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Don't cry for me OIC...

Written by Staff Writer
Wednesday, 04 April 2007
Don't cry for me OIC... This article was published in the Harakah Weekly - the official printed news media of the Party Islam Se-Malaysia. The interesting thing about this article is that it talks about the Managing Editor of World Futures and refers to his editorial in OIC Today magazine. Have a good read! By Fan Yew Teng For some time now it has been my privilege to learn that if you care to dig hard enough and look wide enough, sooner or later something interesting or even fruitful will emerge. This is especially so in the endeavour called writing. Consider my pleasant surprise recently when I made a small discovery. OIC TODAY is, as it claims, primarily a “Business & Investment Magazine”, its declared aspiration is to bridge “the gap between OIC Muslim Business Communities”. Published in Gombak, Selangor, it is at newsstands and bookshops roughly between one and two months every new issue, at RM9.90 per copy. Although it is mainly a business and investment magazine, OIC TODAY does carry about half a dozen pages on politics. This is as it should be because, realistically, economics cannot strictly be divorced from politics, diplomacy and international security and strategy. Volume 10, which went on sale in February 2007, has King Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz of Saudi Arabia on its front cover. The cover also carries a quotation on the need for investment in human capital by OIC Chairman, Abdullah bin Haji Ahmad Badawi, who is of course also Prime Minister of Malaysia. Off and on, I have been browsing through this far from dull magazine over the last two years or so. And it is Volume 10 which most fascinates me. The two page editorial, by Kazi Mahmood the editor himself, is a refreshing surprise. Titled “Muslim world must condemn Pakistan’s attack on Madrasah”, the editorial strongly attacks from the very first sentence: “The attack by Pakistani gunships on a Madrassa, killing 80 innocent people, including children who were learning the Islamic Holy book Al-Quraan is the perfect example of the savagery and inhumanity of some leaders like and (sic) Parvez Musharaf, George W Bush of the U.S. and Tony Blair of Britain, not to forget their junior partners, Ehud Olmert of Israel and John Howard of Australia.” The editorial adds: “Muslims must condemn Pakistan for its attacks on civilians and on Madrassas, which are schools teaching Islam and the recitation of the Al-Quran. In the event the Muslim world refuses and fails to condemn Pakistan and Musharaf, it will be construed as a weakness of the Muslim organization and the difficulty to get the OIC to solve any problem in the Muslim world. “Silence from the OIC – the largest Muslim government organization on earth – will also be construed as a tacit ‘carte blanche’ for similar attacks on religious schools across the world by the military and paramilitary forces in different countries, including Thailand, the Philippines, Australia and even U.S and India.” The editorial then suggests: “Malaysia, the current Chairman of the OIC should also call for a form of punishment against Pakistan and its leader Musharraf, who should be embargoed from flying outside his country and should be refused entry in other OIC member states.” Strong, great stuff. I for one am sure that the condemnation is well deserved. The question is: Did OIC Chairman Abdullah Ahmad Badawi strongly condemn the Pakistan government and its military ruler for their latest atrocities? If so, have he and other OIC member states gone beyond mere words? If not, why not? The editorial also: The Party Islam Se-Malaysia (PAS) has been a strong critic of the U.S. led war on terror. Will it condemn Pakistan for its rogue actions of pre-emptive strikes that may set a precedent in the world? I would be surprised if PAS hasn’t done so. Has it? And what has Malaysia’s Foreign Minister Syed Hamid Albar said or done on the same matter? On pages 62 and 63, an unsigned article also makes strong assertions and poses sharp questions. Called “Saddam Trial: OIC, UN, NAM, Arab League Guilty!” , it is a hard hitting critique of the roles of those organizations in contemporary world politics vis-a-vis the violent dominance of the U.S and its allies. This piece was written after Saddam Hussein had been sentenced to death by the U.S backed kangaroo court in Iraq, but before the hanging was carried out. It is no doubt a very angry article. The first salvo travels along a fiery path like this: “In the mean time, the Pope, the European Union and some leaders in the Western World condemned the sentencing. However, the Muslim world remained dumb and numb as usual, with the Muslim leaders probably agreeing with the sentencing for fear of their own fate if they were against it. This does not mean the OIC and the Arab League should remain silent.” Further on, the article scolds: “The utmost disheartening thing is that none of the Muslim nations raised a clear and strong voice against the mistreatment of Saddam and his children. The OIC, a redundant organization as it is today, has no power, no political will, “since all its leaders are now after the profit margin they can make by turning the organization into a business arm,” to condemn the Americans for their ill will in Iraq. We do not know who has just been quoted, but there can be no mistake that the frustration and the disillusionment with the OIC are very strong. We may say that it is the rantings of one person, but it would be a grave mistake to imagine that those feelings do