OIC needs economic muscle to be respected

Wong Sulong, The Star, Asia News Network Selangor, Malaysia

Finance, trade and economic ministers of the Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC) are in Kuala Lumpur over the next few days attending a series of dialogs, meetings and conferences on matters pertaining to their portfolios.

The importance of the Kuala Lumpur forums should not be underestimated; indeed they could provide the platform to re- energize the OIC and make it a strong, credible voice of the Islamic world in the international community.

Malaysia, as the OIC chairman, is playing a major role to re- energize the OIC and hopes OIC members will agree -- during the Kuala Lumpur forums, which include the 30th annual meeting of the Islamic Development Bank (IDB) -- to create an economic role for the organization to complement its current political focus.

Up to now, the OIC has, and rightfully so, focused on political issues close to the heart of the world Muslim community, in particular, the issue of Palestine.

In some ways, the OIC has been successful in highlighting the injustices inflicted upon the Palestinian people, as well as other Muslim communities.

But in the eyes of Malaysia and its Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, the OIC needs to do more, and creating an economic role for the OIC would serve to enhance its stature and voice.

If the Muslim world wants to be heard, respected and counted, then it must also back up its political rhetoric with economic muscle.

Muslims cannot expect others to accord them respect and dignity if they remain poor, backward, disunited and fearful of outside influences.

The challenges for the Muslim world are daunting but a start had to be made.

According to some surveys, Muslims form about 15 percent of the world's population of 6.5 billion.

The Muslim world controls 60 percent of many of the world's resources, such as oil, minerals and timber.

Yet, the Muslim world accounts for only 7 percent of world trade.

At the same time, there are great disparities in the Muslim world.

A select few, Malaysia and Dubai for example, are progressive and open, and their economies are plugged into the global economy; other Muslim nations have huge resources, such as oil or minerals, but are bedeviled by sectarian strife or corruption; yet many others are extremely poor and have no viable economy to speak of.

During the next couple of days, the OIC ministers would be discussing ways to increase intra-OIC trade, investments and financial cooperation.

The IDB has done a reasonably good job in helping to alleviate poverty among its poorest members, spending US$40 billion (RM152 billion) over the past 30 years.

Malaysia is proposing that rich OIC members set aside a small portion of their substantial foreign reserves, currently held mainly in US treasury bills, to create a bond fund that could be used to finance infrastructure development in poor OIC states.

At the risk of appearing to trumpet Malaysia's successes, I dare say Malaysia is a good model for Muslim governments seeking to integrate their economies into the global system, while maintaining sound Islamic financial principles.

Take the Malaysian experience in Islamic banking.

The country is not the first to introduce Islamic banking, but over the past 20 years, the Malaysian Islamic banking model has expanded rapidly and co-exists side by side with the Western banking system.

The secret of its success lies in the pragmatist approach and ability to come out with innovative Islamic financial products.

Many countries -- Muslim and Western -- are now adopting the Malaysian Islamic banking model.

Malaysia's handling of the Asian financial crisis of 1997-1998 is also a lesson not only in political courage and economic management but the evolution of Malaysian society.

Many Asian countries were devastated by the financial meltdown; the worst being Indonesia which saw riots and killings of thousands of innocents.

But Malaysians endured the financial crisis without recriminations.

OIC members need to add an economic dimension to the organization's political focus.

Many OIC member states are enjoying record revenues because of high oil prices and this is a golden opportunity to build capacity in the Muslim world.