First Malaysian to receive World Peace Award
WAKi International Group chairman and founder Teo Choo Guan became the first Malaysian to be awarded the World Peace Award 2019.
Teo received the award for his dedication and effort in promoting activities that cultivate harmony and respect among the various religions.
Better known as ‘Pak Teo’, he was one of seven nominees from candidates from 120 different nations. Teo believes in the idea of creating a peaceful and harmonious world through the promotion of multi-religious activities. ‘Living with the spirit of respecting each other by sharing and caring has always been the philosophy of life which I hold onto dearly,’ he said.
‘When it comes to raising the awareness of humanity across the world, we take the initiative by doing social work that are aligned with our vision. The fundamental concept of humanity is to respect each other, regardless of the differences in our background, and always be caring about each other,’ said Teo in his acceptance speech.
‘We must always respect the differences between us. Always share and care for each other despite our differences. With this, we are able to create a world of harmony.’
He has more than 20 years’ experiences in promoting philanthropy, such as building mosques, churches and temples in Southeast Asia and China. He is also very active in general philanthropy works, such as making donations to volunteer organizations or foundations, without any bias towards race or religion.
He explained his philosophy of social work, adding there were three phases of building humanity through social work.
‘The first stage is to understand mutual respect. The second stage is to make clear the truth. Only when you have a thorough understanding, do you take actions. The third point is to keep your mind awake, so you would be able to do social work better even when facing challenges.’
‘Action can be taken only if we have obtained a clear understanding of its purpose and the whole picture of the social work to be carried out. Along the way. there will be challenges and obstacles. Only with clear minds and strong purpose, we can overcome them and move forward,’ he said.
