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| July 8, 2009 | | Kevin Rudd reassures foreign students about safety in Australia | | Putrajaya: Despite a series of racially motivated attacks on Indian students in the country, Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has assured foreigners that his country is a safe place to study. Referring to the recent attacks or "curry bashings", he said, "In every
city in the world, unfortunately, there are going to be acts of violence from
time to time." The Star Online quoted him, as claiming that he was not playing
down the issue, and "one act of violence is one too many; one death is one too
many," and added that his government welcomed foreign students and took their
security "very seriously". Rudd, who was here on Monday for a brief stopover en
route to Europe , met Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak to discuss bilateral
issues. "The fact that I've been here twice in 12 months, with no particular crisis
to deal with or problem to solve, shows we take our friendship with Malaysia very
seriously," he said. Later, noting down that there are about 20,000 Malaysian
students in Australia , Rudd said Australia and Malaysia would work towards expanding
areas in higher education and training. Rudd spoke of how Australia was "a nation
of immigrants" where a large number of its people came from China , Vietnam ,
Indonesia , Malaysia , Indonesia and Sri Lanka . "Apart from anything else, you
have taught us how to eat well," the Mandarin-speaking Rudd quipped. His Mandarin
has been touted as even better than one Taiwanese minister's. Thanks to the immigration
influence, Rudd said Australia now had "some decent food", such as Malaysian satay,
Indonesia 's nasi goreng (fried rice) and the best curries from south Asia , besides
Japanese and Chinese food. "We are multi-cultural and we are proud over it. We
are not a perfect society but we are completely comfortable with our future in
the region," he said.
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