Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi should invite Perak crown prince Raja Nazrin Shah to be his personal adviser, said an opposition leader today.

In a media statement, DAP national adviser Dr Chen Man Hin said the prince's "deep and superb" insight and analysis of the country's political situation makes him eligible for the post.

According to Chen, Raja Nazrin ( left ) demonstrated this in his keynote address to students at the first Malaysian Student Leaders Summit 2007 on Sunday.

In his address, the prince deplored the lack of national unity and commented that 50 years after Merdeka, the country is still grappling with concerns about unity.

Chen said this is happening because of the strains on unity by introducing a bumiputera policy in 1966, the New Economic Policy (NEP) in 1970 and Islamic state during Dr Mahathir Mohamad's premiership.

"To make matters worse, at the Umno general assembly last year, the ultras rejected the concept of 'bangsa malaysa' and proposed the implementation of a 'Malay agenda' where Malays are conferred 'ketuanan melayu' (hegemonic) status, while the rest are plain or ordinary Malaysians.

"Then last month, the deputy prime minister (Najib Abdul Razak) heightened the unease amongst the people when he unilaterally announced that Malaysia was Islamic and not secular, claiming that the constitution did not state Malaysia was secular," he added.

He said this claim was contrary to the declaration by former prime ministers, Tunku Abdul Rahman, Tun Abdul Razak and Tun Hussein Onn that the Malaysian constitution was secular.

Read the constitution

Meanwhile, Raja Nazrin had also urged the students to get a copy of the constitution.

"The Constitution is the supreme law of the land. It guarantees the rights of every Malaysian. The integrity of that document must be protected at all cost," he said.

Commenting on this, Chen said the constitution is the basis of the 'social contract' agreed on by the nation's forefathers.

"The contract knows only citizens as Malaysians and not bumiputeras and non-bumiputeras," the veteran politician pointed out.

"There is no mention of an NEP except for an affirmative action clause in article 152 conferring special rights for indigenous ethnic communities without at the same time overriding the rights of other races," he said.

According to Chen, Malaysia needs to "re-invent itself to return to a state of equilibrium" where there is national unity, political equality, economic justice and religious freedom

"Let us start with the advice by Raja Nazrin to respect and adhere to the constitution," he added.