OIC RESTRUCTURING

Introduction

Own words on the lines of enlightened moderation

Events Leading to the Birth of Idea

1. President Pervez Musharraf said during his address to OIC head of state meeting in Malaysia that a restructuring of the OIC was necessary to "evolve a strategy to secure justice" for Muslim nations. He further added that the Ummah could boast of a combined GNP of $1400 billion while Japan alone had a GNP of $4500 billion; the Ummah had only 500 universities and produced 1000 PhDs a year while Japan had more than 9000 universities and tiny England produced 2000 PhDs annually. The idea was supported by Indonesian President Megawati Sukarnoputri, who told that the Islamic world needed to reassess its priorities and embark on "concrete action." Malaysia’s outgoing Prime Minister added in the same meeting that Muslims built a great civilization but halfway through "came new interpreters of Islam who taught that acquisition of knowledge by the Muslims meant only the study of Islamic theology. The study of science, medicine etc. was discouraged. Intellectually the Muslims began to regress".

2. Reasons for Reform

a. The remarks by the two leaders should be seen against the tragedies faced by the Muslim world. These include the Anglo-American attack on Iraq without UN authorization and the continued persecution of Muslim peoples in Kashmir and Palestine.

b. Going back a bit further, one can recall such horrors as the anti-Muslim ethnic cleansing in Bosnia and Kosovo, and last year's officially inspired pogrom in India's Gujarat state. To these tragedies the OIC's response has been conspicuous by its absence.

c. In the case of Gujarat, several European diplomats visited the riot-hit areas, and their governments later released reports highly critical of the Gujarat government. As against this, not a single Muslim diplomat visited Gujarat.

d. OIC’s list of accumulated failures is too long and restructuring would have come anyway. Its failure to do enough for Palestinians, Chechens, Moro Muslims etc are indicators for a massive reforms.

e. OIC’s head of state meeting was called three days after the American attack on Afghanistan on 7th October 2001. It was in no position to help the Afghans once the attack had already started.

f. Pakistan gets verbal support from all the OIC members on Kashmir issue but at the same time same members assure India of continued support for obvious economic reasons. Each country plays upon its own interests disregarding the interests of Ummah. There is no sense like that.

g. That Muslim countries lack economic and military strength is widely known and recognized.

h. No Muslim country is a G-8 member, but there are other assets to which the OIC does not seem to attach much importance. These include oil wealth and other natural resources, a strategically-located land mass, and a billion plus population that is not without scientific talents. Yet the OIC has made no effort to harness these potential sources of power and influence, the main reason being a distressing lack of political will.

j. Most Muslim countries have low literacy rates and are backward technologically. The Muslim countries have failed to develop economic cooperation amongst themselves at the regional or Ummah level apart from the fact that their vast natural resources were exploited by foreign powers to their disadvantage.

k. The Ummah has failed to present a united stand in the face of the challenges of globalization and has played a marginal role in the deliberations on the international economic fora.

l. The Muslim world has failed to cope with the challenge of 'the battle of ideas' by not presenting an alternative which would cover political, economic, social and cultural assets of life in the modern world.

m. A major reason was the apathy of the Muslim nations towards the OIC. At the end of OIC head of State meeting in Putrajaya, Malaysia, a communiqué was issued. A telling commentary on how member states felt about the OIC was provided by the inclusion in the communiqué of two paragraphs that noted the non-payment of contributions by some of the member countries and offered them a special deal of a 50 per cent exemption from payment of arrears if they paid their regular contributions in the coming two years.

3. Contents of Putrajaya Communiqué. In some measure the action plan contained in the Putrajaya declaration tried to depart from the reiteration of old positions and to suggest some concrete measures that could be taken. This showed the effect of enlightened moderation on the OIC. These included:

a. Using the Islamic fiqh academy, duly restructured to enhance a dialogue between Muslim scholars

b. Using the troika of the OIC summit and the friends of the chair to initiate a review of the positions of OIC members on various international issues and to see how greater unity and cohesion could be brought about between the OIC members

c. Using the troika of the OIC summit and the friends of the chair for a dialogue with other cultures and civilizations with a view to bringing about "enlightened moderation" and greater understanding of Islam as a religion of peace and understanding

d. Other measures for promoting greater economic collaboration, cooperation in information and communication technology or even devising alternative payment arrangements for trade between the Islamic countries or on the restructuring of the OIC secretariat were, by and large a rehash of proposals that have been made earlier and have remained largely unimplemented.

