAM) is highly debatable especially when NAM has not established its relevance in the new age.

"RM100 million or RM200 million spent for establishing the Tunku Prize to commemorate Tunku's birthday centenary and to put Malaysia o­n the world map as an annual measuring rod of distinguished global human achievements would undoubtedly be a most deserving commitment," he said in a statement.