KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 21 ― The convening of the Kuala Lumpur Summit 2019 has resulted in tangible outcomes being outlined in a bid to bring progress and improve the state of the Muslim ummah, according to Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad.
The prime minister said the summit had witnessed the exchange of 18 successful exchange of instruments in various fields including advanced hi-technology; media collaboration; centre of excellence; food security and youth leadership and exchange programmes.
“There are several more in the pipeline which are being worked out resulting from discussions during this Summit,” he said in his closing remarks at the four-day summit at the Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre, here today.
Dr Mahathir, who is also KL Summit chairman, said it was hoped that other Muslim brethren will see for themselves that what KL Summit intends to do is to unite the ummah on strategic and advanced technologies.
“Acquiring this knowledge is our only hope to stop the ummah from continuously being bullied and mistreated by our enemies.
“We re-affirm our creed that all Muslims are brothers and that this small step we have taken will be the beginning of a lengthy and fruitful journey with the rest of the ummah,” he said.
Dr Mahathir said the most important aspect of all the focus of the summit ― economy, science and technology as well as the defence industry ― is the need to be able to produce and create new indigenous technologies.
“For as long as we are dependent on the technology created by the enemies of Islam, they will forever be able to circumvent, dictate and control our efforts to improve our technologies and defence system in particular,” he said.
Dr Mahathir said discussions had also touched on the subject of currency and the way the Muslim nations trade with each other, in which he had suggested to re-visit the idea of trading using the gold dinar and barter trade.
He said it was also important for him to point out that Iran in particular, despite the years of sanctions, had been able to continue to progress and develop with the fourth highest number of engineers in the world.
The Malaysian leader said Qatar also had been subjected to embargo and, like Iran, it has managed to rise above it and progressed impressively.
“However, such sanctions and embargoes are not going to be exclusively for Iran and Qatar. With the world witnessing nations making unilateral decisions to impose such punitive measures, Malaysia and other nations must always bear in mind that it can be imposed on any of us,” he said.
Dr Mahathir said that is the more reason for Muslim countries to be self-reliant and work towards that with other Muslims nations to ensure that if and when such measures are imposed upon them, they are capable of facing it.
Dr Mahathir also touched on the concern that Muslims in non-Muslim countries were forced to undergo assimilation, saying that “we support integration but assimilation to the extent of shedding our religion is unacceptable,”
He said the gathering pointed out that if Muslim countries were independent and capable of standing on their own feet, they will not be subjected to such treatments.
Touching on the 1.8 billion Muslims population, he said they formed almost a quarter of the total human population, and yet, they lack proportionate representation in all fields on the global platform.
Dr Mahathir also had some messages to those with negative opinions on the KL Summit.
“We are not here to replace any other Muslim platforms, neither are we intending to create different categories or classes of Muslim nations nor to undermine others.
“It is a congregation of a few Muslim nations of which some of the leaders wanted to get together and discuss some areas that are possible for them to establish collaborations that will first, benefit the nations involved and then taken onto a bigger platform and collaboration to benefit the Muslim world as a whole.
“While it may not allay some of the suspicions and opposition raised, we would like to again reiterate that this summit is focussed on its objectives of finding solutions and programmes that we believe can assist and eventually save the ummah from their current plight,” he said. ― Bernama