4. Envisaged Plan of Restructuring. Currently the committee orf eminent persons as proposed by President Musharraf has taken up following issues for the reform of OIC. Their goal is to restructure and strengthen the OIC to function effectively through its institutions with a view to promoting and serving vital interests of Muslims and thus to achieve unification of Ummah. They are considering following proposals: -

a. New institutions like Majlas-i-Shoora, defence and security council, Islamic international court of justice, law reforming council, council of trade and commerce, foreign affairs council, Baitul Maal (Islamic monitory fund), disaster management committee and health and education committees should be established under the auspices of the OIC.

b. A strategy should be planned to motivate the international opinion for having a permanent seat in Security Council for Muslim Ummah.

c. Disputes or conflicts existing or arising amongst the Muslim countries be resolved through arbitration and mutual negotiations or reference to the Islamic international court of justice.

d. Measures should be adopted to facilitate free movement of people of Islamic countries. Ummah has to rediscover its moral and ideological responsibilities. Its member countries should have the twin pre-requisites of

(1) Loyalty to Allah
(2) Trust of the people.

e. Ummah's right to retrieve its hard-earned wealth swindled and kept in Western banks must be recognized and moral, political and legal pressures should be exerted to bring back this wealth.

f. Muslim countries should establish a monitory fund to help out indebted Muslim countries by providing financial aid and interest-free soft loans.

g. Ummah must promote mutual trade, commerce and its multinational companies.

h. Ummah must launch its own communication satellites to uplift information technology and media of brother countries.

j. Science and technology cities must be established in all regions of Ummah and transfer of technology in Muslim countries.

k. Free exchange of literature and scholars in Muslim countries should be promoted.

l. A resourceful body of Ummah must be established to participate globally in sending scientific research missions to space, Antarctica and deep sea waters.

5. Further Recommendations

a. The OIC should implement a new vision based on inter-faith and inter-region dialogue. Countries like Russia, Philippines and India with large Muslim population should associate themselves with the OIC which may also be considered by the organization.

b. The fundamentals of power cannot be achieved overnight, but the OIC restructuring that is being talked about should focus on realizable aims and help the Muslim world equip itself with means that could enable it to come to grips with the challenges it is facing.

c. The intelligentsia and opinion leaders in the Islamic world must present their perspectives to the various ideological and intellectual challenges and also open doors of dialogue with non-OIC countries and their civil societies.

d. The OIC countries must strive to end backwardness in scientific and technological advancement by enhancing allocations in these field in which West posed a formidable challenge.

e. The OIC recommendations after Malaysia meeting stressed projection of the true picture of Islam and its values through media to counter the western media which has cast the Muslim world and Islam in a negative light by stereotyping and demonizing them.

f. The OIC should formulate a coherent response which could include, strengthening of unity and solidarity of Ummah, adopting common positions and strategies in dealing with major security issues facing the Ummah such as Palestine and Kashmir.

g. Avoid the policy of either confrontation or capitulation in dealing with the West, urging West to resolve outstanding disputes of concern to Muslim countries, to ensure that the struggle of Islamic peoples for their inalienable right to self-determination resisting foreign occupation and alien domination was not equated with terrorism and to encourage the promotion and projection of human rights in member states.

h. These problems can be tackled by pooling resources so that states better endowed in terms of education and scientific know how can help those which are not. With their common efforts, they could set up centres of higher learning and research to spread education and modern technology in the Muslim world and thus improve educational, health and social standards.

j. Special commissions could be set up to focus on the condition of women, especially their subjugation to anachronistic and brutal customs that have no sanction in Islam.