Oleh/By : DATO' SERI DR. MAHATHIR BIN MOHAMAD
Tempat/Venue : TEHRAN, ISLAMIC REPUBLIC OF IRAN
Tarikh/Date : 09/12/97
Tajuk/Title : THE EIGHTH ISLAMIC SUMMIT CONFERENCE
1. On behalf of the Malaysian delegation, I would
like to thank President Khatemi, the Government and
people of the Islamic Republic of Iran for the warm
welcome and hospitality accorded us. I would also like
to thank and congratulate His Emminence Ayatollah
Khamenei for his inaugural speech which reflects the
expectations of the Islamic Ummah for peace and
brotherhood between Islamic Nations, for a balanced and
fair expressions of the problems faced by us, and the
way ahead for this, the Organisation of Islamic
Conference. I am sure that we will all strive to make a
reality of the Islamic Ummah as voiced by His Emminence
Ayatollah Khamenei the Supreme Leader of Iran.
2. As we gather in Tehran on the threshold of a new
Western century and millennium, we realise, with renewed
urgency, the enormous challenges that have to be faced.
The Summit takes place at a time when the world is
subjecting the Ummah to new threats and pressures. The
Palestinians continue to remain, by and large, refugees
and the promises of Oslo are in tatters. Acknowledged
statehood for Palestine seems as distant as ever unless
Palestine takes unilateral action, a move which will
surely result in unnecessary bloodletting. The
objective of the struggle of our Palestinian brothers is
clear. We must not allow it to be clouded by our
outrage and indulge in uncalculated risks.
3. Malaysia is deeply saddened by the killings of
foreigners and Muslim brothers alike in some Islamic
countries. They are not in accord with Islam and they
really do not help the cause of Islam. We should shelve
our own quarrels in order to present a united front in
the face of the combined threats against us. We should
not be our own enemy. Yet we see in so many Muslim
countries fratricidal wars and instabilities which
render most of our Governments impotent either to
develop and compete with our detractors or even to
govern effectively. Personal quarrels and personal
ambitions for power are allowed to disrupt Government
administration, leaving it incapable of addressing the
needs of the people. As a result Muslim countries
remain largely undeveloped and the Muslim ummah poor,
unskilled, uneducated and incapable of contributing
positively towards the well-being of Muslims, their
faith and their countries.
4. By the Grace of Allah many of us are endowed with
rich resources but we are unable to put such resources
to good use, to serve and defend Islam and Islamic
countries against those who loudly confess to having a
dislike for us and our religion and equally loudly
proclaim their intention to frustrate us.
5. Such is the state of our countries that the best of
our people migrate out and contribute to the wealth of
knowledge and skills of the countries of their domicile,
often countries which are hostile to us. We have no
facilities to offer these talented people and the
conditions in our countries are unsuitable for the
application of the considerable attributes that they
possess. We are too busy with our petty quarrels to
attend to their needs.
6. We have not yet found or developed a system of
determining how our Government should govern. Some of
us are monarchies, some are theocracies and some are
democracies. Despite all that the West claims about the
efficacy and fairness of their brand of democracy, it is
still far from being a perfect system or even a good
system for them or for anyone. Far too often the wrong
people are chosen to form their Governments. Vested
interest often deflect them from the duties they have to
perform. Corruption is rife and immorality is common.
7. To deflect from their problems at home, they often
focus on the so called misdeeds of other Governments and
other countries. They accuse our countries in
particular of abusing human rights, of terrorism, of
mismanaging our countries, of environmental degradation.
With their NGOs they are able to actively interfere in
our affairs, instigating our people to violence against
our Government and against each other. They give refuge
to those of our people who promote disruptive activities
in our countries.
8. The present Western style system and concept of
democracy is no better than the feudalistic theocratic
states which had preceded them. Their ways may be
different but the objective and the end result is the
same. One must not forget that it was they who invented
the inquisition. They don't burn people at the stakes
now but the economic heat they place under and around
their victims is no less searing. It is still recant,
submit or be liquidated.
9. Islamic nations need not invent systems of
Government because systems can never be perfect and can
never guarantee good Government. What creates good
Government is the quality of the people who are
entrusted with ruling the country. And for the right
quality of people we need only revert to the teachings
of our Islamic religion, the true teachings, not the
teachings which are interpreted to justify what we are
doing, right or wrong, good or bad.
10. If we are not sure what is meant by the true
teachings, we need to ask only a few questions. Does
Islam advocate wars and violence between Muslims whether
as groups or as sects or as nations? Does Islam
advocate oppression of the people by the Government or
destabilising and subverting of Governments through
irresponsible acts by the people? Does Islam advocate
the rejection of a good life in this world or a good
life in the hereafter, or does Islam preach hassanah in
this world and in the akhirah? Can we really say that
it is our religious duty to be poor, without knowledge
and skills, incapable of defending ourselves against our
enemies, or is it our religious duty to have wealth and
knowledge and skills in order to be able to defend the
ummah against our detractors, our oppressors? Did the
Prophet depend on the wealth and the skills of his
followers or did the Prophet buy bows and arrows,
swords, horses and camels from those whose manifest
objective was to make money for themselves, or worse
still, to destroy the Muslims and Islam?
11. We know the answers to all these questions. And
yet we do not care to follow the Islamic answers to
these questions. Instead we quibble about small things
such as how should a Muslim look or what he should wear.
