Perdana Menteri tenang apabila media barat menghentamnya di Bangkok - Anti-Yahudi: Mahathir menang lagi

Oleh Zaini Hassan dan Mohd. Nor Samad

KOTA raya Bangkok menyaksikan Datuk Seri Dr. Mahathir Mohamad menjadi `begitu terkenal'.

Beliau berjaya mengakhiri kerjayanya sebagai Perdana Menteri Malaysia di persada persidangan antarabangsa dengan cukup cemerlang sekali. Namanya disebut di merata-rata tempat semasa berlangsungnya Sidang Kemuncak Kerjasama Ekonomi Asia Pasifik (APEC) di sini pada 20-21 Oktober lalu.

Berita Dr. Mahathir ditempatkan dengan begitu strategik - diulas dalam lidah pengarang - di akhbar-akhbar ternama berbahasa Inggeris tempatan, sehingga mengambil alih `kehangatan' kehadiran pemimpin `kuasa besar tunggal dunia' Presiden George W. Bush.

Malah bukan itu sahaja, nama Dr. Mahathir tiba-tiba mendapat perhatian seluruh dunia. CNN mengulang menyebut namanya berkali-kali,termasuk mengadakan forum khas secara live membincangkan mengenainya. Begitu juga agensi-agensi berita asing yang menghebahkan berita mereka ke seluruh pelosok dunia turut menulis mengenai beliau.

Pendek kata nama Dr. Mahathir cukup terkenal. Ia berlaku kira-kira 10 hari sebelum beliau meletakkan jawatan sebagai pemimpin tertinggi Malaysia pada 31 Oktober ini.

Apa yang menjadikan beliau sebagai buah mulut itu adalah kerana ucapannya semasa Sidang Kemuncak Ke-10 Pertubuhan Persidangan Islam (OIC), dua hari sebelum APEC bermula di Bangkok. Kenyataannya yang menyebut mengenai orang Yahudi telah disalah tafsir dan diperheboh oleh agensi berita Barat.

Tanpa usul periksa, seluruh dunia - rata-ratanya sekutu Amerika - menuduh Dr. Mahathir sebagai anti-Yahudi.

CNN dan wartawan Barat mahu seboleh mungkin memulas tangan Dr. Mahathir.

Tetapi, mereka tidak tahu siapa yang lebih bijak dalam permainan ini.

Dr. Mahathir kelihatan tenang semasa berita-berita menghentamnya disiarkan oleh akhbar dan televisyen semasa beliau berada di sini.

Lebih cemerkap lagi, pada hari Isnin (20 Oktober) agensi berita asing memetik satu lagi kenyataan kononnya kali ini daripada jurucakap Amerika Syarikat (AS).

Laporan itu mahu menunjukkan seolah-olah bahawa presiden mereka - Bush menarik Dr. Mahathir ke tepi semasa sidang kemuncak itu lalu mencela beliau kerana ucapan tersebut. Tajuk berita di salah satu akhbar di sini keesokan harinya berbunyi Komen Mahathir berbau kebencian, kata Bush.

Pada pagi berita itu disiarkan, hari Selasa, Dr. Mahathir sibuk dengan program sidang kemuncak itu. Walaupun para pegawainya mengatakan ``mood bos kurang baik'' - mungkin kerana berita itu, atau kerana letih - Dr. Mahathir masih mampu tersenyum.

Wartawan Malaysia pagi-pagi lagi menunggunya di sebuah hotel untuk mendapatkan reaksinya benarkah beliau `ditolak ke tepi oleh Bush'.

Dr. Mahathir berlalu tanpa mahu berjumpa wartawan selepas mengadakan mesyuarat dua hala dengan rakan sejawatannya dari Chile. Beliau hanya tersenyum dan berkata ``sat lagi saya jumpa.''

Pada masa itu tiada siapa yang mengetahui apakah benar Bush melakukan perlakuan seperti seorang koboi mabuk itu. Tiba masanya di akhir sidang kemuncak itu, pada sebelah petangnya (Selasa, 21 Oktober) Dr. Mahathir dijadual mengadakan sidang akhbar.

Wartawan memenuhi dewan besar Pusat Konvensyen Nasional Queen Sirikit untuk mengikuti sidang akhbar itu. Kira-kira 150 wartawan seluruh dunia duduk dengan tenang menunggu ketibaan Dr. Mahathir.

Tepat pukul 4.30 petang beliau melangkah ke dewan itu dan duduk di kerusi. Belum sempat pengerusi majlis itu, Datuk Seri Syed Hamid Albar membuat pengenalan - Dr. Mahathir terus bercakap memberitahu perkara yang sebenar.

``Saya tidak tahu apa yang dia (wartawan yang menulis mengatakan beliau dicela) dengar. Saya tidak dicela. Tapi apa yang berlaku, Bush tarik saya ke tepi untuk jelaskan kenapa dia membuat reaksi yang keras kepada saya. Lalu saya jawab, saya faham.

``Saya minta dia (wartawan itu) tanya Bush (berhubung hal ini) apa yang pemimpin itu cakap kepada saya, kecualilah pendengaran saya kurang baik. Saya rasa tidak, saya masih boleh mendengar soalan yang saudara kemukakan,'' katanya tidak bernada marah - tenang dalam senyum - pada sidang akhbar itu.

Keesokan harinya akhbar-akhbar tempatan Thailand menyiarkan laporan itu. The Nation menyiarkan gambar muka depan close-up wajah Dr. Mahathir dan di belakangnya Bush. Keterangan gambar itu berbunyi Presiden Amerika George W. Bush bergambar di belakang Perdana Menteri Dr. Mahathir Mohamad semasa para pemimpin APEC beratur untuk bergambar semalam. Di bawah keterangan itu tercatat: Bush tidak cela saya, kata Mahathir - lihat muka 6A.

Bagaimanapun, tidak pasti apakah CNN menyiarkan penjelasan Dr. Mahathir itu, sebagaimana ia agak keberatan menyiarkan penjelasan Perdana Menteri itu mengenai apa sebenarnya tafsiran isi kandungan ucapan di OIC itu.

Walaupun Dr. Mahathir terpaksa membuat penjelasan itu sendiri - namun itu bukan soalnya. Media Barat yang berada di dalam dewan itu seolah-olah malu dengan gelagat mereka sendiri.

Malah sepanjang 21 soalan yang ditanya dalam sidang akhbar itu masih ada di antaranya soalan yang berunsur `nakal.' Tapi Dr. Mahathir - seperti biasa - menjawabnya dengan tenang dan jelas. Walaupun soalannya sukar dan bernada menghentam, beliau bijak mematahkannya.

Sebaliknya, dalam agenda media asing yang ternyata mahu memburukkan Dr. Mahathir, tokoh itu cukup terkenal dan dihormati di Bangkok.

Akhbar Inggeris tertua, Bangkok Post memberi ruang semuka penuh wawancara eksklusif dengan Dr. Mahathir. Wawan-

cara oleh ketua pengarangnya, Pichai Chuensuksawandi disiarkan pada hari sidang kemuncak APEC berlangsung. Interviu berkisar mengenai kecemerlangannya sebagai Perdana Menteri Malaysia sebelum bersara akhir bulan ini telah menjelaskan segala-gala isu termasuk kontroversi terbaru di OIC itu.

Lebih menarik lagi semasa mengulas kontroversi itu, Dr. Mahathir secara berterus terang dan berani sebagai seorang Islam berkata: ``Jadi, reaksi dunia (yang keterlaluan) itu jelaslah menunjukkan bahawa mereka (Yahudi memang) menguasai dunia.

Katanya, Kesatuan Eropah (EU) dan Amerika Syarikat dan lain-lain mahu mengutuknya, sedangkan hakikatnya ada orang lain berkata semua orang Islam itu adalah pengganas.

``Perdana Menteri Itali Sylvio Berlesconi sendiri membuat kenyataan bahawa orang Islam adalah pengganas. Adakah EU meluluskan resolusi mengutuk? Mengapa apabila ada pihak mengutuk Islam, EU tidak berkata apa-apa?''

Malah pada hari yang sama, Bangkok Post turut menyiarkan lidah pengarang bertajuk Mahathir tinggalkan Dilema Melayu dengan tajuk kecil Mesyuarat peringkat tertinggi politik pemimpin Islam minggu lalu menyeru diambil tindakan keras terhadap keganasan. Bagaimanapun amat malang komen Mahathir mengenai Yahudi yang menguasai perhatian.

Sebuah lagi akhbar Inggeris terlaris di Thailand, The Nation, pada hari yang sama, turut menyiarkan lidah pengarang di muka 6 mengenai Mahathir. Apa yang menariknya lidah pengarang itu bukan menulis mengenai ketibaan Bush -Êyang menjadi sekutu kuat Thailand, tetapi menulis ketibaan Mahathir ke APEC.

Akhbar itu - yang walaupun mengkritik sikapnya yang lantang, tetapi berkata ``di sebalik retorik anti-Barat, anti-Yahudi, Mahathir banyak bercakap perkara yang membawa erti yang besar.''

Kata akhbar itu, ``Semalam, beliau memberi peringatan berani kepada para pemimpin perniagaan APEC supaya memastikan globalisasi dan sistem perdagangan antarabangsa bukan sahaja membawa kepada perdagangan bebas, tetapi juga adil.''

Sepanjang kerjaya politiknya, kata The Nation, ``Dr. Mahathir sentiasa berada di atas permainannya: Seorang yang bijak dan petah bercakap yang membawa suaranya sehingga ke negara-negara sedang membangun dan miskin seluruh dunia''.

Selain itu, akhbar-akhbar di sini turut membuat pelbagai analisis siapakah pemimpin yang akan memimpin rantau ini dan ASEAN selepas Dr. Mahathir. Mereka cuba mencuit-cuit Perdana Menteri Thailand, Thaksin Shinatwatra.

``Itu adalah misi semua orang, bukan satu peranan rasmi untuk seorang memimpin satu kumpulan,'' kata jutawan telekomunikasi - bertukar ahli politik itu ketika ditanya apakah beliau akan mengambil peranan Dr. Mahathir selepas ini.

Thaksin dikenali sebagai seorang yang banyak mencontohi kepimpinan dan ketokohan Dr. Mahathir. Pada hari terakhir sidang kemuncak APEC semalam beliau menyampaikan satu hadiah sebagai penghormatan perpisahan kepada Dr. Mahathir. The Nation menyiarkan berita itu pada muka satunya bertajuk Thaksin beri penghormatan kepada Mahathir.

Yang pasti dalam masa dua hari APEC berlangsung, Dr. Mahathir berjaya mencuri perhatian.

Seluruh dunia bercakap mengenai beliau. Permainannya - berjaya lagi - walaupun ia berlaku secara tidak sengaja.

Seperti kata lidah pengarang The Nation for good or for worse - pandangan tegas Mahathir amat berbaloi dan suara lantangnya mendapat perhatian.

Sebaliknya, sesiapa sahaja yang menghentamnya kini tertanya-tanya, berbaloi pulakah tindakan mereka? Yang nyata, mereka kalah (lagi) dalam permainan pusingan akhir ini. Tahniah Datuk Seri!

Utusan Malaysia, 26 Okt 2003

Threat from within, says Dr M

Marking his departure after 22 unprecedented years as the longest-serving elected leader in the world, numerous media interviews were sought with Prime Minister Datuk Seri Dr Mahathir Mohamad. On the eve of the official opening of the 10th Summit Session of the Organisation of Islamic Conference (OIC) today, The Star Associate Editor Bunn Nagara was invited for a one-on-one interview with Dr Mahathir on the OIC in his final, exclusive media interview as Prime Minister.

