KUALA NERUS, Sept 29 — The life and struggles of Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad enthralled the 2,500-odd audience when it was narrated at a national contest here, earning victory for the Selangor team.

Noorhisyam Razali, 40, Mohd Norhafifi Zolkiaply, 33, and Muhamad Noriman Mustafa All Bakry, 30, were declared winners of the competition held at Universiti Sultan Zainal Abidin today.

Runner-up was a team from Pahang which staged the struggles of the nation’s first prime minister, Tunku Abdul Rahman Putra Al-Haj while third place went to the team from Johor whose performance was about three army lieutenants who died fighting the Japanese forces.

The Pahang team comprised Nur Farah Sahira Ahmad Tarmizi, Muhammad Aslam Mat Razani and G. Ganenthiran; and the Johor team was made up of Rosdi Abdullah, Afiq Rahimie Sazali and Iskandar Naqiuddin Mohd Hisham.

The competition is for communication based on acting and story-telling, with the aim of building a society which is united, patriotic, intelligent, and loves the nation.

Noorhisyam of Selangor said the group had gone to Kedah to interview Mahathir’s family members to get an accurate idea of his life.

“We hope that through our performance, the public will better understand Mahathir’s aspirations as he is an outstanding person who has carved Malaysia’s name on the world stage,” he told reporters.

The secretary-general of the Communications and Multimedia Ministry, Suriani Ahmad, said the government stressed four key elements, — unity, love for the country, high integrity and joint prosperity — to build a successful, high-income and harmonious nation.

“Now, we must work together to develop, implement and support all initiatives by the current government to attain solid and dynamic development,” she said.