On the theme of ‘the Role of Development in Achieving National Security’, the Kuala Lumpur Summit 2019 was held from December 18 to 21 in the Malaysian national capital. Around 450 leaders, delegates, scholars, clerics, thinkers and youth movements from 52 countries have participated in the summit, that brought together the Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, the Qatari Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani and the Iranian President Hassan Rouhani. The summit was originally initiated by the current Malaysian Prime Minister, Mahathir Mohamad, following his meetings with several prominent Muslim leaders from countries such as Iran, Turkey, Pakistan, Qatar and Indonesia.

This initiative by Mahathir has been greatly welcomed, particularly by the Malay-Islamist politicians and activists, who advocated a discourse centered around an agenda for the Muslim ummah for many years, both locally and internationally. The Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party (PAS), the National Trust Party (Amanah), the Muslim Youth Movement of Malaysia (ABIM) and IKRAM movement were among the Malay-Islamist delegates that have participated in the event. A number of party members from Malay-Nationalist and Malay-Reformist such as the Malaysian United Indigenous Party (PPBM) and the People’s Freedom Party (PKR) were also actively engaged in the summit, either as speakers or committee members. Prior to the summit, Malaysian Muslims were very much interested in the issues to be discussed as they believe topics concerning the fate and future of other Muslim ‘brothers and sisters’ would bring a practical solution.

The summit adopted four main objectives namely; 1) To revive the Islamic civilisation; 2) To deliberate and find new and workable solutions for the problems afflicting the Muslim world; 3) To contribute to the improvement of the state of affairs among Muslims and the Muslim nations; and 4) To form a network between Islamic leaders, intellectuals, scholars, and thinkers around the world. For Malaysian Muslims, there was a hope that this summit, while strengthening the unity among selected Islamic nations, will provide a channel to address the problems faced by the Muslim world such as terrorism, Islamophobia, acts of discrimination against minority Muslims and to promote the efforts towards peace and justice, along with the need to adapt to the fast-changing information and technological world.

While many Malaysian Muslims praise Mahathir and his effort to organize the summit, there has been critics from both locals and international observers. Some of them find the summit as merely a political mileage to boost the popularity of the prime minister and his ruling coalition party in a majority Muslim state.[1] Another critic advanced by several opposition politicians in Malaysia was in line with King Salman’s critic that the summit is indirectly perceived as a rival to the OIC and Saudi leadership, which will further divide the Muslim ummah. “If Malaysia really wants to solve the problems facing the Muslim world, then maybe we should start by not dividing the Muslims in the first place” – this expression from one of Mahathir’s critics clearly shows the sentiment of rejection towards the organization of the summit in Malaysia.[2] Some Malaysians were also disappointed that the summit did not seriously address the recent cases of human rights abuses against Muslims in Xinjiang as well as the host decision to disregard the Palestinian representatives of West Bank– the Fattah and Mahmoud Abbas leadership from coming to Kuala Lumpur.

With the absence of several key heads of states in the Middle East and North Africa such as Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Morocco and Egypt, as well as Indonesia in Southeast Asia, can the summit show any potential role in the future development of global Muslim affairs? Given the strong projection from Mahathir that the summit is not about challenging the existing role of OIC in terms of facilitating Muslim affairs, the four days event has actually acted as a ‘majlis’ to find temporal solutions to some of the main problems facing the contemporary Muslim world in a neutral environment and served as a source of motivation to participating countries and other Islamic nations to reconsider their politics, economic and social development beyond occasional references to the West, particularly on the issues of modernization, globalization and ‘dollarization’.

Nevertheless, the encouraging responses received from this event has shown that there is a remarkable potential for Islamic countries, from Southeast Asia to the Middle East and North Africa to continue to cooperate and collaborate, despite some differences in term of foreign policies and geopolitical insights.

[1] An interview with an opposition political activist in Kuala Lumpur, 22 December 2019

[2] An interview with a member of the parliament from opposition bloc in Kuala Lumpur, 22 December 2019