IN LAUNCHING Malaysia’s incoming chairmanship of the OIC, this interview was beamed simultaneously to all 57 OIC member countries. (In Malaysia, this was shown as Special Focus on the OIC on RTM1 at 9pm last night.)

The following is the full transcript of the interview, covering key areas of OIC concern including unity among members, trade and the international currency of trade, the image of Islam and terrorism, threats to the Muslim ummah and oil as a defensive weapon, the promotion of science and technology, and Dr Mahathir’s own experience in administering Malaysia which could apply to and benefit the OIC.

How serious do you see the threats today to the OIC as a cohesive and effective voice of the Muslim world, and what are some of these main threats and challenges?

The threat is not directed at the OIC but is directed at Muslim people in the world. The OIC has still the capacity to act.

The problem, of course, is that the OIC has not got the will to act. That is, the threat actually is within – not coming from outside.

The lack of effectiveness of the OIC is widely seen as due to the lack of unity among member countries. How would Malaysia’s chairmanship of the OIC seek to overcome the differences to help forge unity?

I don’t think we should aim for total unity of 1.3 billion Muslims in 57 different countries. That is not achievable.

But if we can achieve unity of a significant number – a small minority even, we can act and produce results.

Do you have any particular plan at the moment?

We have some ideas about how we can go about these things, but of course we need to have a few countries to subscribe to these plans and to act.

OIC leaders such as yourself have mentioned before the possibility of using oil as a weapon in defending the rights and interests of members like Palestine. Yet when Iraq announced doing that in April last year, it was attacked 11 months later. How can defensive methods work without inviting further attacks in response?

There are judicious and prudent ways of using oil as a weapon. But that does not necessarily mean that we should cut back on the production of oil, deprive the world of oil.

We have to think, if you have a weapon – you can use it many ways. So, we have to think of other ways rather than just merely cutting back on the production, depriving the world of its supply.

In recent years, Islamic extremism has grabbed world attention and associated Islam with political violence. What should OIC members and other countries do to dispel this negative image?

In the first place, we should make an assessment as to the results of terrorism.

We should step back, we should think and find ways of doing things which are more effective then merely retaliating, merely expressing our anger and bitterness and just killing people because they kill us.

The question of image has to do with media portrayal, especially in the international news, which seems to be dominated by western agencies. Is there a way for the OIC to counter that?

We should project ourselves in a different way. There are many ways of projecting yourself without just merely allowing people to make their own interpretation.

Of course, if you do things that are obviously wrong, then we get a bad press. On the other hand, there are ways of projecting our problems to the rest of the world which can win the sympathy of the rest of the world where we will not be accused of terrorism.

Three years ago, you found that the anger of some OIC member countries at Israeli aggression was such that some of them considered cutting ties with the United States, but nothing of the kind happened. Frankly, how do you see the future prospects of the Muslim ummah?

Well, if we handle things correctly, I think 1.3 billion Muslims can be effective because of our numbers. Because we are rich, because we control some of the essential supplies to the rest of the world.

We are a big market. All these things are assets we have – which we have not really thought of making use of.

Now if we think carefully, we might be able to use our assets in order to project a better image of ourselves in order to win the struggle.

Several OIC member countries are immensely rich because of their oil wealth, yet a third or more of them are among the poorest countries in the world. What should be done with this wealth to help the poor develop their communities?

The rich countries are very charitable. They have given aid to neighbouring countries.

But on the other hand, the manner of support is not productive. We know even the Western countries, when they give aid to a lot of countries, the aid is misused and has produced this result.

Similarly, Muslims are charitable. They do give away ... rich countries do give away a lot of money to support the poorer Muslim countries, but there is a need to structure the aid in such a way that it would contribute towards reducing poverty, for example, and helping the countries develop.

Would a plan to help OIC countries develop be part of Malaysia’s leadership of the OIC?

No, we are a Muslim country and I think we have as much role to play in leading the Muslim ummah, together with the others.

It would seem that among the tasks of the OIC is to lend a hand to the downtrodden around the world, a task that overlaps with organisations like the Non-Aligned Movement currently chaired by Malaysia. Are there possible synergies where like-minded organisations can act in certain areas of common concern?

Yes, certainly there are. For example at this WTO meeting, we can act together. It doesn’t matter whether we are members of NAM or members of the OIC.

We are all developing countries. And if we lend our voice to a single struggle for a single objective, I am quite sure it will strengthen us.

To many people in the world, especially in North America and Europe, Islam is almost synonymous with West Asia or the Middle East. Yet Asian Muslims form a sizeable proportion of Muslims in the world. What do you see as the contributions Islam in Asia can make to the Muslim ummah worldwide?

I would say quite a lot, because we are not troubled with the baggage of history.

We have a different background, we have a different perspective, we see perhaps more clearly the problems that are faced by the ummah – and our solution to it is actually to develop our country to gain strength.

The OIC still has prospective members waiting to join. Would new members add to the strength of the organisation, or dilute it and even create new areas of disagreement and disunity?

I don’t think new members will have very much (impact). The problem is, we have enough members but we are not using the strength of the members.

Prime Minister, you have spearheaded the development of Malaysia based very much on promoting science and technology. If the OIC members can gain similarly from technological advancement, how would you overcome the fear among some Muslim communities of science and technology?

I think it is through explanation, education and interpretation. For example, they assume that science would undermine your faith if you reveal a lot of natural phenomena that we see.

Some people think that they should be a mystery. God’s creation must be a mystery to us before we can believe.

But actually, science reveals how much more powerful God is, because if you study science you will find that matter is created from very minute electrons and protons and the like, which accumulate to form the molecules and so on.

And then we have the universe which we thought consisted of merely the sun, the moon and the stars but we found that the universe is made of many suns, and it is so huge that it will take many light years to travel from one point to another.

So God’s creation is actually much bigger, much more complex, much more intricate than what we used to believe before. And therefore our perception of God is that much enhanced, and apparently God is much greater than what we thought He actually is.

And this should increase our faith in God. There’s another thing that I always tell people: that whereas a scientist can explain to you how things happen, he cannot explain why things happen.

He cannot explain, for example, why hydrogen combines with oxygen to create water. Why not some other elements?

But hydrogen and oxygen make water. Why? Because that’s the way God created it. We can’t explain ? there is no other explanation.

Would you say that the promotion of science could be part of the contribution to the leadership of the OIC by Malaysia?

Well, I think to the extent that we can do for science. As a doctor, well of course, I’m also a scientist.

As a doctor, I find that my knowledge of science, my knowledge of medicine, has in fact strengthened my faith in my religion and my faith in God.

During your tenure as Prime Minister, not only has Malaysia developed significantly in technological terms, but also in other areas like Islamic banking. What other Islamic business practices would you like to see adopted more widely by members of the OIC?

Islam is the only religion that prescribes everything that you do in your daily life because Islam is not only a religion, it is also a way of life. In the practice of business, there is guidance in Islam.

If we follow this guidance properly, we will become very transparent, we will do things very honestly, and we will not cheat if in fact we adhere to the teachings of Islam.

Not only will Muslims succeed in business, they can show the world the quality of business that they do, and this will contribute towards more ethical business for everybody, not just for the Muslims.

It would seem that OIC members can do much more to trade among themselves and therefore enrich one another. What are (some of the things) that the OIC should do or will do?

One of the things resulting in our not trading much with each other is not knowing our capabilities. Not knowing what we produce.

At this expo for example, I was very surprised to find that Kuwait produces paper. Now Kuwait doesn’t have a single tree to speak of.

They cannot possibly produce paper, but they are producing paper. How they do it, I’m not going to question, but the fact is that it is entirely possible for many Muslim countries to produce goods that are good and of quality.

But unfortunately because we don’t know, we tend to source our supply from traditional sources, mainly Japan, South Korea or Europe. So expos like this I consider very important.

They should be held not only at every OIC meeting, but in between and in many other countries to acquaint the Muslim countries of their own capability and products that they have to supply to other countries.

Malaysia has proposed the use of the gold dinar in international trade, and not only that, but also done the research to show the viability (of doing this).

I would stress gold rather than dinar. What you call the currency is really not important, but the fact is that you have a gold standard against which you value the goods you are going to buy or sell.

Paper has no value at all. You can write any number on a piece of paper and call it money, but it has no value and because it has no real value, it can be appreciated and depreciated.

But gold has got a specific value in any country, so we know that when we compare to gold we’re comparing to something that has the value as such. That is why we propose that we should use gold as the reference currency.

Not in domestic business, but in trade between nations. Today, trade between nations use the US currency. We don’t use US currency in Malaysia but when we trade (it is) with US currency.

Now the idea is instead of the US currency, which is a piece of paper that has no value, we use gold – and we can call it the gold dinar or whatever, but we use gold of a specific weight, specific size or specific value, and we can use that as a reference currency to pay for what we buy and to receive for what we sell.

So it is a much more stable currency. Not subjected to manipulation by (George) Soros, for example. If Soros wants to sell gold at half the price, people will snap it up and if you snap up gold at half the price, the value will go up and it does not go down.

You see whereas (with) paper, if you sell and sell, the value goes down. So that is why we propose we should use gold.

Not to carry gold from one place to another, but to use it as a reference currency only. To make it easier, we have a bilateral payments arrangement where the trade between two countries is settled by taking only into consideration the balance.

You don’t pay for the whole... I mean if you buy 100mil dinars worth of goods, you don’t take 100mil dinars and pay because when you buy, you also sell.

So when you buy you have to pay but when you sell they have to pay, so you just contra the amount and you pay what is the balance. If the balance is in your favour, than you receive the payment, which is a small sum, the difference between the exports and imports, and vice-versa.

How far are OIC members taking this up at the moment?

Well, it is working now. We are not too ambitious to want to launch it worldwide.

We’ll begin with two or three countries and see how it works, and correct all the mistakes. And I’m quite sure other countries will come on board one by one, and eventually it will be a currency that is accepted by all for the settlement of trade.

Would you say this will happen soon?

Yes, it will be soon. We have already lined up two or three countries which are willing to use the gold dinar.

As Prime Minister of the country for 22 years, you have been credited with running an effective government. What areas of administration in Malaysia that you have experienced may now be applied to Malaysia’s chairmanship of the OIC?

I think it is wrong to say that it is all my doing. We are a collective government, and what we do is decided by the Cabinet and the Cabinet’s philosophy is that we will ensure that things are not just decided, they are carried out.

And for this, we have things like post-Cabinet meetings, we have what we call a hands-on government where ministers make sure that decisions are carried out on the ground.

This has ensured an effective government that is able to carry out development and produce results. Perhaps, this might be a useful way for ensuring that Muslim countries also develop in the same way.

The Star, 16/10/2003

Bush Scolds Malaysian PM

Statement on Jews 'divisive'


COMBINED NEWS SERVICES

October 21, 2003


Bangkok, Thailand - President George W. Bush pulled the Malaysian prime minister aside at an international economic meeting yesterday to tell him his statement last week that Jews rule the world was "wrong and divisive," Bush's spokesman said.

White House press secretary Scott McClellan quoted Bush as telling Mahathir Mohamad, "It stands squarely against what I believe in." Bush confronted Mahathir between meetings of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit, McClellan said, inserting himself into a simmering controversy in which Malaysian officials say their prime minister's remarks were taken out of context.

