The former Malaysian Prime Minister, Mahathir Mohamad - much respected in the Muslim world for having led Malaysia to achieve the singular distinction of being counted among the developed nations, and also for his unencumbered advice to both the West and his co-religionists on the challenges confronting the Muslim Ummah - presented his guiding philosophy at a seminar in Karachi on Friday.
In his keynote address at the seminar on "Challenges Facing the Muslim Ummah in the Modern World", he spoke of internal strife and retrogressive interpretations of religion as major impediments in the way of peace and progress in the Muslim world. Describing the situation that is familiar to Pakistanis, he observed, "Today we see the Sunnis and the Shias both vehemently maintaining that they are Muslims.
They kill and fight each other because each accuses the other of not being Muslims. Yet the world, the non-Muslims, consider both sects as Muslims and do not differentiate between them, condemning both for being guilty of terrorism, etc." Also, he correctly averred, there is nothing to suggest that Muslim societies and Muslim countries should recreate the life and the environment that existed at the time of the Holy Prophet (peace be upon him) before they can be considered Islamic, adding that the attempt to recreate the environment of the seventh century denies the relevance of Islam in terms of time and environment.
One could not but agree with him when he said that this is the cause of the Muslims having been backward, weak, and unable to deal with the multitude of challenges they face today.
More to the point, he emphasised the need for the Muslim governments to be led to by administrators who are competent, strong, just and have the capability to cope with the changing times.
That, in fact, is the crux of the matter. Unfortunately, most of them not only lack these qualities, but consciously seek to exploit sectarian divisions and promote religious retrogression.
The sectarian strife as witnessed in Pakistan presently is the outcome of socio-economic backwardness as well as outside interventions by Muslim governments vying for political influence.
The opposition to enlightened interpretations of religious teachings through the well-established traditions of 'Ijtehad' and 'Ijma', in large part, too comes from officially sanctioned policy of religious conservatism pursued by some self-serving rulers like, in the case of Pakistan, the late military dictator Zia-ul-Haq and others who succeeded him and sought to implement their Jehadist agendas.
The challenges of sectarian strife and intellectual backwardness can best be addressed through enlightened governmental policy aimed at promoting tolerance and socio-economic development.
With regard to economic development, Mahathir had some important ideas to offer based on his own country's success story, which spans only about 22 years that he spent at the helm of power.
In a deviation from the norm, Malaysia decided to look towards the East for economic development models in Japan and South Korea rather than the West. "We went to these countries," he said, "to find out what they were doing."
He did not explain what exactly it was that his country learned from the example of the Japanese and the Koreans. But it may be recalled that back in the decade of the 70s, amazed by the competence and efficiency levels of the Japanese workers and managers, some of the American companies too had sent their people to Japan to study the practices prevalent in the Japanese firms.
Whatever Malaysia learned from its friends in the East, according to Mahathir, it paid off well, which in fact is obvious from the great strides his country has made towards socio-economic progress.
One of the important features of Malaysian developmental effort was the decision that its leaders made at an early stage to "learn to share and tolerate each other to make headway and share the wealth of the country."
The development patterns they followed were to spread out the benefits of economic progress over vast parts of the population.
As Mahathir elucidated, his government adopted a policy of supporting the private sector since the public sector could not be expected to organise and run profit making entities.
Yet, as a matter of policy, Malaysia concentrated on investments in labour-intensive industries so that jobs and employment could be created for the poor. Another significant point he made regarding his country's economic policy was that the purpose of supporting the private sector was not to get taxes and duties from it, but to expand the production base and provide employment.
"This," he said, "makes people prosperous." Which of course has to be the basic objective of every good government. Our leaders have been voicing a lot of praise for the achievements of Malaysia under Mahathir Mohamad; it remains to be seen if they can persuade themselves to follow the model of development he has put in place.