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Oleh/By : DATO' SERI DR.MAHATHIR BIN MOHAMAD
Tempat/Venue : PUTRAJAYA MARRIOTT HOTEL, MALAYSIA
Tarikh/Date : 15/10/2003
Tajuk/Title : THE OIC BUSINESS FORUM
Versi : ENGLISH
Penyampai : PM
"TOWARD A RENEWED OIC: AN AGENDA FOR PEACE AND
PROSPERITY"
In the name of God, the Compassionate and the Merciful,
Your Excellencies; Distinguished Guests; Ladies and
Gentlemen,
I am delighted to be given the opportunity to be here
today with you, the distinguished business guests from
the OIC countries.
2. Allow me to express my appreciation to ASLI, the
Malaysia South-South Association (MASSA) and Malaysia's
Foreign Affairs Ministry for their efforts to organise
this Business Forum, held on the sidelines of the 10th
OIC Leaders Summit. Tomorrow, 16th October 2003 the
10th Meeting of the OIC Leaders will begin, the
meeting of an organisation established by Heads and
Leaders of Muslim Nations with the aim to promote the
well-being of the Muslim Ummah in all fields
worldwide.
3. Islam is not just about the performance of certain
rituals. Islam as we all know is a way of life. An
Islamic way of life must be a good life, free from the
misery of poverty, ignorance and weakness.It must
involve every human activity needed for its
sustenance. The Islamic way of life certainly must not
lead to the misery of oppression and humiliation by
others.
4. There are many elements which can contribute to the
hassanah in this world, the good life of the Muslims.
Among them is the need to create wealth so as to
relieve the poverty among us. We are enjoined to care
for the needy through zakat and sedekah. Only those
with wealth can perform these injunctions of Islam.A
Muslim community of poor miserable people incapable of
paying zakat and sedekah or charity cannot be very
Islamic. Indeed we are warned that poverty can lead to
loss of faith.
5. But we must also admit that wealth too can make us
forget the obligations of our religion and our duty to
the community and humanity at large. We see this often
enough. But simply because of this we must not think
that our salvation, our adherence to our faith lies in
self-deprivation and rejection of the bounty that
Allah has bestowed upon humanity. In Islam we do not
need to be ascetics or mendicants to express the depths
of our faith.
6. We must not forget that it was a trader who brought
the message of Islam to us. He was al-Amin, the honest
one, who travelled far across the deserts to trade for
his employer who found him so honest that she took him
for a husband.
7. The history of Islam is not of self-denying poverty
but of wealth generously employed in the service of
Islam. Such was the way of Osman ibni Affan, the
companion of the Prophet.He gave his camels and
contributed his wealth to the struggles of the
Prophet.
8. The role of trade, i.e. business is so important and
so great that Islam is the only religionwhich prescribes
in detail the way that business should be done. Nothing
is more ethical than the Muslim way of doing business.
If Muslims follow the injunctions of Islam they will
certainly become not just wealthy but they would create
an equitable and honourable society. Long before there
was any idea of a redistribution of wealth through
income and corporate taxes, Islam had already
prescribed a wealth tax and charity.
9. In the early years of Islam, the Muslims were the
greatest traders, carrying theirgoods across thousands
of miles of deserts and oceans, enriching not just
themselves but the ountries and the peoples they traded
with. As a bonus they gained converts to Islam. Had they
been poor and illiterate, had they come as beggars and
ignorant people, Islam would not have been accepted.
As it was, without fighting a single battle, without
conquest and colonisation, the traders spread the faith
even as they enrich themselves through trade. That was
how the Malay and Indonesian Rajas and their subjects
embraced
Islam.
10. Trade, i.e. business, is therefore much encouraged
by Islam. But despite the natural wealth endowed the
Muslims by Allah, we Muslims are generally poor.We are
not making full use of the opportunities afforded us by
the many resources at our disposal. We have now become
dependent on others, many of whom are not well disposed
towards us. It is they who developed the technology to
extract Allah's bounties in our land and to market them
at considerable profit for themselves. Without them we
would be even poorer today.
11. We should not think of an economic war against non-
Muslims. But we do need to maximise the return from the
resources that we have. Take the oil industry. Despite
the fact that much of the oil comes from Muslim
countries, we are seemingly incapable of exploring,
producing, processing and retailing our own oil. We do
not have the technology and the marketing kills to
maximise the return from this, our unique resource. For
decades we sold our oil at ridiculous prices, while the
oil majors waxed rich and dominated the oil business and
in many instances dominated our countries. Even now we
are dependent on others although we now have better
returns from our resources.
12. It is the same with other businesses. We missed the
industrial revolution completely and we are still not
doing much to catch up. While we dilly-dally the world
of business is moving fast. The Industrial Revolution
has now been replaced with the Information Revolution.
New technologies and new ways of doing business are
being introduced which boggles the mind. Yet despite the
possibility to start at the same time, we are missing
that opportunity and we are once again being left
behind. Will we ever learn?
13. The speed of jet travel and instant communication
has brought about a need for speed in business, in
decision making, and in learning the new technologies
and business methods. World business is now conducted 24
hours a day, irrespective of where the business is
done. Failure to follow the trend or the development
anywhere in the world can mean losses in millions and
billions of dollars or dinars or whatever currency we
use.
