Closing remarks of Tun Mahathir at the KL Summit 2019

CLOSING REMARKS BY THE HON TUN DR MAHATHIR BIN MOHAMAD PRIME MINISTER OF MALAYSIA AND CHAIRMAN OF KL SUMMIT AT THE KUALA LUMPUR SUMMIT 2019

  1. First and foremost, I would like to thank everyone who had been with us since the Summit began on Thursday together with those who were delayed.
  2. I truly hope that it has been a fruitful three days. We hope our hospitality had been satisfactory and if there are anything lacking, we apologise.
  3. It is our hope that while you have stayed on to participate in this Summit, you would have had the opportunity to explore Kuala Lumpur. If you haven’t, I hope you would be able to do so today after we have concluded the Summit.THE SUMMIT
  4. Before we address what had transpired, discussed, debated and agreed upon during the course of this three days, I would like for us to just take a step back and reflect on why we wanted to hold this Summit and what we hoped to achieve.
  5. Admittedly, some had misunderstood our intentions, intentionally or otherwise, some had felt slighted while a few were suspicious. By now, I am sure it is obvious that the negative opinions were misplaced and not justified.
  6. We are not here to replace any other Muslim platforms, neither are we intending to create different categories or classes of Muslim nations nor to undermine others. It is a congregation of a few Muslim nations of which some of the leaders wanted to get together and discuss some areas that are possible for us to establish collaborations that will first, benefit the nations involved and then taken onto a bigger platform and collaboration to benefit the Muslim world as a whole.
  7. The idea was to come together – assess our strengths and weaknesses as well as our assets. Then, we will use the strengths of one another to overcome the weaknesses we have. Simply put, if one of us have an expertise in a particular area, we offer it to another or all the other participating countries and establish a realistic collaboration.
  8. Further to that, we had from the start identified seven pillars that we wish to focus on:
    1. i)  Development and sovereignty;
    2. ii)  Integrity and good governance;
    3. iii)  Culture and identity;
    4. iv)  Justice and freedom;
    5. v)  Peace, security and defence;
    6. vi)  Trade and investment and
    7. vii)  Technology and internet governance.
  9. During the course of our discussions with leaders from Turkey, Iran and Qatar we share the sentiments that for these efforts to work we need to keep the initial group small so that we can pursue the objectives immediately without having to be distracted by too many opinions and conditions.

POINTS RAISED AND CONCERNS

  1. The other leaders and myself have elaborated at length on how pitiful the state of affairs of the Muslim world is today. It was pointed out that we are 1.8 billion strong which means that Muslims form almost a quarter of the total human population, and yet, we lack proportionate representation in all fields on the global platform.
  2. There is also concern that Muslim in non-Muslim countries are forced to undergo assimilation. We support integration but assimilation to the extent of shedding our religion is unacceptable.
  3. It was pointed out that if Muslim countries are independent and capable of standing on their own feet, we will not be subjected to such treatments. Nevertheless, leaders of all four countries were especially heartened by the brotherly and friendly relations that have strengthened despite the complexities of the region.
  4. These, to us are the very essence that will ensure the foundation that we want to build will be successful.
  5. It is important for me to point out that Iran in particular, despite the years of sanctions had been able to continue to progress and develop and it proudly stands as a nation with the fourth highest number of engineers in the world.
  6. Qatar too have been subjected to embargo and, like Iran, it has managed to rise above it and progressed impressively.
  7. However, such sanctions and embargoes are not going to be exclusively for Iran and Qatar. With the world witnessing nations making unilateral decisions to impose such punitive measures, Malaysia and other nations must always bear in mind that it can be imposed on any of us.
  8. That is the more reason for us to be self-reliant and work towards that with other Muslims nations to ensure that if and when such measures are imposed upon us, we are capable of facing it.

    MOVING FORWARD
  9. Our discussions also touched on the subject of currency and the way we trade with each other. I have suggested that we re-visit the idea of trading using the gold dinar and barter trade among us.
  10. We are seriously looking into this and we hope that we will be able to find a mechanism to put it into effect.
  11. Our focus is mainly on the economy, science and technology as well as the defence industry. But the most important aspect of all the focus is the need to be able to produce and create new indigenous technologies.
  12. For as long as we are dependent on the technology created by the enemies of Islam, they will forever be able to circumvent, dictate and control our efforts to improve our technologies and defence system in particular.
    TANGIBLE AGREEMENTS ACHIEVED DURING THIS SUMMIT
  13. I am indeed proud and extremely pleased to announce that this Summit had witnessed 18 successful exchange of instruments in various fields including advanced hi-technology; media collaboration; centre of excellence; food security and youth leadership and exchange programmes.
  14. There are several more in the pipeline which are being worked out resulting from discussions during this Summit.
  15. These are tangible outcomes from the Summit as how we had envisaged when we embarked on this programme.

CONCLUSION

  1. While it may not allay some of the suspicions and opposition raised, we would like to again re-iterate that this Summit is focused on its objectives of finding solutions and programmes that we believe can assist and eventually save the ummah from their current plight.
  2. We have come to an end of the Summit. But we know, if we strengthen our resolve, this is the new beginning, one that pursues what had been enjoined in the Quran, that Allah will not change the condition of a people as long as they do not change their state themselves.
  3. That is what we hope to do. We want to save ourselves and the Muslim ummah and we will persevere in this effort. We hope from this point onwards, our other Muslim brethren will see for themselves that what we intend to do is to unite the ummah on strategic and advanced technologies.
  4. Acquiring this knowledge is our only hope to stop the Ummah from continuously being bullied and mistreated by our enemies.
  5. For that, we re-affirm our creed that all Muslims are brothers and that this small step we have taken will be the beginning of a lengthy and fruitful journey with the rest of the Ummah. May Allah s.w.t. help us and guide us in this endeavour. Thank you.

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