At times we fight each other over minor differences in
the expression of our faith. We are forever trying to
outdo each other in various external manifestations of
religious piety, in inventing newer and more restrictive
practices in our desire to exhibit the strength of our
faith. And then we try to impose these practices on
everyone, condemning them if they refuse. Where Muslims
are living in peace and unity we divide them and cause
them to fight each other because of differences created
in our practices of Islam.
12. Islam is a religion of peace, of brotherhood and of
flexibility. The practice of Islam is never rigid.
Always there is leeway given in order that Islam does
not become a burden to the faithful. In prayers, in
fasting, in the disbursement of the zakat and in the
performance of the haj, Islam allows for circumstance to
dictate the practice. Thus one can perform the solat in
many ways depending on the situation and one's own
fitness; one fasts in accordance with one's physical
capacity and the place where one is; one pays the zakat
according to one's means, and performs the haj if one is
able to. It is only in the profession of faith in Allah
and the acceptance of Mohamad as His Rasul that one
cannot be flexible in one's heart, though one may be
forced to renounce openly.
13. I am not trying to preach but we all know that we
are always urged and at times threatened to be rigid in
the practice of Islam. Indeed we seem to want to
compete in exhibiting how much more we are willing to
endure unnecessary discomfort, hardship and even pain
in order to demonstrate visibly the high degree of our
adherence to our faith.
14. We seem to want to reject the bounties of Allah
S.A.W in this world, including the faculty to think
because we often consider that this world is not for us.
It is not the unthinking enjoyment of life that I refer
to -- it is the acquisition of knowledge and skills
required to defend and contribute to the greatness of
Islam, the religion we refer to as Ad-Deen, a way of
life. And because of all these we find the ummah
trodden under and oppressed everywhere and insults
thrown at our religion, while we are completely
incapable of doing anything to protect and safeguard our
honour and the sanctity of Islam.
15. Today there is not a single Muslim power in the
world. There is not a single Muslim country which is
strong enough to defend itself, much less to defend
other Muslim countries or Muslims who are attacked. In
Bosnia we have seen 200,000 Muslims slaughtered while
the soldiers of non-Muslim countries watched without
raising a finger. We cannot blame these soldiers for we
ourselves did nothing. We had to place ourselves under
the command of others. If they decide to let our co-
religionist be tortured, raped and massacred, we had to
stand by like them, whether we are there or we are in
our own countries.
16. Malaysia realises our own weakness in terms of
defense capabilities. We had concentrated on achieving
economic independence, believing that we could free
ourselves from political pressures, from being
recolonised and dictated to, from having others
determine who should be our friends and who our enemies,
if we are economically strong.
17. Today we are not so sure that that alone is enough.
The globalisation of the world has changed the whole
equation. We may not want to accept the changes. We
may want to stay out. But there is no way we can do
this. One way or another the process of globalisation,
of breaking down borders will take place and become a
fact of life.
18. The speed and ease of travel, of telecommunication,
of multi-media technologies and the spread of
information; all these will render us exposed to
everything that is happening around us. They can easily
undermine our faith or they can push us into self-
destructive extremism or into rejection. In the end the
advances in science and technology will engulf us. We
cannot resist these changes any more than our immediate
forebears were able to resist the cannons and the guns,
the steel-hulled warships and the warplanes and the
changing character of battles and wars. They had to
retreat not just from their lands but also from the
fields of knowledge and skills they were once masters
of. They lost because they failed to adjust to a
changing world and the new knowledge and skills that
fuelled these changes.
19. Today we are witnessing two simultaneous
revolutions, a technological revolution and a revolution
in the concept of relationship between nations referred
to as globalisation. Whether we like them or not they
will engulf us as much or much more than the Industrial
Revolution did. Fortunately they, our detractors are as
new to these changes as we are. They are groping around
to find a way through the maze of knowledge and
capabilities which the Information technology creates
and the breakdown of borders poses. We are not so far
behind them in these fields. Indeed many of us are
pioneers and contributors to the new skills and
knowledge and new conepts of international relations.
20. We have an opportunity to leap-frog over the
Industrial Age into the Information Age and the global
world and be at the same level as the others.
Unfortunately it looks like we are again going to miss
this opportunity to catch up. And if we fail this time
we are going to be so disadvantaged that we will lose
hope, become desperate and do the very things which will
ensure our defeat and resubjugation.
21. Is it important therefore that we take up the
challenges of the Information Age and the global society
concept now? If we do we can help shape the response
and the changes and devise our own usage and concepts so
as not to lose our faith, our identity and our way of
life. As much as the early followers of the faith
adopted and adapted to life outside the Arabian
Peninsular and built an empire of the faithful which
included peoples and cultures of the non-Arabs in Asia,
Africa and Europe, we can, by mastering the changes, now
taking place enhance our faith and preserve our way of
life. If we employ all our skills, we will not only
survive but we will direct the application of the
technologies and the concepts.
22. It is important that we appreciate the powerful
forces which are gathering around us, forces which most
of the time will be hostile. If we Muslims insist on
remaining without knowledge in this area, we can be sure
that we and our religion will be under constant attack
and will be in retreat all the time. If we buy these
skills from them then it will be like our purchasing of
defence capabilities from them. We will get only what
will not give us ultimate success in the preservation of
our faith and way of life.
23. Let us ponder over these things even as we try to
resolve the very real problems which confront us now.
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