Mahathir did not bring up the dispute during an APEC panel discussion on globalization yesterday. And Bush pushed North Korea's nuclear threat to the forefront of the 21-nation summit. He had proposed a quieting of tensions the day before by offering Pyongyang a five-nation security guarantee if it would scrap its nuclear weapons program. The communist country responded yesterday with an attention-grabbing missile test, which was described as part of an annual military exercise.

Some leaders at the conference complained that security issues were dominating the meeting's stated economic agenda, but they did take up a major economic dispute and agreed to revive global trade liberalization talks that collapsed recently in Mexico.

This is the last of the annual forums that Malaysia's Mahathir will attend before retiring Oct. 31 after 22 years in power. Mahathir, a senior statesman in Asia whose pugnacious, articulate speeches against globalization and U.S. policy in the Middle East have a strong following, triggered an uproar at a summit of Islamic countries last week by stating that "Jews rule the world by proxy. They get others to fight and die for them."

Lost in the ensuing uproar was the thrust of Mahathir's address: that Muslims must give up violence and pursue peace.

The Asia-Pacific summit ends today with the leaders expected to pledge to intensify efforts to dismantle terror groups.
Copyright © 2003, Newsday, Inc.

Mahathir unapologetic over comment about Jews

By James Harding in Bangkok
Published: October 21 2003 12:24 | Last Updated: October 21 2003 12:24

Mahathir Mohamad, Asia's longest serving prime minister, said on Tuesday that the international outcry over his comments that Jews ruled the world by proxy proved that he was right.

"The reaction of the world shows that they control the world," he said in an interview with the Bangkok Post, during which he expanded on his theories of Jewish power and influence while also explaining that his comments were taken out of context.

Coming the day after he was pulled aside for a rebuke from President George W. Bush and a series of senior US officials heaped criticism on Malaysia's outgoing leader, Mr Mahathir's unapologetic comments ensure that controversy will pursue him into retirement.

Mr Mahathir said that in his speech before the Organisation of Islamic Conference, a gathering of 57 countries with large Muslim populations, "I condemned all violence, even the suicide bombings, and I told the Muslims that it's about time we stopped all these things, and pause and think and do something that is much more productive."

But, he said, the media went on to "pick up one sentence in which I said the Jews control the world. Well, the reaction of the world shows that they control the world."

Five days after Mr Mahathir made his comments, the White House made a concerted display of its displeasure. Australia's prime minister, the international Jewish community and some European leaders have also voiced outrage.

But the condemnation has been far from universal - few Asian leaders meeting in Bangkok for the Asia Pacific Economic Co-operation summit have taken the opportunity to confront Mr Mahathir or criticise his comments.

In his defence, Mr Mahathir said: "I have friends who are Jews." He mentioned that he had invited the Israeli cricket team to play in Malaysia, as well as Israeli schoolchildren to meet Muslim and Chinese schoolchildren in Malaysia. "We don't want to kill them," he said.

Mr Mahathir said his efforts to bridge the gap between Muslims and Israelis got "blacked out" by the press, because "many newspapers are owned by the Jews".

"They have a powerful influence over the thinking of many people," Mr Mahathir said, while "the Muslims, we are pictured as terrorists, unreasonable people, unable to administer our countries."

Mr Mahathir also suggested foreign criticism of cronyism and alleged government control of the media was born of western prejudice: "I believe it to be the assumption of western journalists that these Asians, these brown people, cannot understand what justice is, what fair play is."

In a wide-ranging discussion of his achievements over 22 years in office ahead of his retirement next week, Mr Mahathir said that his greatest success hds been easing racial tensions within his country.

"There's always been a problem of tension between the races. But we have managed to stabilise the situation and we have people live and play together without any confrontation. That is, I think, an achievement, especially by me because I was described as being anti-Chinese at the beginning," Mr Mahathir said.

During the Asian financial crisis, the animosities between the Malays and the Chinese did not erupt into communal violence in Malaysia in the way they did in Indonesia.

Mr Mahathir also criticised the way the US was wielding its power in the world as it pursued its war against terrorism. "There are some people who believe massive retaliation is the answer. You kill one of my people, I will kill 100 of your people. This is not going to work."

The US, he said, needed to get at the root cause of the problem: "You have to find out why they want to crash a plane into a huge building. It is a horrible way to die. There must be a reason."

Financial Times.com, 21 Oct 2003

Mahathir's pack of lies

Amir Taheri
National Post

Tuesday, October 21, 2003

This was to be his political swan song, and he had spent weeks composing it.

And yet, when Dr. Mahathir Mohamad, who will retire as Malaysia's Prime Minister next month, addressed the 10th Islamic summit in Kuala Lumpur last week, he offered a re-heated hotchpotch of the bizarre fare he has dished out over a 40-year career.

The speech was structured around Mahathir's view of history as a series of conspiracies and counter-conspiracies.

The part of the speech that received most attention consists of a few sentences in which Mahathir reiterated his theory that the modern world is made and controlled by Jews.

He first developed that theory sometime around 1990. He gave this writer, and four other journalists, an exposé of it during a dinner at a restaurant in Davos, Switzerland, in 1998. When I met him in London last July, however, he seemed to have modified his position somewhat, insisting that what he had said about Jews was a reflection of what "religious scholars feel in Malaysia."

Not surprisingly, many people have seen Mahathir's speech as an insult to Jews. A closer reading would show that he was insulting Muslims and Christians more than Jews.

Here is part of what Mahathir said: "The Europeans killed six million out of 12 million, but today the Jews rule the world by proxy."

What does this mean?

It means that all Europeans, not just Nazis, were involved in the Holocaust. It also means that the Europeans, being mass-murderers, are not intelligent enough to prevent a small Jewish community from ruling them.

Mahathir presents the Jews as "a people who think," unlike Christians and Muslims who he regards as too dumb to use their heads.

He says that the "thinking people" have also managed to get "others to fight and die for them."

He adds: "Israelis and Jews control most of the economy and the media in the world."

As the world enjoys a level of prosperity not dreamed of even a generation ago, plus unprecedented access to information, Mahathir's claim, if true, would amount to a compliment to "Israelis and Jews."

The Malaysian leader gives Jews credit for having created the modern world single-handedly.

He says that Jews "invented socialism, communism, human rights and democracy so that persecuting them would appear to be wrong, so that they can enjoy equal rights with others." In other words, the idea that all human beings have inalienable rights and that people should be free to choose their governments are "Jewish tricks."

Mahathir levels grave charges against Christians. In a speech at his party's conference last June, he claimed that "European culture" had become "a menace for mankind.

"The Europeans are determined to impose a global culture that includes the practice of free sex, especially sodomy. Marriage between male and male, female and female are officially recognized by them. They no longer regard incest as a sin."

He is harder on what he calls "the Anglo-Saxons." He says they "invent false allegations to go to war to kill children, old people and sick people."

So much for the West's boast about its Greco-Roman heritage.

If the goal of Jews is to impose human rights and democracy throughout the world, the goal of Christians is to spread sodomy and incest.

What about Muslims?

They were the main target of Mahathir's vitriolic verbiage.

Inflating the number of Muslims to 1.3 billion, he lamented that they fail to "deal with" a few million Jews, whatever that means.

He claimed that Muslims, though holding assets worth three-trillion dollars, play virtually no role in global decision-making.

Because Mahathir did not say why Muslims were powerless, one must assume that he believes Muslims lack the "intelligence" of the Jews.

Mahathir received a standing ovation from the leaders of the 57 countries present at the Muslim summit. They did not notice that the doctor was, in fact, insulting Muslims, and lined up to praise him for what Egypt's Foreign Minister Ahmad Maher called "a very, very wise analysis."

By claiming that the Jews were ruling the world, the good doctor was offering a new version of the old delusion that what has gone wrong with Muslims is the fault of others.

By presenting Christians as sodomites and lesbians engaged in incest, he flatters the vanity of Muslims who, hushing family secrets, can boast about their pious lifestyle.

Mahathir is not the first to play this game. In the 1950s and 1960s, Muslim leftists blamed everything on Western imperialism. From the 1970s, the Islamists chose the left as their punching bag. The finger of blame has been pointed at colonialists, multinational companies, missionaries, communists, liberals, religious and/or ethnic minorities, middle classes and even poor Orientalists.

By blaming others, Mahathir and his predecessors in this game absolve Muslim leaders of responsibility. They also divest Muslims of their humanity, turning them into witless pawns in a game played by others.

With his speech Mahathir did great harm to the cause of those who believe that, as an existential reality, Islam needs to be subjected to serious critical re-examination.

Mahathir's "us-and-them" dialectics belong to a tribal mentality that has no place in the modern world.

His assumption that all Jews and all Muslims and all Christians think exactly alike and have exactly the same interests and aspirations belongs to the discredited "essentialist" school of sociology in which "the alter-ego" is typecast as the antithesis of the self.

He forgets that the Iran-Iraq war, in which a million people died, was not an "us-and-them" conflict. Nor was it "the other" who tried to wipe Kuwait off the map in 1990.

Are Jews raiding Algerian villages at night to massacre entire families, including babies?

Are Jews murdering thousands of Muslim women each year in the name of "honour-killing"?

Are Jews throwing acid at girls who do not wear the hijab?

Is it "the other" who has arranged for Muslim countries to have almost half of all political prisoners in the world?

And who is carrying out those thousands of executions, sometimes by chopping people's heads in public or stoning to death?

Are Jews preventing Muslims from choosing their governments in free elections? Are they arranging those elections in which government candidates always win with 99.99% of the votes?

Are Jews controlling the economies of the Muslim nations or should we look to our own ruling elites whose greed knows no bound? People often talk of the need for the separation of mosque and state in Muslim countries. A more urgent need is the separation of business from government.

Mahathir says Jews have persuaded others to fight and die for them.

Who does he mean by "others"?

If he means the West, let us not forget that Americans and Europeans fought and died to save the Muslim peoples of Bosnia and Kosovo from extermination. Not a single Muslim state provided any help.

Mahathir presented Palestine as a religious conflict.

Yet he did not apply the same logic to Chechnya, Kashmir, Mindanao, Burma, Cyprus, and East Turkestan, among the many places where Muslims are in conflict with non-Muslims.

The logic of Mahathir's position is that Muslim Cypriots, Chechens, Kashmiris, Burmans, Mindanaoans and East Turkestanis are not as worthy as Palestinians. And yet the number of Muslims killed in those conflicts is many times higher than the total victims of all Arab-Israeli wars.

The question is not what others have done to us in the past, but what we are doing to ourselves right now. And what we are doing to ourselves includes the pack of lies and prejudices that Mahathir is presenting as a world vision fit for Muslims in the 21st century.

Amir Taheri is an Iranian journalist and author.; amirtaheri@benadorassociates.com

© Copyright 2003 National Post

Bush confronts Malaysian PM

By Richard Benedetto, USA TODAY
BANGKOK — President Bush broke diplomatic protocol at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit Monday and confronted Malaysia Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad over remarks about Jews that Mahathir made while hosting a summit of Islamic countries last week.

Ignoring the usual courtesy of avoiding conflict with fellow leaders, Bush took Mahathir aside to express his displeasure. Bush said the remarks were "wrong and divisive," spokesman Scott McClellan said. (Related story: Malaysia's leader renews claim)

The prime minister said Thursday, "The Europeans killed 6 million Jews out of 12 million, but today Jews rule the world by proxy. They get others to fight and die for them."

"It stands squarely against what I believe," Bush told Mahathir, McClellan said.

