Malaysians are urged to learn and apply the culture and good values of Eastern societies, in countries like Japan and China, towards making Malaysia a successful and developed country.

Former prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad said such values could change the future of the country, especially in the progress and development aspects.

"There is no harm in applying the good values of the Japanese people, for example. We can choose the good and stay away from the bad.

"It will not even reduce our values as Malaysians, either Malay, Chinese or Indian," he said in his keynote address entitled 'Social Evolution, What's Next?' at Universiti Teknologi Petronas's (UTP) Chancellor's Public Lecture at the university's Chancellor Hall, here on Wednesday.

Dr Mahathir, who is also UTP chancellor, said Malaysians could choose between the Eastern and Western cultures as a guide for shaping social evolution in the country towards becoming a more developed country in the future.

He said people must know the difference between the good and bad shown by the people of Eastern and Western countries to ensure that it would not give bad implications to the country.

"As the Malay saying goes 'buang yang keruh ambil yang jernih' (throw out the bad, take the good), if we want evolution in society, we cannot let it happen on its own, we should choose the best and discard the bad so that we can have directional evolution," he said.

At the event, Dr Mahathir also launched a book on UTP's corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives, entitled 'A Gift of Hope'.