Opportunity knocked

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Call: Malaysian Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi urged fellow OIC member states to place more emphasis on education, technology and R&D for their citizens across the region.

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50 years and counting: Malaysia has, over the past decades, achieved phenomenal economic prosperity thanks to the government’s strong and liberal economic policies.

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Modernity: the record-breaking Petronas Towers is a concrete and steel testament to Malaysia’s economic achievements.

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If I had to sum up the latest forum of the Organisation of Islamic Conference (OIC) in a sentence, it would sadly mirror so many previous observations of development efforts in the Islamic world: the OIC certainly didn't miss the opportunity to miss an opportunity.

If you haven't heard of the OIC before, you are not alone. The OIC is an inter-governmental organisation grouping 57 countries with majority Muslim populations. The main objective is to pool resources and speak with one voice to safeguard collective interests of the Ummah (the global Islamic community). The organisation was established in Morocco in 1969 in the wake of an arson attack perpetrated on August 21, 1969 by Israelis against the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem.

Since its foundation 10 OIC summits have been conducted, and during the last one in December 2005, Malaysia was elected as the chair country of the organisation and the Makkah Declaration was accepted by member states.Unlike his predecessors, Malaysian Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi seems to take his role and the organisation seriously, and has been active in promoting the declaration. Given that the Makkah Declaration has a timeline (and deadline), Badawi invited delegates, academics, and decision makers to Kuala Lumpur to participate in a forum entitled: ‘Implementing the economic agenda of the Muslim world'. Malaysia has just celebrated its 50th year of independence, and its evident success serves as an excellent example of the potential of a Muslim country.

Joseph Stiglitz, renowned economist and author of Globalisation and its Discontents, gave a speech reflecting Malaysia's success. (Stiglitz is on the record as a fan of Malaysia: he has praised the previous Prime Minister's decision to enact capital controls that limited the contagion of the East Asian financial crisis in 1997). He highlighted the rapid and almost miraculous development of Malaysia over the past 50 years, saying: "The population has tripled, but GDP adjusted for inflation increased more than 20-fold, with an average GDP growth rate of 6.75%, one of the fastest sustained growth rates ever achieved." He went on to note that the country in its early days of independence was among the poorest in the world, with a GDP of "some 5% below that of Ghana" but today enjoys income that is 7.8 times of Ghana and 2.5 times that of Egypt. Its poverty rate is trending towards an incredibly low 2.8%.

Malaysia's success was far from inevitable. There are many powerful debilitating factors, which are familiar across many Muslim countries. It is resource-rich which is often linked with a resource curse, where countries that have natural wealth tend to be underdeveloped. It is also a multiracial and multicultural society which Stiglitz noted could have resulted in a country "torn apart by strife". Finally, as a former British colony, Malaysia carries the legacy of colonialism, which other former colonies still haven't overcome. The recipe to surmount these obstacles is not one that is necessarily modular, but lessons can be learned from the success. Malaysia looked east for its prescription and over the years followed the models of successful East Asian countries. The government encouraged its population to save money which limited the country's exposure and need for foreign debt. It invested heavily in education and technology, and made sure that foreign investors did not treat them like a new market, but demanded knowledge transfers. The government enacted affirmative action programmes, promoted gender equality, and paid attention to the social fabric and political representation of the various ethnic groups. Stiglitz summarises the strategy behind the success as one of two principles: "an emphasis of pragmatism over ideology, and recognition that success required an active role for government".

Following the guiding principle of pragmatism, Prime Minister Badawi's keynote address at the forum focused on the achievable goals of the Makkah Declaration, namely the economic agenda. He reminded the audience of the challenge ahead, and said that although Muslims make up one-fifth of the world's population they only produce one-twentieth of global output, and nearly half of the world's 50 least developed economies are member states in the OIC. He urged members not to let the development plan "gather dust on the shelves of history" and admitted that the efforts have been stalled saying "we have not been able to move beyond planning". In his role as chairman of the OIC, Badawi tabled five points that should be the focus of the OIC and ostensibly the Makkah Declaration. First, he emphasised the importance of maintaining the political will to follow through on the declaration. Second, he called on all OIC countries to instill "reform in the hearts and minds" of their people. Here he quoted verses from the Quran that exalt work as a form of worship, and also explained that the rule of law is a hallmark of Islam. The third and most important point was setting education, technology, and R&D as priorities in the Muslim world and he invited more collaboration among OIC countries.

On this, the Prime Minister said: "Our greatest assets lie not in the resources that lie beneath the ground or in the flora and fauna that flourish upon it. They lie in the potential that is locked in our being. We will progress very far when we unlock and develop this potential."

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