Mahathir, an opponent of globalization and a critic of the Iraq war, is attending his last summit before retiring after 22 years in power.

"It's not the first time that he's made outrageous remarks, and those remarks were hate-filled remarks," McClellan said.

Mahathir has not apologized. He did not comment on what Bush said to him.

Malaysian officials have said Mahathir's remarks were taken out of context.

Other leaders joined Bush's denunciation. French President Jacques Chirac said in a letter to Mahathir, "Your remarks on the role of Jews provoked very strong disapproval in France and around the world. ... These remarks can only be condemned by all those who remember the Holocaust."

Bush has been courting Jewish voters and has given strong backing to Israel and the policies of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. His advisers see that stance as winning him a greater share of support from Jewish-Americans in the 2004 presidential election. In 2000, Democrat Al Gore was supported by 81% of Jewish voters, who are an important bloc in the populous states of New York, Florida and California.

Contributing: Laurence McQuillan in Washington and wire reports

Malaysian leader repeats charge about Jews

By DENIS D. GRAY, ASSOCIATED PRESS

BANGKOK, Thailand (AP) - Despite criticism by President Bush and other world leaders, an unrepentant Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad repeated his charge that Jews control the world.
In an interview published Tuesday with the Bangkok Post, Mahathir stood by his earlier statements on Jews and said the global reaction "shows that (Jews) do control the world."
"Israel is a small country. There are not many Jews in the world. But they are so arrogant that they defy the whole world. Even if the United Nations say no, they go ahead. Why? Because they have the backing of all these people," Mahathir was quoted as saying.

Mahathir, who retires at month's end after 22 years as the leader of mainly Muslim Malaysia, often makes acerbic speeches against globalization and U.S. policy in the Middle East.

He triggered an uproar last week at a summit of Islamic countries by stating that "Jews rule the world by proxy. They get others to fight and die for them."

That led Bush to pull him aside at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation meeting to say the remarks were "wrong and divisive," a White House spokesman said.

A senior Malaysian official said Bush's personal rebuke of Mahathir, considered a senior statesman in Asia, was disrespectful.

"I consider Bush's action rude, as though he wants to determine what and how a person should speak and say something," Rais Yatim, Malaysia's de facto law minister was quoted as saying in Kuala Lumpur by the Malaysian news agency, Bernama.

The issue trailed Mahathir to the APEC summit, which was to close Tuesday, where world leaders continued to criticize Asia's senior statesman.

Shortly before Bush and Mahathir sat down together in the same room with 19 other APEC leaders Monday, U.S. National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice said the American president "thinks those remarks were reprehensible. I do not think they are emblematic of the Muslim world."

Later White House press secretary Scott McClellan quoted Bush as telling the Malaysian leader face to face that , "It stands squarely against what I believe in."

After Mahathir's latest comments published Tuesday, Australian Prime Minister John Howard said, "any attempt to divide this world according to religious affiliation is the last thing we want."

"We want Jews and Christians and Muslims of goodwill cooperating," Howard told a news conference.

The thrust of Mahathir's address, made at the Organization of the Islamic Conference in Kuala Lumpur, was that the world's 1.3 billion Muslims had been outmaneuvered by "a few million Jews" and needed to give up violence and think hard about greater unity and improved education to defend their interests peacefully.

Mahathir said in the Bangkok Post interview that his remarks had been taken out of context, noting that in his speech he had urged Israelis and Arabs to stop killing one another.

"In my speech I condemned all violence, even the suicide bombings and I told the Muslims it's about time we stopped all these things and paused to think and do something that is much more productive," he said. "That was the whole tone of my speech, but they picked up one sentence."

newsobserver.com, 21/10/2003

Malaysia's leader renews claim that Jews rule the world

BANGKOK, Thailand (AP) — Despite criticism by President Bush and other world leaders, an unrepentant Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad repeated his charge that Jews control the world.
In an interview published Tuesday with the Bangkok Post, Mahathir stood by his earlier statements on Jews and said the global reaction "shows that (Jews) do control the world."

"Israel is a small country. There are not many Jews in the world. But they are so arrogant that they defy the whole world. Even if the United Nations say no, they go ahead. Why? Because they have the backing of all these people," Mahathir was quoted as saying.

Mahathir, who retires at month's end after 22 years as the leader of mainly Muslim Malaysia, often makes acerbic speeches against globalization and U.S. policy in the Middle East.

He triggered an uproar last week at a summit of Islamic countries by stating that "Jews rule the world by proxy. They get others to fight and die for them."

That led Bush to pull him aside at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation meeting to say the remarks were "wrong and divisive," a White House spokesman said. (Related story: Bush confronts Malaysian PM)

A senior Malaysian official said Bush's personal rebuke of Mahathir, considered a senior statesman in Asia, was disrespectful.

"I consider Bush's action rude, as though he wants to determine what and how a person should speak and say something," Rais Yatim, Malaysia's de facto law minister was quoted as saying in Kuala Lumpur by the Malaysian news agency, Bernama.

And Mahathir rejected Washington's version of events, saying there had been no telling off by Bush.

"He did pull me aside, in order to explain to me why he made such a strong statement against me," Mahathir said at a news conference here at the close of the APEC summit. "Certainly, he did not rebuke me. After that, we were walking practically hand-in-hand. How do you say a person is rebuking another person if our relations are that good?"

The issue trailed Mahathir to the summit.

White House press secretary Scott McClellan quoted Bush as telling the Malaysian leader face to face that, "It stands squarely against what I believe in."

After Mahathir's latest comments published Tuesday, Australian Prime Minister John Howard said, "any attempt to divide this world according to religious affiliation is the last thing we want."

"We want Jews and Christians and Muslims of goodwill cooperating," Howard told a news conference.

The thrust of Mahathir's address last week, made at the Organization of the Islamic Conference in Kuala Lumpur, was that the world's 1.3 billion Muslims had been outmaneuvered by "a few million Jews" and needed to give up violence and think hard about greater unity and improved education to defend their interests peacefully.

Mahathir said in the Bangkok Post interview that his remarks had been taken out of context, noting that in his speech he had urged Israelis and Arabs to stop killing one another.

"In my speech I condemned all violence, even the suicide bombings and I told the Muslims it's about time we stopped all these things and paused to think and do something that is much more productive," he said. "That was the whole tone of my speech, but they picked up one sentence."

US Today, Tuesday 21/10/03

TAKE A COMMON STAND ON ISSUES

Speech by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Dr Mahathir Muhamad at the opening of the 10th session of the Islamic Summit Conference at Putrajaya Convention Centre on 16 Oktober 2003

ALHAMDULILLAH, All Praise be to Allah, by whose Grace and Blessings we, the leaders of the Organisation of Islamic Conference countries are gathered here today to confer and hopefully to plot a course for the future of Islam and the Muslim ummah worldwide.

On behalf of the Government and the people of many races and religions of Malaysia, may I extend a warm welcome to all and everyone to this Tenth Session of the Islamic Summit Conference in Putrajaya, Malaysia's administrative capital.

It is indeed a great honour for Malaysia to host this session and to assume the chairmanship of the Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC). I thank the members for their confidence in Malaysia's chairmanship.

May I also take this opportunity to pay a special tribute to the state of Qatar, in particular His Highness Shaikh Hamad Bin Khalifa Al-Thani, the Emir of the state of Qatar, for his outstanding stewardship of our organisation over the past three years.

As host, Malaysia is gratified at the high level of participation from member countries. This clearly demonstrates our continued and abiding faith in, and commitment to our organisation and our collective wish and determination to strengthen our role for the dignity and benefit of the ummah.

I would also like to welcome the leaders and representatives of the many countries who wish to become observers at this meeting because of their substantial Muslim population. Whether they are Muslims or not, their presence at this meeting will help towards greater understanding of Islam and the Muslims, thus helping to disprove the perception of Islam as a religion of backwardness and terror.

The whole world is looking at us. Certainly 1.3 billion Muslims, one-sixth of the world's population are placing their hopes in us, in this meeting, even though they may be cynical about our will and capacity to even decide to restore the honour of Islam and the Muslims, much less to free their brothers and sisters from the oppression and humiliation from which they suffer today.

I will not enumerate the instances of our humiliation and oppression, nor will I once again condemn our detractors and oppressors. It would be an exercise in futility because they are not going to change their attitudes just because we condemn them. If we are to recover our dignity and that of Islam, our religion, it is we who must decide, it is we who must act.

To begin with, the Governments of all the Muslim countries can close ranks and have a common stand if not on all issues, at least on some major ones, such as on Palestine. We are all Muslims. We are all oppressed. We are all being humiliated. But we who have been raised by Allah above our fellow Muslims to rule our countries have never really tried to act in concert in order to exhibit at our level the brotherhood and unity that Islam enjoins upon us.

But not only are our Governments divided, the Muslim ummah is also divided, and divided again and again. Over the last 1,400 years the interpreters of Islam, the learned ones, the ulama have interpreted and reinterpreted the single Islamic religion brought by Prophet Muhammad S.A.W, so differently that now we have a thousand religions which are often so much at odds with one another that we often fight and kill each other.

From being a single ummah we have allowed ourselves to be divided into numerous sects, mazhabs and tarikats, each more concerned with claiming to be the true Islam than our oneness as the Islamic ummah. We fail to notice that our detractors and enemies do not care whether we are true Muslims or not.

To them we are all Muslims, followers of a religion and a Prophet whom they declare promotes terrorism, and we are all their sworn enemies. They will attack and kill us, invade our lands, bring down our Governments whether we are Sunnis or Syiahs, Alawait or Druze or whatever.

And we aid and abet them by attacking and weakening each other, and sometimes by doing their bidding, acting as their proxies to attack fellow Muslims. We try to bring down our Governments through violence, succeeding to weaken and impoverish our countries.

We ignore entirely and we continue to ignore the Islamic injunction to unite and to be brothers to each other, we the Governments of the Islamic countries and the ummah.

But this is not all that we ignore about the teachings of Islam. We are enjoined to read, Iqraq i.e. to acquire knowledge. The early Muslims took this to mean translating and studying the works of the Greeks and other scholars before Islam. And these Muslim scholars added to the body of knowledge through their own studies.

The early Muslims produced great mathematicians and scientists, scholars, physicians and astronomers, etc, and they excelled in all the fields of knowledge of their times, besides studying and practising their own religion of Islam. As a result the Muslims were able to develop and extract wealth from their lands and through their world trade, able to strengthen their defences, protect their people and give them the Islamic way of life, Addin, as prescribed by Islam.

At the time the Europeans of the Middle Ages were still superstitious and backward, the enlightened Muslims had already built a great Muslim civilisation, respected and powerful, more than able to compete with the rest of the world and able to protect the ummah from foreign aggression. The Europeans had to kneel at the feet of Muslim scholars in order to access their own scholastic heritage.

The Muslims were led by great leaders like Abdul Rahman III, AI-Mansur, Salah El Din Al Ayubi and others who took to the battlefields at the head of their forces to protect Muslim land and the ummah.

But halfway through the building of the great Islamic civilisation came new interpreters of Islam who taught that acquisition of knowledge by Muslims meant only the study of Islamic theology. The study of science, medicine, etc, was discouraged.

Intellectually, the Muslims began to regress. With intellectual regression the great Muslim civilisation began to falter and wither. But for the emergence of the Ottoman warriors, Muslim civilisation would have disappeared with the fall of Granada in 1492.