not reflect that of millions of people around the world, particularly in Muslim countries, whatever their love hate relationship with Saddam Hussein was. One by one, after the OIC, the article goes on to demolish the Arab League, the NAM (Non Aligned Movement), and the United Nations. It calls the Arab League “an organization that does not even know why it exists”, and “is also absent minded and lost when it comes to defending Arab land and protecting its own people.” An Arab Leak? It thinks that NAM, “which is currently headed by Cuba, will altogether remain silent since most of its members are friends of the U.S., and are doing excellent business with Washington. Profit is now the new standard and it is a pity and a shame that the Muslim member nations of the NAM, which are also members of the OIC, are now interested in money and investment and not in honor and human rights.” As for the U.N., it is “a lackey of the U.S.A., and of the West,” and “will also remain silent or will issue a statement that means nothing since it is impossible for a slave of Washington to react against a condemnation of a leader who has been illegally removed from power and whose county has been sent into chaos.” Pretty realistic and accurate. The demolition job adds: “The U.N. is impotent to condemn the U.S. and the U.K. for their ripping of billions of dollars from Iraq after the war and for the killing of thousands of Muslims in this country. “The same goes to Muslim rights organizations that prefer to be politically correct to please America rather than fight the true cause of justice.” The article ends with this poser: “The question is whether the killing of Saddam Hussein is the solution to the problem of Iraq?” Has anybody, including OIC Chairman Abdullah Ahmad Badawi and his fellow political eunuchs, any answers? Well, Saddam was executed with indecent haste. Libya declared three days of public mourning. How many Arab countries did the same? What was OIC Chairman Abdullah’s response, except to issue a pathetic statement that was swallowed up by its own incoherence and timidity? In short, is Abdullah a leader of a dynamic international movement or merely a class monitor of more than fifty pupils? Suharto and Mahathir had chaired the OIC and NAM when they were in power. They were utter failures. The joker of the pack is of course Mahathir, who, in his great eagerness to meet George W. Bush in the White House, had no objection that a few million ringgit be paid to some American lobbyist to secure an appointment. And now he talks about fighting war crimes! Abdullah too made sure that he got to meet Bush at the White House. It is some sort of unspoken obligatory homage that they all need to pay to the Emperor. With such political clowns leading the OIC and the NAM and the Arab League and the U.N. is it any wonder that the world is so topsy-turvy and half past six? Consider the issue of Israeli excavations recently near the Al-Aqsa mosque. Malaysian Foreign Minister Syed Hamid Albar said in a statement from Putrajaya on February 9 that it was time that the OIC came up with “more than just words” to stop Israeli desecration of the holy site. Bravo! But what measures had Syed Hamid other than mere words? None. Why talk about statements by OIC Secretary General Prof. Dr Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu who is far away in Turkey, when OIC Chairman Abdullah is right here in Putrajaya itself? Has Syed Hamid found out whether Abdullah has any concrete measures or course of action other than words? Where is Abdullah? He is again orbiting the planet? Well, that’s an activity “more than just words”, we must concede. And what about this chap Najib Tun Razak, our deputy prime minister and defence minister, he who thinks he knows a lot about weapons, arms sales and strategies. Does he have any concrete measures against the Israeli digging near Al-Aqsa? Also orbiting the planet? And has Syed Hamid himself, as Malaysia’s Foreign Minister, any inkling at all what should be done about the growing Western pressure against Iran, including thinly-veiled threats of air strikes against Iran by Bush and his Israeli lap dogs? No? Only words? Or is it that we shouldn’t expect too much of the Malaysian Government, which for decades now has been hunting with the hounds and running with the hares at the very same time? After all, we have the assurance of none other than the American Ambassador to Malaysia, Christopher j. Lafleur, that KL-US ties have improved (New Straits Times, February 28, 2007). From the mouth of the US Ambassador: “Militarily, we have had close relations, as Malaysian soldiers train in the US and vice versa, and joint exercises are held from time to time.” The NST report did not mention whether LaFleur said anything about the number of US warships visiting Malaysian ports in 2007. But that does not mean that such visits have not been planned. After all, over the last decade or two, an increasing number of such warships, including those which have killed both Iranian and Iraqi civilians, have come, and were welcomed by the Malaysian leadership which was at the same time supposedly leading the OIC and the NAM. Remember UN Security Council Resolution 678 of 1990? If you don’t, just ask Mahathir, a nominee for the Nobel Peace Prize no less. Don’t cry for me, OIC and NAM and Arab League…and the UN. [ES] Comments (0) Subscribe to this comment's feed Show/Hide comments Write comment Name Email Website Title Comment Write the displayed characters Powered by Azrul's Jom Comment
Last Updated ( Tuesday, 15 April 2008 )

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