6th World Islamic Economic Forum (WIEF)

Special Address by His Majesty Paduka Seri Baginda Sultan Haji Hassanal Bolkiah Mu’izzaddin Waddaulah, Sultan And Yang Di-Pertuan Of Brunei Darussalam at the 6th World Islamic Economic Forum (WIEF) in Kuala Lumpur Convenction Centre on May 19, 2010

                               
Prime Minister Dato’ Sri Mohd Najib Tun Razak
Your Excellencies,
Ladies and Gentlemen,


It is a great pleasure to be here...

...and I thank the Foundation for the honour of addressing such a distinguished gathering of leaders in all walks of life.

It is also a special pleasure to join fellow members of the OIC again and discuss matters that are of deep importance, not just to our Muslim Ummah but, I believe, to all members of the international community.

It is a tribute to the role being played by our organisation in world affairs today... and I congratulate every branch on its positive and constructive contribution to peace, goodwill and cooperation among all nations.
I also most warmly congratulate your government and people, Prime Minister.

As we often say in Brunei Darussalam, we do not only have relations with Malaysia.

We are relations.

And, as such, we thank you once again for your country’s welcome and your people’s constant friendship and hospitality.


As members of the wider, extended family of Muslims nations, we greatly appreciate your outstanding support for the work of the OIC over so many years.

Prime Minister,

I have followed the work of the Forum with great interest ever since its first session.



That was, of course, in 2005.... the same year as our groundbreaking Special Summit in Mecca.

I still see that Summit as one of the two most significant meetings in the first decade in the twenty first century.

The first was, of course, the United Nations Millennium Summit where the Millennium Development Goals were adopted.
This, more than any previous set of principles, gave international purpose to the lives of every ordinary citizen in every country in the world.

The Plan of Action set out at Mecca Summit five years later, allied two billion of our people to the same international objective.

And this Forum has given it inspiration and dynamic practical impetus in a most crucial area of modern international relations.
As a result, I see the first ten years of this century not in terms of crises..... whether economic, financial or political.

I see them in the terms set out in the various themes which have been chosen for this annual gathering.

New alliances.

Partnerships.

Security.
And I assess them in this light.

How much, I ask, have our ordinary people’s lives been improved?

As individuals, as families and as communities, are they better prepared to meet modern challenges?

How much more confident are they now in facing the future?

If we can answer these questions positively, then we are indeed responding well to the theme of the Forum’s very first meeting here in Kuala Lumpur in 2005.

Development and Progress.

Prime Minister,

In linking the purpose of the UN Millennium Goals to the objectives of the Mecca Summit and the work of the Secretariat here, I detect a further theme.

     I feel that it underpins almost every aspect of international life today.

I see it as the sub-text of theme of each of our Forums over the past five years.

At an even deeper level, I believe that it is one of the most serious concerns of all Muslims in this twenty first century.
By this I refer to what has been given the popular title of .....

Globalisation.

The word is part of everyday life and almost everyone has his own interpretation.

Some rejoice in it. Some regret it. Some even condemn it.

     What I think we all agree on here, however, is that it presents a clear challenge to Muslims.
The challenge is implicit in this year’s theme...

“Gearing for Economic Resurgence.”

This I believe does not involve seeing how we can adjust or adapt our faith to a new set of realities.

My people know only one reality.

They see the one world they live in.


They know the one faith they believe in.

In other words, they are already globalised, just as Muslims have always been for nearly one and a half thousand years.

As such, they wish to take part to the full in the one world they live in and they wish to strengthen the one faith they believe in.



If we speak of “resurgence” here...

...then it is this wish I see resurging.

Prime Minister,

Our people have all felt the impact of many so-called economic and financial crises over the last two years.

This, to me, is simple proof that we are inextricably bound up in world affairs.

It is essential that our people must have the tools and skills to handle them well, as nations, as traders, as business men and women, as ordinary citizens of that world and as Muslims.

That is why I thank the Forum for its ideas and the programmes of advice, training and opportunity it is offering and encouraging.
I would, however, make one other point about “resurgence”.

If it is to take place, we cannot afford to be passive members of the international community.

We ourselves, as Muslims, have much to offer and encourage our partners in the world.

The world, I maintain, needs us.




There have been many calls for commerce, trade, banking, and finance to be fair, honest, ethical and moral.
 
Many non-Muslims, up to the highest authorities among the great powers at the United Nations, have made such calls.

The word often used is  “regulated”.


The words Muslims have always used are far less controversial.

     We use the terms “just” .... or simply  “fair...”

As we all know here, these have always been Islam’s values, its principles, and its basic approach to business.



These, far more than any products, can be Islam’s major contribution to international business.

Undertaking the long, hard task of building them into global economic and business affairs is, the highest calling of Islamic Forums such as this.

It calls for persuasion, goodwill, technical skill and commercial expertise.

It will obviously take much time, effort and conviction.

But, Prime Minister, if we are seeking a way out of short-term cycles of crisis and recovery, this is the surest way of achieving any lasting “resurgence”....

....not just for the Ummah....

..but for the whole world of business and economics.

Thank you