The early successes of the Ottomans were not accompanied by an intellectual renaissance. Instead they became more and more preoccupied with minor issues such as whether tight trousers and peak caps were Islamic, whether printing machines should be allowed or electricity used to light mosques. The Industrial Revolution was totally missed by the Muslims.

And the regression continued until the British and French instigated rebellion against Turkish rule brought about the downfall of the Ottomans, the last Muslim world power and replaced it with European colonies and not independent states as promised. It was only after World War II that these colonies became independent.

Apart from the new nation-states we also accepted the Western democratic system. This also divided us because of the political parties and groups that we form, some of which claim Islam for themselves, reject the Islam of other parties and refuse to accept the results of the practice of democracy if they fail to gain power for themselves. They resort to violence, thus destabilising and weakening Muslim countries.

With all these developments over the centuries the ummah and the Muslim civilisation became so weak that at one time there was not a single Muslim country which was not colonised or hegemonised by the Europeans. But regaining independence did not help to strengthen the Muslims. Their states were weak and badly administered, constantly in a state of turmoil. The Europeans could do what they liked with Muslim territories. It is not surprising that they should excise Muslim land to create the state of Israel to solve their Jewish problem. Divided, the Muslims could do nothing effective to stop the Balfour and Zionist transgression.

Some would have us believe that, despite all these, our life is better than that of our detractors. Some believe that poverty is Islamic, sufferings and being oppressed are Islamic. This world is not for us. Ours are the joys of heaven in the afterlife. All that we have to do is to perform certain rituals, wear certain garments and put up a certain appearance.

Our weakness, our backwardness and our inability to help our brothers and sisters who are being oppressed are part of the Will of Allah, the sufferings that we must endure before enjoying heaven in the hereafter. We must accept this fate that befalls us. We need not do anything. We can do nothing against the Will of Allah.

But is it true that it is the Will of Allah and that we can and should do nothing? Allah has said in Surah Ar-Ra'd verse 11 that He will not change the fate of a community until the community has tried to change its fate itself.

The early Muslims were as oppressed as we are presently. But after their sincere and determined efforts to help themselves in accordance with the teachings of Islam, Allah had helped them to defeat their enemies and to create a great and powerful Muslim civilisation. But what effort have we made especially with the resources that He has endowed us with.

We are now 1.3 billion strong. We have the biggest oil reserve in the world. We have great wealth. We are not as ignorant as the Jahilliah who embraced Islam. We are familiar with the workings of the world's economy and finances. We control 50 out of the 180 countries in the world. Our votes can make or break international organisations.

Yet we seem more helpless than the small number of Jahilliah converts who accepted the Prophet as their leader. Why? Is it because of Allah's will or is it because we have interpreted our religion wrongly, or failed to abide by the correct teachings of our religion, or done the wrong things? We are enjoined by our religion to prepare for the defence of the ummah. Unfortunately we stress not defence but the weapons of the time of the Prophet. Those weapons and horses cannot help to defend us any more. We need guns and rockets, bombs and warplanes, tanks and warships for our defence. But because we discouraged the learning of science and mathematics, etc, as giving no merit for the akhirat, today we have no capacity to produce our own weapons for our defence.

We have to buy our weapons from our detractors and enemies. This is what comes from the superficial interpretation of the Quran, stressing not the substance of the Prophet's sunnah and the Quran's injunctions but rather the form, the manner and the means used in the 1st Century of the Hijrah.

And it is the same with the other teachings of Islam. We are more concerned with the forms rather than the substance of the words of Allah and adhering only to the literal interpretation of the traditions of the Prophet.

We may want to recreate the first century of the Hijrah, the way of life in those times, in order to practise what we think to be the true Islamic way of life. But we will not be allowed to do so.

Our detractors and enemies will take advantage of the resulting backwardness and weakness in order to dominate us. Islam is not just for the 7th Century A.D. Islam is for all times. And times have changed.

Whether we like it or not we have to change, not by changing our religion but by applying its teachings in the context of a world that is radically different from that of the first century of the Hijrah. Islam is not wrong but the interpretations by our scholars, who are not prophets even though they may be very learned can be wrong.

We have a need to go back to the fundamental teachings of Islam to find out whether we are indeed believing in and practising the Islam that the Prophet preached. It cannot be that we are all practising the correct and true Islam when our beliefs are so different from one another.

Today we, the whole Muslim ummah are treated with contempt and dishonour. Our religion is denigrated. Our holy places desecrated. Our countries are occupied. Our people starved and killed.

None of our countries are truly independent. We are under pressure to conform to our oppressors wishes about how we should behave, how we should govern our lands, how we should think even.

Today if they want to raid our country, kill our people, destroy our villages and towns, there is nothing substantial that we can do. Is it Islam which has caused all these? Or is it that we have failed to do our duty according to our religion? Our only reaction is to become more and more angry. Angry people cannot think properly. And so we find some of our people reacting irrationally. They launch their own attacks, killing just about anybody including fellow Muslims to vent their anger and frustration. Their Governments can do nothing to stop them. The enemy retaliates and puts more pressure on the Governments. And the Governments have no choice but to give in, to accept the directions of the enemy, literally to give up their independence of action.

With this their people and the ummah become angrier and turn against their own Governments. Every attempt at a peaceful solution is sabotaged by more indiscriminate attacks calculated to anger the enemy and prevent any peaceful settlement. But the attacks solve nothing. The Muslims simply get more oppressed.

There is a feeling of hopelessness among the Muslim countries and their people. They feel that they can do nothing right. They believe that things can only get worse. The Muslims will forever be oppressed and dominated by the Europeans and the Jews. They will forever be poor, backward and weak. Some believe, as I have said, this is the Will of Allah, that the proper state of the Muslims is to be poor and oppressed in this world.

But is it true that we should do and can do nothing for ourselves? Is it true that 1.3 billion people can exert no power to save themselves from the humiliation and oppression inflicted upon them by a much smaller enemy? Can they only lash back blindly in anger? Is there no other way than to ask our young people to blow themselves up and kill people and invite the massacre of more of our own people? It cannot be that there is no other way. 1.3 billion Muslims cannot be defeated by a few million Jews. There must be a way. And we can only find a way if we stop to think, to assess our weaknesses and our strength, to plan, to strategise and then to counter attack. As Muslims we must seek guidance from the Al-Quran and the Sunnah of the Prophet. Surely the 23 years struggle of the Prophet can provide us with some guidance as to what we can and should do.

We know he and his early followers were oppressed by the Qhuraish. Did he launch retaliatory strikes? No. He was prepared to make strategic retreats. He sent his early followers to a Christian country and he himself later migrated to Madinah. There he gathered followers, built up his defence capability and ensured the security of his people.

At Hudaibiyah he was prepared to accept an unfair treaty, against the wishes of his companions and followers. During the peace that followed he consolidated his strength and eventually he was able to enter Mecca and claim it for Islam. Even then he did not seek revenge. And the peoples of Mecca accepted Islam and many became his most powerful supporters, defending the Muslims against all their enemies.

That briefly is the story of the struggle of the Prophet. We talk so much about following the sunnah of the Prophet. We quote the instances and the traditions profusely. But we actually ignore all of them.

If we use the faculty to think that Allah has given us then we should know that we are acting irrationally. We fight without any objective, without any goal other than to hurt the enemy because they hurt us. Naively we expect them to surrender. We sacrifice lives unnecessarily, achieving nothing other than to attract more massive retaliation and humiliation.

It is surety time that we pause to think. But will this be wasting time? For well over half a century we have fought over Palestine. What have we achieved? Nothing. We are worse off than before. If we had paused to think then we could have devised a plan, a strategy that can win us final victory. Pausing and thinking calmly is not a waste of time. We have a need to make a strategic retreat and to calmly assess our situation.

We are actually very strong. 1.3 billion people cannot be simply wiped out. The Europeans killed six million Jews out of 12 million. But today the Jews rule this world by proxy. They get others to fight and die for them.

We may not be able to do that. We may not be able to unite all the 1.3 billion Muslims. We may not be able to get all the Muslim Governments to act in concert. But even if we can get a third of the ummah and a third of the Muslim states to act together, we can already do something.

Remember that the Prophet did not have many followers when he went to Madinah. But he united the Ansars and the Muhajirins and eventually he became strong enough to defend Islam.

Apart from the partial unity that we need, we must take stock of our assets. I have already mentioned our numbers and our oil wealth. In today's world we wield a lot of political, economic and financial clout, enough to make up for our weakness in military terms.

We also know that not all non-Muslims are against us. Some are welldisposed towards us. Some even see our enemies as their enemies. Even among the Jews there are many who do not approve of what the Israelis are doing.

We must not antagonise everyone. We must win their hearts and minds. We must win them to our side not by begging for help from them but by the honourable way that we struggle to help ourselves.

We must not strengthen the enemy by pushing everyone into their camps through irresponsible and unIslamic acts.

Remember Salah El Din and the way he fought against the so called Crusaders, King Richard of England in particular. Remember the considerateness of the Prophet to the enemies of Islam. We must do the same. It is winning the struggle that is important, not angry retaliation, not revenge.

We must build up our strength in every field, not just in armed might. Our countries must be stable and well administered, must be economically and financially strong, industrially competent and technologically advanced. This will take time, but it can be done and it will be time well spent. We are enjoined by our religion to be patient. Innallahamaasabirin. Obviously there is virtue in being patient.

But the defence of the ummah, the counter attack need not start only after we have put our houses in order. Even today we have sufficient assets to deploy against our detractors. It remains for us to identify them and to work out how to make use of them to stop the carnage caused by the enemy. This is entirely possible if we stop to think, to plan, to strategise and to take the first few critical steps. Even these few steps can yield positive results.

We know that the Jahilliah Arabs were given to feuding, to killing each other simply because they were from different tribes. The Prophet preached the brotherhood of Islam to them and they were able to overcome their hatred for each other, become united and helped towards the establishment of the great Muslim civilisation.

Can we say that what the Jahilliah (the ignorant) could do we, the modern Muslims cannot do? If not all at least some of us can do. If not the renaissance of our great civilisation, at least ensuring the security of the ummah.

To do the things that are suggested will not even require all of us to give up our differences with each other. We need only to call a truce so we can act together in tackling only certain problems of common interests, the Palestine problem for example.

In any struggle, in any war, nothing is more important than concerted and co-ordinated action. A degree of discipline is all that is needed. The Prophet lost in Jabal Uhud because his forces broke rank. We know that, yet we are unwilling to discipline ourselves and to give up our irregular and uncoordinated actions. We need to be brave but not foolhardy. We need to think not just of our reward in the afterlife but also of the worldly results of our mission.

The Quran tells us that when the enemy sues for peace we must react positively. True the treaty offered is not favourable to us. But we can negotiate. The Prophet did, at Hudaibiyah. And in the end he triumphed. I am aware that all these ideas will not be popular. Those who are angry would want to reject it out of hand. They would even want to silence anyone who makes or supports this line of action. They would want to send more young men and women to make the supreme sacrifice. But where will all these lead to? Certainly not victory. Over the past 50 years of fighting in Palestine we have not achieved any result. We have in fact worsened our situation.

The enemy will probably welcome these proposals and we will conclude that the promoters are working for the enemy. But think. We are up against a people who think. They survived 2,000 years of pogroms not by hitting back, but by thinking.

They invented and successfully promoted Socialism, Communism, human rights and democracy so that persecuting them would appear to be wrong, so they may enjoy equal rights with others. With these they have now gained control of the most powerful countries and they, this tiny community, have become a world power. We cannot fight them through brawn alone. We must use our brains also.

