Malaysian Prime Minister Dr. Mahathir Mohamad’s official visit to Riyadh for talks with Crown Prince Abdullah, the Regent, on Iraq, the Palestinian-Israeli conflict and other regional issues comes at a sensitive moment in relations between the West and the Islamic nation. For that reason it is perhaps more significant than might otherwise have been the case.
At a time when the Islamic perspective on world events is being drowned out in the Western-dominated world media, these two powerful leaders are speaking with one voice and, therefore, giving welcome expression to the concerns of more than a billion Muslims on issues such as Palestine and the "war on terror" — which, in both their eyes and the eyes of Muslims everywhere, are very much intertwined.
Both leaders have urged caution on the part of the US vis-a-vis the proposed strike on Iraq to topple Saddam Hussein, for instance, and they have been consistent in their insistence that the US administration must address, and help to solve, the causes of terrorism rather than merely react to each attack as it comes.
They are both staunch defenders of the right of the Palestinians to a free and independent state.
However, both leaders have something else in common that is certainly of equal, and perhaps even of more important, concern. They rule over Islamic countries that have undergone extraordinary change over the past three decades while still managing to maintain their unique Islamic identities. It is no coincidence that Mahathir’s arrival coincides with the opening session of a high-level five-day symposium, "A Future Vision of the Saudi Economy", which Mahathir addressed yesterday.
When Mahathir speaks on the need to embrace science and technology, as he did at the symposium, Saudi Arabia does well to listen closely. His 23-year rule in Malaysia has not been free of controversy; but what is indisputable is that, under his visionary leadership, Malaysia has become a major regional high-tech hub. Its economy has been transformed through an embracing of new trends in science and technology; but, at the same time, anyone walking the shiny, modern streets of Kuala Lumpur still feels that he is in the heart of a nation where Islam is as central as it has always been. There has been no compromise, that is to say, on the religious front, with Mahathir continuing to call himself a "fundamentalist" —in the sense that he believes that the basics of Islam should forever provide the guiding principles for his and all other Islamic nations.
Saudi Arabia’s finance minister also told the symposium yesterday that the main challenge now facing the Kingdom’s economic planners is the overdependence on oil revenue in a highly volatile world market. "Dependence on oil revenues and consequently public spending as the main driving force for economic activity has made our economy vulnerable," he stated with refreshing frankness.
So, there are already clear signals emerging from this hugely important conference, and they were encapsulated on the opening day by Mahathir’s advice to embrace science and technology in order to catch up with the developed world.