14. Globalisation is no doubt the result of the speed
of travel and communications. We should have realised
the meaning of a shrinking world in terms of business
early. But other people saw it first and they have come
up with new ideas and strategies to enhance their
business. We have not seen the implications and
consequently the type of globalisation that is being
proposed and promoted can be detrimental to us for we
are all from developing countries. Again we face a grave
threat to our role in the business world. As with oil
and other resources with which we are richly endowed, we
are again going to lose the opportunities presented by
them. Unless we work together the form that world trade
would take would, if not impoverish us, certainly
deprive us of the share to which we are entitled.
15. Recently in Cancun, Mexico, the poor countries for
once were united in resisting the plans of the rich
countries. We succeeded in preventing them from imposing
on the world their self-serving policies. But saying
no is not enough. We have to come with alternatives
which will ensure that the wealth of this world is
more equitably distributed. The Muslim countries must
work closely with other developing countries in order to
formulate international trade and financial regimes
which could benefit rich and poor alike.
16. To gain influence in the international arena Muslim
countries must be economically strong. This can only
come about through good administration and the skills of
our business community. Although the industrial age may
be over, but industrial capacities are still very
important. We must industrialise even as we involve
ourselves in the business of the information age. We
have a tremendous capacity to industrialisev because we
have the intellectual skills and the business acumen to
build and operate the industries which can supply us
with our needs. After all we have seen how Japan, Korea
and China have industrialised and are set actually to
dominate the world. We are not inferior to them in any
way. What they can do we can do. In the process we
will enrich the Muslim world and a rich Muslim world
will provide a market for us and the other countries as
well. A rich market is a power in itself. Part of our
salvation lies in the capacity to shape the
international economic regimes through the richness of
our market and through the natural wealth
that we have.
17. Today no country can develop all on its own.
We are all interdependent, though some may be less
dependent than others. The rich are as dependent on the
poor as the poor are dependent on the rich. Pooling
resources is essential when doing business. Outsourcing
is the name of the game today. We can participate in
this process. We can also provide complementary roles
among ourselves in the production of industrial goods
so that we can avoid costly duplication. If we are
jointly involved then it would be natural for us to
accept our own products for our market. There is nothing
like a strong home market to support and ensure the
success of products. And we theoretically have a market
of one-sixth of the people of the world, a fair
proportion of whom are rich.
18. Our religion provides us with good guidance on
how business should be conducted. In addition our
religion also teaches us good values which we must
uphold all the time. There are some who think that
the only way to make a profit is to cheat or to be
slightly dishonest. We may think that we may get away if
not in the next world at least in this world. We should
disabuse ourselves of this. Honesty is the best policy
in business. We have seen how in the rich countries of
the West numerous giant corporations have collapsed
because of dishonesty. Muslims must establish for
themselves a reputation for honesty and fair dealing,
not by words but by deeds. There can be no doubt that
this will earn them success in business. Ethics in
business leads to trust and trust leads to more
business and more profits. And there is nothing like
Muslim values and ethics to bring about trust and
success to the Muslims.
19. Greed is our greatest enemy. We must avoid
greed like a plague. It will poison our thinking and
lead us to unethical practices. We may gain in
the near term but eventually we will have to pay
a price, sometimes a very high price, now and in the
next world.
20. Our business practices should be in accordance
with Muslim business ethics and values. These we may
know as a general rule and may even come naturally to
us. But modern business is very complex. It is not
just about barter or trading, about selling and buying
goods. We deal a lot of times with intangibles, about
futures, about speculations and often face moral
hazards. Good business practice for the Muslims must
be well thought out, documented and taught
systematically. It is good to quote from the Quran and
the Hadis but quite often this merely represents lip
service. We need to practise in line with these
quotations.
21. We can learn business at business schools. There is
nothing very wrong about what is being taught in the
business schools of the West. But there is a need for
Muslim business schools where the Muslim business
ethics are developed, expanded and taught
systematically. We need to know the rights and wrongs of
doing business as Muslims. We need to establish certain
standards. We need to propagate these ethics and
standards, whether we do business among ourselves or
with others. While we should develop Islamic business
ethics we must not reject the ethics and systems of
today which are not against the teachings of Islam
simply because we want to be different.
22. We have seen how Islamic banking has now been
accepted. Doing business in conformity with Islamic
ethics would in time be accepted also. We need not try
to force our systems on others. In the same way we
should not be forced to do usiness only in the way
prescribed by others if they are unfair to us. We
should resist them not always because of our religious
piety, but simply because they constitute bad and unfair
practices. There is too much gambling in the market
place today which results in the exploitation of the
poor by the rich. There is too much greed. Profiteering
and usurious ractices are rampant. We must reject these.
Business is about making profits. But it should not be
such that others would suffer. Thus the kind of
currency trading which leads to the impoverishment of
countries and people, to violence and destruction,
should not be indulged in by Muslims. Reasonable profit
through ethically acceptable trading practices
should be our objective.
23. All these and more can be taught in Muslim business
schools. We should establish such standards as to give
stature and success to Muslim businesses. Just as today
we go to the great business schools of the West, there
may come a day when Muslim business schools would
attract students of business from all over the world. It
would not do world business any harm. It should in fact
stimulate world business once it is established that
Muslim business practices would bring about success and
a win-win situation. This is entirely possible.
24. This should be the agenda of the OIC Business
Forum. Going to war and colonising other countries in
order to secure markets and resources should be rejected
totally by us. We should seek instead to create a
peaceful and prosperous environment where everyone can
gain something for himself. God willing, Insyaallah we
will succeed.
Excellencies, Distinguished participants, Ladies and
Gentlemen,
25. I hope this OIC Business Forum will generate
goodwill and businesses which will enrich the Muslim
ummah and the world.
Sumber : Pejabat Perdana Menteri
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