Of late because of their power and their apparent success they have become arrogant. And arrogant people, like angry people will make mistakes, will forget to think.

They are already beginning to make mistakes. And they will make more mistakes. There may be windows of opportunity for us now and in the future. We must seize these opportunities.

But to do so we must get our acts right. Rhetoric is good. It helps us to expose the wrongs perpetrated against us, perhaps win us some sympathy and support. It may strengthen our spirit, our will and resolve, to face the enemy.

We can and we should pray to Allah S.W.T. for in the end it is He who will determine whether we succeed or fail. We need His blessings and His help in our endeavours.

But it is how we act and what we do which will determine whether He would help us and give us victory or not. He has already said so in the Quran. Again Surah Ar-Ra'd verse 11.

As I said at the beginning, the whole world is looking at us, the whole Muslim ummah is placing their hopes in this conference of the leaders of Islamic nations. They expect us not just to vent our frustrations and anger, through words and gestures; not just to pray for Allah's blessings. They expect us to do something, to act. We cannot say we cannot do anything, we the leaders of the Muslim nations. We cannot say we cannot unite even when faced with the destruction of our religion and the ummah.

We know we can. There are many things that we can do. There are many resources that we have at our disposal. What is needed is merely the will to do it.

As Muslims, we must be grateful for the guidance of our religion, we must do what needs to be done, willingly and with determination. Allah has not raised us, the leaders, above the others so we may enjoy power for ourselves only. The power we wield is for our people, for the ummah, for Islam. We must have the will to make use of this power judiciously, prudently, concertedly. Insyaallah we will triumph in the end.

I pray to Allah that this 10th Conference of the OIC in Putrajaya, Malaysia, will give a new and positive direction to us, will be blessed with success by Him, Almighty Allah, Arahman, Arahim.

Bangkit semula dengan ilmu

Mukadimah
Teks ucapan Perdana Menteri, Datuk Seri Dr. Mahathir Mohamad pada perasmian Sidang Kemuncak Ke-10 Pertubuhan Persidangan Islam (OIC) di Pusat Konvensyen Putrajaya, pada 16/10/2003.

Alhamdulillah, segala pujian kepada Allah, kerana atas kebesaran dan rahmat-Nya dapat kita, para pemimpin Pertubuhan Persidangan Islam, berkumpul hari ini untuk berunding dengan harapan kita dapat merintis arah tuju masa depan Islam dan ummah di seluruh dunia.

Bagi pihak kerajaan dan rakyat Malaysia yang berbilang kaum dan pelbagai agama, izinkan saya mengucapkan selamat datang kepada setiap dan semua hadirin ke sesi ke-10 Sidang Kemuncak Pertubuhan Persidangan Islam di Putrajaya, Pusat Pentadbiran Kerajaan Malaysia.

Sememangnya ia satu penghormatan tinggi bagi Malaysia untuk menjadi tuan rumah bagi sesi ini dan untuk menjawat kedudukan sebagai Pengerusi OIC. Saya berterima kasih kepada negara-negara anggota OIC atas keyakinan mereka terhadap keupayaan Malaysia memikul tanggungjawab itu.

Juga izinkan saya untuk mengambil kesempatan ini bagi merakamkan penghargaan istimewa kepada negara Qatar, khususnya kepada Yang Maha Mulia Shaikh Hamad Khalifa Al-Thani, Amir negara Qatar, kerana kepimpinan cemerlang dalam menerajui pertubuhan kita sepanjang tiga tahun yang lepas.

Sebagai tuan rumah, Malaysia sungguh terhutang budi dan bangga dengan jumlah penyertaan yang tinggi daripada kalangan anggota. Ini jelas menunjukkan keyakinan dan ketaatan kita yang berterusan serta komitmen kita kepada pertubuhan kita dan keinginan kita bersama untuk memperkuat peranan kita demi maruah dan manfaat umat Islam.

Saya juga mengalu-alukan kedatangan para pemimpin dan perwakilan daripada banyak negara yang ingin hadir sebagai pemerhati pada mesyuarat kali ini berdasarkan besarnya jumlah penduduk mereka yang beragama Islam. Sama ada mereka itu beragama Islam atau tidak, kehadiran mereka akan menyumbang ke arah mempertingkat kefahaman terhadap Islam dan umat Islam, dengan cara itu menyangkal tanggapan kononnya Islam agama yang mundur dan ganas.

Seluruh dunia kini menumpukan perhatian kepada kita. Sudah pasti 1.3 bilion umat Islam di seluruh dunia iaitu satu per enam jumlah penduduk dunia menyandarkan harapan mereka kepada kita pada mesyuarat ini, walaupun mereka mungkin bersikap sinis terhadap keazaman dan keupayaan kita, biarpun sekadar dapat mencapai keputusan untuk menebus maruah Islam dan umatnya, apatah lagi untuk membebaskan saudara seagama daripada penindasan dan penghinaan yang mereka alami pada ketika ini.

Saya tidak hendak membilang satu persatu peristiwa-peristiwa penghinaan dan penindasan terhadap kita dan saya juga tidak ingin untuk sekali lagi menghentam pengutuk atau penindas kita. Ia akan menjadi usaha sia-sia kerana mereka tidak akan mengubah sikap mereka terhadap kita semata-mata kerana kita mengecam mereka. Jika kita ingin menebus kembali maruah kita dan maruah Islam, agama kita, kitalah yang mesti membuat keputusan, kitalah yang mesti bertindak.

Sebagai langkah awalan, kerajaan kesemua negara Islam boleh merapatkan barisan dan mengambil pendirian bersama sekurang-kurangnya mengenai isu-isu besar seperti Palestin, kalau pun tidak mengenai semua isu. Semua kita ini umat Islam. Kita semua ditindas. Kita semua dihina. Tetapi kita, yang ditempatkan Allah sebagai pemimpin umat Islam tidak langsung benar-benar cuba bertindak secara bersatu untuk mempamerkan persaudaraan dan perpaduan yang dituntut oleh Islam.

Bukan sahaja sesama kerajaan kita berpecah-belah, malahan umat Islam sendiri berpecah-pecah, dan dipecahkan lagi berulang kali. Sejak 1,400 tahun yang lalu, pihak yang mentafsirkan Islam, para cerdik pandai, para ulama telah mentafsirkan dan mentafsir semula agama Islam yang tunggal yang dibawa oleh Nabi Muhammad s.a.w. itu dengan sangat berlainan sekali sehingga kita kini mempunyai beribu agama yang sering bertelagah satu sama lain sehingga kita bergaduh dan berbunuhan sesama sendiri.

Daripada sebuah ummah yang tunggal, kita membiarkan diri kita dipecah-pecah kepada pelbagai golongan, mazhab dan tarikat, dengan masing-masing lebih mengutamakan Islam siapa lebih tulen daripada soal ummah yang satu. Kita gagal melihat bahawa musuh dan pengkritik kita tidak ambil peduli sama ada kita umat Islam sejati atau tidak. Bagi mereka kita semua Islam, pemeluk suatu agama dan pengikut seorang Nabi yang mereka isytiharkan sebagai penggalak keganasan dan kita semua ini adalah musuh ketat mereka. Mereka akan menyerang dan membunuh kita, menakluk tanah air kita, menjatuhkan kerajaan kita, tidak kira sama ada kita ini Sunni atau Syiah, Alawiah atau Druze atau apa sahaja. Dan kita membantu dan bersekongkol dengan mereka secara menyerang dan memperlemah sesama kita sendiri, dan kadangkala kita menjadi dalang dan bertindak sebagai tali barut untuk menyerang saudara kita yang seagama. Kita cuba menjatuhkan kerajaan kita sendiri melalui kekerasan dan berjaya melemahkan serta memiskinkan negara kita.

Kita bulat-bulat mengabaikan dan terus mengabaikan kehendak Islam supaya kita bersatu dan bersaudara sesama kerajaan negara-negara Islam dan sesama ummah.

Tetapi bukan ini sahaja ajaran Islam yang kita kebelakangkan. Kita disuruh membaca, Iqra' yakni untuk menimba ilmu. Umat Islam zaman dahulu menganggap suruhan ini bermaksud menterjemah dan mengkaji hasil penyelidikan cerdik pandai Yunani dan ilmuwan sebelum Islam. Dan para cerdik pandai Islam ini pula menokok tambah kandungan ilmu pengetahuan melalui hasil penyelidikan mereka sendiri.

Umat Islam awal menghasilkan banyak tokoh matematik, sains, cendekiawan, ahli fizik dan kaji bintang serta lain-lain, malah cemerlang dalam semua bidang ilmu semasa di samping belajar dan mengamalkan agama Islam sendiri.

Hasilnya orang Islam mampu membangun dan mengembangkan kekayaan dari tanah air hingga perdagangan dunia, berkemampuan menguatkan pertahanan, melindungi rakyat dan memberi kehidupan mengikut cara Islam, Addin yang dikehendaki oleh Islam.

Ketika orang Eropah di Zaman Pertengahan masih anuti kepercayaan tahyul dan mundur, kegemilangan orang Islam sudah mewujudkan peradaban Islam yang hebat, dihormati dan berkuasa, malah mampu menyaingi pihak lain di dunia dan mampu melindungi ummah daripada pencerobohan asing. Orang Eropah perlu melutut di kaki cendekiawan Islam dalam mendapatkan warisan keilmuan sendiri.

Umat Islam dipimpin oleh tokoh-tokoh hebat seperti Abdul Rahman III, Al-Mansur, Salahuddin Al Ayubi dan lain-lain yang mengepalai bala tentera ke medan perang demi melindungi bumi Islam dan ummah.

Bagaimanapun di pertengahan pembangunan tamadun Islam yang hebat, timbul golongan baru pentafsir Islam yang mengajar bahawa penguasaan pengetahuan oleh umat Islam cuma bermaksud pengajian mengenai pengetahuan agama sahaja. Pengajian sains, perubatan dan lain-lain tidak digalakkan.

Daya intelek umat Islam mula merosot. Kemerosotan daya intelek ini meruntuhkan tamadun Islam dan membuatkannya semakin layu. Kalau tidak kerana kemunculan para pahlawan Uthmaniah, tamadun Islam mungkin pupus sama sekali ekoran kejatuhan Granada pada 1492.

Kejayaan awal para pahlawan Uthmaniah tidak seiring dengan kebangkitan semula daya intelektual Islam. Sebaliknya tumpuan hanya kepada isu-isu kecil seperti soal sama ada memakai seluar ketat atau memakai topi tinggi bersesuaian dengan kehendak Islam, sama ada mesin cetak boleh digunakan atau kuasa elektrik boleh digunakan untuk menerangi masjid-masjid. Umat Islam tertinggal sama sekali semasa Revolusi Perindustrian. Kemerosotan itu berterusan sehingga pihak British dan Perancis mencetuskan pemberontakan terhadap pemerintahan Turki dan menyebabkan kejatuhan empayar Uthmaniah, iaitu satu-satunya kuasa Islam terakhir di dunia dan menggantikannya dengan tanah jajahan Eropah dan bukan negara merdeka sebagaimana yang mereka janjikan. Cuma selepas Perang Dunia Kedua barulah tanah jajahan ini mendapat kemerdekaan.

Selain daripada negara-negara yang baru wujud, kita juga menerima sistem demokrasi Barat. Ini memecah-belahkan kita disebabkan parti dan kumpulan politik yang kita sendiri wujudkan, yang di antaranya mendakwa Islam cuma untuk mereka dan menolak Islam yang diperjuangkan oleh pihak lain dan menolak keputusan demokrasi, jika mereka gagal meraih kuasa untuk diri mereka sahaja. Mereka bertindak ganas dan kesannya, meranapkan dan melemahkan negara-negara Islam.

Perkembangan sejak berkurun lalu menyebabkan ketamadunan Islam menjadi begitu lemah sekali sehingga tiada langsung sebuah negara Islam yang tidak ditakluki atau dijajah orang Eropah. Walaupun setelah mencapai kemerdekaan kemudiannya, negara-negara Islam gagal memperkuatkan ummah. Negara mereka lemah dan disalahtadbirkan dengan teruk sekali menyebabkan mereka sentiasa dilanda pergolakan.

Orang Eropah bertindak sewenang-wenangnya terhadap bumi Islam. Tidak hairanlah apabila mereka merampas bumi Islam untuk mencipta negara Israel bagi menyelesaikan masalah mereka dengan orang Yahudi. Oleh kerana mereka berpecah, umat Islam langsung tidak dapat berbuat apa-apa untuk menyekat pencerobohan pihak Balfour dan Zionis itu.

Di sebalik hakikat ini, ada di antara kita yang beranggapan bahawa kehidupan kita lebih baik daripada musuh-musuh kita. Ada di antara kita percaya bahawa kemiskinan, kesengsaraan dan hidup tertindas adalah kehendak Islam.

Dunia ini bukan untuk kita. Hak kita cuma untuk merasakan nikmat di syurga di akhirat nanti. Kita hanya perlu menunaikan amalan dan memakai pakaian tertentu dan menonjolkan wajah tertentu sahaja. Kelemahan, kemunduran dan kegagalan kita untuk membantu saudara seagama yang tertindas adalah atas kehendak Allah iaitu kesengsaraan yang perlu dirasai sebelum menikmati hidup di syurga di akhirat nanti. Kita mesti menerima takdir yang menimpa kita. Kita tidak perlu berbuat apa-apa pun. Kita tidak boleh membuat sesuatu yang menentang takdir Allah.

Tetapi adakah benar bahawa ini semua kehendak Allah dan kita tidak boleh dan tidak harus buat apa-apa? Allah menyatakan dalam Surah Ar-Ra'd ayat 11 bahawa Dia tidak akan mengubah nasib sesuatu kaum itu sehinggalah kaum itu sendiri mencuba mengubah nasib mereka.

Senapang

Seperti umat Islam zaman silam yang mengalami penindasan, kita umat zaman sekarang juga tertindas. Tetapi selepas mereka berusaha dengan jujur dan gigih untuk membela nasib mengikut ajaran Islam, Allah telah membantu mereka mengalahkan musuh-musuh dan membangunkan ketamadunan Islam yang kuat dan cemerlang. Tetapi apakah usaha yang kita lakukan, khususnya dengan sumber kekayaan yang Dia telah berikan kepada kita.

Umat Islam kini berjumlah 1.3 bilion orang. Kita memiliki simpanan minyak terbesar di dunia. Kita banyak kekayaan. Kita tidak lagi buta ilmu seperti mana puak Jahilliah yang memeluk Islam dahulu. Kita memahami cara perdagangan dan kewangan dunia diuruskan. Kita menguasai 57 daripada 180 negara di dunia. Undi kita boleh memperkuat atau melemahkan pertubuhan antarabangsa. Tetapi kita nampaknya lebih lemah daripada kumpulan kecil Jahilliah yang memeluk Islam dan menerima Nabi Muhammad s.a.w sebagai pemimpin mereka. Kenapa? Adakah ini kehendak Allah atau kerana kita telah salah mentafsir agama kita, atau gagal mematuhi ajaran sebenar agama kita atau kerana kita telah membuat kesilapan?

Islam menyuruh kita bersiap sedia untuk mempertahankan ummah. Malangnya kita kurang menekankan soal pertahanan sebaliknya tertumpu pada jenis senjata pada zaman junjungan besar Nabi Muhammad. Senjata dan kuda yang digunakan ketika itu tidak boleh lagi mempertahankan kita.

Kita perlukan senapang dan roket, bom dan pesawat pejuang, kereta kebal dan kapal perang untuk pertahanan kita. Tetapi oleh kerana kita tidak digalakkan mempelajari sains, matematik dan lain-lain ilmu kerana perbuatan itu disifatkan sebagai tidak mementingkan akhirat, akibatnya hari ini kita tiada keupayaan untuk mengeluarkan senjata sendiri untuk pertahanan kita.

Kita terpaksa membeli senjata daripada pengutuk dan musuh kita. Inilah akibat tafsiran cetek al-Quran yang tidak menghiraukan isi sunnah Nabi dan ajaran Quran tetapi mementingkan bentuk, cara dan ikhtiar yang digunakan semasa abad pertama Hijrah. Begitulah juga dengan ajaran Islam yang lain. Kita lebih utamakan bentuk daripada isi kata-kata Allah dan cuma mengikuti tafsiran perkataan-perkataan dalam sunnah junjungan besar Nabi.

Kita mungkin mahu mengembalikan cara hidup pada abad pertama Hijrah, untuk mengamalkan apa yang kita anggap sebagai cara hidup Islam sebenar. Tetapi kita tidak akan diizinkan berbuat demikian. Pengutuk dan musuh kita akan mengambil kesempatan daripada kemunduran dan kelemahan kita untuk menguasai kita. Islam bukan untuk kurun ke tujuh Selepas Masihi sahaja. Islam untuk semua zaman. Dan masa telah berubah.

Sama ada suka atau tidak, kita perlu berubah bukan dengan mengubah agama kita tetapi mengamalkan ajarannya dalam konteks dunia yang berlainan sekali daripada dunia pada abad pertama Hijrah. Islam tidak salah tetapi tafsiran para cerdik pandai kita yang bukannya daripada golongan rasul walaupun mereka terpelajar, mungkin salah. Kita perlu kembali kepada asas ajaran Islam untuk mengetahui sama ada kita sebetulnya menganuti dan mengamalkan ajaran Islam yang disebarkan oleh Nabi Muhammad. Masakan kita semua mengamalkan ajaran Islam sebenar dan yang betul jika kepercayaan kita berbeza sekali antara satu sama lain.

Hari ini seluruh umat Islam dibenci dan tidak dihormati. Agama kita dihina. Tempat-tempat suci kita dicemari. Negara kita ditakluki. Umat Islam kebuluran dan dibunuh. Tiada satu pun negara Islam benar-benar bebas. Kita dikenakan tekanan supaya tunduk kepada kehendak penindas kita yang menetapkan kelakuan kita, cara kita mentadbir negara kita, hinggakan cara kita harus berfikir.

Hari ini jika mereka mahu menyerang negara kita, membunuh orang kita, memusnahkan kampung dan bandar kita, tiada apa yang boleh kita lakukan. Adakah Islam punca segala ini? Atau adakah kerana kita sendiri gagal menunaikan tanggungjawab mengikut agama kita?

Reaksi kita sekadar menjadi marah dan bertambah marah. Orang yang marah tidak dapat berfikir dengan waras. Jadi kita mendapati sesetengah orang kita bertindak tidak rasional.

Mereka melancarkan serangan, membunuh sesiapa sahaja termasuk umat Islam sendiri untuk melepaskan kemarahan dan kekecewaan mereka. Kerajaan mereka tidak dapat berbuat apa-apa untuk menyekat mereka. Pihak musuh bertindak balas dan menambah lagi tekanan terhadap kerajaan mereka. Kerajaan mereka tiada pilihan kecuali mengalah dan mengikut telunjuk musuh, pendek kata, mereka tidak bebas untuk bertindak.

Kemarahan yang memuncak di kalangan rakyat mereka dan umat Islam lain mendorong mereka menentang kerajaan mereka pula. Sebarang usaha damai disabotaj dengan serangan terancang lebih hebat untuk mengapikan lagi amarah musuh dan menutup jalan penyelesaian. Tetapi serangan-serangan itu tidak menghasilkan apa-apa. Cuma umat Islam terus tertindas.

Timbul rasa kehampaan di kalangan negara Islam dan rakyat mereka. Mereka merasakan tiada yang betul dapat mereka lakukan dan keadaan akan hanya menjadi lebih buruk. Sampai bila pun umat Islam akan tertindas dan dikuasai orang Eropah dan Yahudi. Sampai bila pun mereka akan terus miskin, mundur dan lemah. Sesetengah daripada mereka percaya, seperti mana yang saya katakan tadi, bahawa ini semua kehendak Allah, nasib umat Islam di dunia ditakdirkan terus miskin dan ditindas.

Tetapi benarkah kita tidak harus dan tidak boleh berbuat sesuatu untuk diri kita sendiri? Benarkan 1.3 bilion umat Islam tidak berkuasa untuk menyelamatkan diri mereka daripada penghinaan dan penindasan yang dilakukan musuh yang lebih sedikit bilangannya?

Mustahil tidak ada jalan lain. Umat Islam berjumlah 1.3 bilion orang tidak boleh dikalahkan oleh beberapa juta Yahudi. Mesti ada jalan lain. Dan kita akan nampak jalannya jika kita berhenti seketika dan berfikir untuk mengukur kelemahan dan kekuatan kita, untuk merancang, mengatur strategi dan kemudian melancarkan serangan balas. Sebagai umat Islam, kita mencari pedoman daripada al-Quran dan Sunnah Nabi. Sudah pastinya pengalaman perjuangan Nabi selama 23 tahun boleh memberi panduan tentang apa yang kita boleh buat dan patut buat.

Kita tahu Nabi Muhammad dan pengikut awalnya ditindas kaum Quraisy. Adakah beliau melancarkan serangan balas? Tidak. Nabi bersedia untuk berundur secara strategik. Baginda menghantar pengikutnya ke sebuah negara Kristian dan baginda sendiri kemudian berhijrah ke Madinah. Di situ beliau menambahkan pengikutnya dan membangunkan keupayaan pertahanan dan memastikan keselamatan pengikutnya. Di Hudaibiah, baginda rela menerima perjanjian yang berat sebelah walaupun tidak direstui para sahabatnya dan pengikutnya. Semasa tempoh damai yang menyusul selepas itu, baginda memperkukuhkan kekuatan dan akhirnya berjaya memasuki Mekah dan menawan kota itu untuk Islam. Namun demikian baginda tidak membalas dendam dan menuntut bela. Dan kesemua rakyat Mekah menerima Islam dan ramai di antara mereka menjadi penyokong kuat melindungi umat Islam daripada musuh.

Begitulah secara ringkas sejarah perjuangan baginda Nabi. Kita banyak bercakap tentang meneladani Sunnah Nabi. Kita tidak putus-putus memetik peristiwa-peristiwa dan sunnah baginda. Tetapi kita sebenarnya tidak menghiraukan kesemuanya itu.

Jika kita menggunakan kebolehan berfikir yang dianugerahi Allah, kita patut sedar bahawa tindakan kita tidak waras. Kita berjuang tanpa matlamat selain untuk mencederakan musuh kerana mereka mencederakan kita. Dengan mudah kita mengharapkan mereka menyerah diri. Tanpa sebab kita mengorbankan banyak nyawa dan tidak mencapai apa-apa kecuali mengundang serangan balas dan penghinaan yang lebih buruk.

Sudah sampai masanya kita berhenti sejenak dan berfikir. Tetapi adakah ini membuang masa? Lebih separuh abad kita berperangan kerana Palestin. Apa yang telah kita capai? Kosong. Kita lebih teruk daripada sebelumnya. Jika kita berhenti seketika untuk berfikir, kita mungkin telah pun merangka satu pelan, satu strategi yang boleh membawa kita kepada kemenangan muktamad. Berhenti sejenak untuk berfikir bukanlah membuang masa. Kita perlu membuat pengunduran strategik dan menilai kedudukan kita dengan tenang.

Kita sebenarnya masih sangat kuat. 1.3 bilion umat Islam tidak boleh dihapuskan dengan mudah begitu sahaja. Orang Eropah telah membunuh enam juta daripada 12 juta orang Yahudi. Tetapi hari ini puak Yahudi memerintah dunia secara proksi. Mereka membiarkan orang lain berjuang dan mati untuk mereka.

Kita mungkin tidak dapat melakukan sedemikian. Kita mungkin tidak dapat menyatukan 1.3 bilion umat Islam. Kita mungkin tidak berjaya menggabungkan kesemua kerajaan Islam untuk bertindak seiring. Tetapi jika kita dapat menggembleng sepertiga daripada umat Islam dan sepertiga daripada negara Islam untuk bertindak bersama-sama, kita memang boleh berbuat sesuatu. Ingatlah bahawa baginda Nabi tidak mempunyai ramai pengikut semasa baginda pergi ke Madinah. Tetapi baginda menyatukan puak Ansar dan Muhajirin dan kemudian baginda menjadi cukup kuat untuk mempertahankan Islam.

Selain daripada perpaduan yang kita perlukan, walaupun tidak menyeluruh, kita juga perlu menilai aset kita. Sebentar tadi saya telah pun menyebut tentang jumlah umat Islam dan kekayaan minyak kita. Dalam dunia hari ini, kita mempunyai banyak kuasa politik, ekonomi dan kewangan dan semua ini mencukupi bagi kita mengatasi kelemahan kita dalam bidang ketenteraan.

Kita juga tahu bahawa tidak semua orang bukan Islam menentang kita. Sesetengah daripada mereka lebih terdorong ke arah kita. Ada di antara mereka melihat musuh kita sebagai musuh mereka juga. Malahan sesama orang Yahudi sekalipun, banyak yang tidak menyokong apa yang dilakukan Israel sekarang.

Jangan kita membangkitkan kemarahan sesiapa. Kita perlu menawan hati dan minda mereka. Kita mesti menarik mereka menyebelahi kita bukan secara menagih bantuan mereka tetapi dengan berjuang untuk membela nasib kita sendiri secara yang terhormat. Jangan kita pula membantu memperkuatkan musuh dengan mendorong semua pihak menyebelahi mereka hanya kerana tindakan kita yang tidak bertanggungjawab dan bertentangan dengan Islam. Ingatlah akan Salahuddin dan cara beliau melawan tentera Salib, khususnya Richard, Raja Inggeris. Ingatlah akan sikap timbang rasa baginda Rasulullah terhadap musuh Islam. Kita mesti turut berbuat demikian. Yang penting ialah memenangi perjuangan, bukan kemarahan tindak balas, bukan membalas dendam.

Kita perlu membina kekuatan dalam setiap bidang, bukan sahaja kekuatan bersenjata. Negara kita mestilah stabil dan ditadbirkan sebaik-baiknya, mesti kukuh ekonomi dan kewangannya, mesti cekap dalam bidang perindustrian dan teknologi. Ini memerlukan masa tetapi ia mampu dilaksanakan dan masa yang ditumpukan ke arah ini tidak akan sia-sia. Agama kita menyuruh kita bersabar. Innallahamaasabirin. Nyata sekali ada hikmah di sebalik kesabaran.

Tetapi dalam mempertahankan ummah, kita tidak perlu menunggu sehingga kita selesai memperbetulkan diri sendiri untuk memulakan serangan balas. Malahan pada hari ini pun kita mempunyai harta mencukupi untuk digunakan menentang musuh kita. Terpulang kepada kita sahaja untuk mengenal pasti aset-aset itu dan bagaimana hendak menggunakannya bagi menghentikan kehancuran yang disebabkan musuh kita. Kesemuanya ini boleh dilakukan sekiranya kita berhenti sekejap untuk berfikir bagi merancang, merangka strategi dan memulakan langkah-langkah yang genting. Langkah-langkah yang kecil sekalipun mampu membawa hasil yang berkesan.

Kita mengetahui puak Arab Jahiliah sering bermusuh-musuhan, saling berbunuh hanya kerana mereka berlainan suku kaum. Baginda Rasulullah mengajar mereka tentang persaudaraan Islam dan kesannya mereka dapat menghapuskan kebencian terhadap sesama sendiri, dan kemudian bersatu dan membantu membentuk ketamadunan Islam yang cemerlang. Bolehkah kita menyatakan bahawa kita, umat Islam yang moden tidak boleh melakukan apa yang dicapai oleh puak yang jahil itu? Jika tidak semua pun, sekurang-kurangnya sebahagian daripada kita boleh melakukannya. Kalaupun kita tidak mampu membangkitkan semula kegemilangan Islam, sekurang-kurangnya kita menjamin keselamatan ummah.

Untuk melaksanakan semua yang dicadangkan ini, kita tidak perlu mengenepikan perbezaan pendapat sesama kita. Kita hanya perlu mewujudkan waktu gencatan supaya kita seiring menangani masalah kepentingan bersama yang tertentu sahaja, misalnya masalah Palestin.

Dalam mana-mana perjuangan, mana-mana peperangan, tiada yang lebih penting daripada tindakan yang seiring dan selaras. Yang diperlukan hanya disiplin. Baginda Rasulullah tewas di Jabal Uhud kerana pasukannya berpecah belah. Kita tahu tentang hal ini tetapi kita masih enggan mendisiplinkan diri dan berhenti bertindak tidak menentu dan tidak selaras. Kita perlu berani tetapi tidak terlalu berani hingga mengambil risiko yang bodoh. Kita perlu memikirkan bukan sahaja tentang balasan di akhirat tetapi kesan duniawi akibat tindakan kita.

Al-Quran mengajar kita bahawa apabila musuh menuntut perdamaian, kita wajib menyambutnya secara positif. Memang benar bahawa perjanjian damai yang ditawarkan berat sebelah dan merugikan kita. Tetapi kita boleh berunding. Baginda Nabi pun berbuat demikian di Hudaibiah. Akhirnya Rasulullah beroleh kemenangan.

Saya sedar bahawa semua gagasan ini tidak digemari ramai. Mereka yang marah akan menolaknya bulat-bulat. Malahan mereka akan mendiamkan sesiapa yang mengambil atau menyokong cadangan sedemikian. Mereka mahu mengerahkan lebih ramai pemuda dan pemudi supaya membuat pengorbanan tertinggi. Tetapi ke manakah akhirnya semua ini? Sudah pasti bukan kemenangan. Sejak 50 tahun peperangan di Palestin, kita tidak mencapai sebarang hasil. Malahan kita telah memburukkan lagi keadaan.

Pihak musuh mungkin mengalu-alukan cadangan-cadangan ini dan kita akan membuat kesimpulan kononnya pihak yang menimbulkan cadangan mahu bersekongkol dengan musuh. Tetapi fikirkanlah. Kita menentang pihak yang menggunakan fikiran. Mereka terselamat daripada pembunuhan kaum selama 2,000 tahun bukan dengan cara menyerang balas tetapi dengan berfikir. Mereka mencipta dan berjaya menyebarkan fahaman sosia isme, komunisme, hak asasi manusia dan demokrasi supaya sebarang tindakan menindas mereka akan dilihat sebagai perbuatan yang salah demi membolehkan mereka menikmati hak yang sama dengan orang lain.

Dengan cara ini mereka kini berjaya menguasai negara-negara terkuat di dunia dan masyarakat kecil ini sudah menjadi kuasa dunia. Kita tidak dapat melawan mereka dengan kuasa kudrat sahaja. Kita juga perlu menggunakan otak kita.

Sejak akhir-akhir ini, oleh kerana kuasa mereka dan kejayaan mereka, golongan ini menjadi angkuh. Dan orang yang angkuh, seperti juga orang yang marah, akan melakukan kesilapan dan mereka akan lupa untuk berfikir.

Mereka telah pun mula melakukan kesilapan. Dan mereka akan membuat banyak lagi kesilapan. Mungkin ada peluang bagi kita sekarang dan pada masa hadapan. Kita mesti merebut peluang-peluang ini.

Tetapi untuk berbuat demikian, langkah-langkah kita mestilah betul. Perbincangan sesama kita memang baik. Ia membantu kita mendedahkan kesalahan-kesalahan yang dilakukan terhadap kita, dan mungkin kita akan beroleh simpati dan sokongan. Ia boleh menyemarakkan semangat, iltizam dan keazaman kita bagi menghadapi musuh.

Kita boleh dan seharusnya berdoa kepada Allah s.w.t. kerana akhirnya nanti Dialah yang akan menentukan sama ada kita berjaya atau gagal. Kita memerlukan restu-Nya dan bantuan-Nya untuk segala ikhtiar kita.

Tetapi yang menentukan sama ada Dia akan membantu dan memberi kita kemenangan ialah bagaimana kita bertindak dan apa yang kita lakukan. Yang Maha Kuasa telah pun menyatakan demikian dalam al-Quran. Sekali lagi rujuk kepada Surah ar-Ra'd ayat 11.

Seperti yang saya katakan pada awal ucapan tadi, seluruh dunia memerhati kita, seluruh ummah menaruh harapan kepada persidangan para pemimpin negara-negara Islam. Mereka mengharapkan kita bukan sahaja untuk meluahkan kekecewaan dan kemarahan kita menerusi kata-kata dan tindakan, tidak sekadar berdoa kepada Allah memohon restunya. Mereka mengharapkan agar kita berbuat sesuatu, agar kita bertindak. Kita tidak boleh menyatakan yang kita ini, iaitu para pemimpin negara-negara Islam, tidak dapat berbuat apa-apa. Kita tidak boleh menyatakan yang kita tidak boleh bersatu walaupun dalam ketika kita berhadapan dengan kemusnahan agama dan umat Islam.

Kita tahu kita boleh melakukannya. Banyak perkara yang boleh kita laksanakan. Ada banyak sumber kekayaan untuk kita gunakan. Yang diperlukan cuma kesungguhan untuk bertindak. Sebagai umat Islam, kita mesti bersyukur atas pedoman yang dibawa agama kita, kita harus melakukan apa yang perlu dibuat dengan kerelaan dan keazaman. Allah tidak mengangkat kita, para pemimpin, mengatasi yang lain supaya kita menikmati kuasa untuk faedah diri kita sendiri sahaja. Kuasa yang kita pegang ialah untuk rakyat kita, untuk ummah, untuk Islam. Kita perlu ada kesungguhan untuk menggunakan kuasa ini dengan bijaksana, adil, berhemah dan berkesepakatan. Insya-Allah kita akan berjaya akhirnya.

Saya berdoa kepada Allah supaya Sidang Kemuncak ke-10 Persidangan Pertubuhan Islam di Putrajaya, Malaysia akan menunjukkan hala tuju yang baru dan positif kepada kita, supaya direstui dengan kejayaan oleh-Nya, Allah Yang Maha Kuasa, al-Rahman, al-Rahim.

Utusan Malaysia, 17/10/2003