SOME time ago, Datuk Seri Dr Mahathir Mohamed announced that Malaysia is an Islamic state. To this, mixed views from various people came up. In fact, Malaysia does not claim itself to be a model Islamic state.
Long before the Prime Minister made the announcement, the members of the Organisation of Islamic Conference (OIC) had already recognised Malaysia as a state to emulate in terms of development.
Having envisioned to be a developed economy by 2020 and now, as an Islamic state, global attention given to this country is greater than before. To live up to that claim can be considered a heavy task for this country. This is especially so when Malaysia is seen as a model state among the Muslim countries.
A potentially developed Islamic state must achieve all the international criteria of a developed nation. Among other things, we need to improve in the areas of economy, education, health services, and physical infrastructure.
Towards becoming a model Islamic state, it must be realised that Malaysia must be able to detach itself from the typical negativities normally associated with Muslim countries such as poverty and illiteracy. Looking back at what this country has managed to achieve since independence, we have little doubt in the ability of Malaysia to be fully developed by the year 2020.
What concerns us is the ability of the country to sustain development, especially in economic terms. We can provide a healthy, well-educated and trainable workforce in addition to good policies and infrastructure to support the development process. The bigger issue is our ability to continuously invent new technologies to sustain the development in the long run.
Thus far, this country has relied heavily on imported technologies either as parts of foreign direct investments (FDIs) or through smart partnerships. As an aspiring nation, we cannot rely on these sources forever. What is our response to this issue?
The answer is that we must develop our own genuine technologies. We need to enhance R&D activities to develop new products, services or systems. How does Islam view the need to excel in the R&D activities?
Islam encourages its followers to excel in such activities. This issue must be viewed within the context that every Muslim is responsible to meet the needs of other Muslims as long as it is for the good of the people. For example, imagine what will happen if the multinational pharmaceutical companies, for some reason, refuse to sell the needed drugs to this country?What will happen if we can no longer import food products to meet domestic demand? From the Islamic perspective, R&D in certain areas could be treated as fardhu kifayah. This is an issue of security to the nation.
Furthermore, R&D in this area can enhance Malaysia’s potential as an international hub for halal products. Whether the inventions come from Muslims or non-Muslims is immaterial. The interest of the country should supersede the interest of the respective races or religious groups.
People will refer to such a new invention as a Malaysian-based technology instead of an invention of the Malaysian-Muslims or the Malaysian-Buddhists. This is a common phenomenon in the globalise world.
For example, many new technologies in the West were developed by non-Christians. However, in line with the aspiration of the Government to reduce the inter-racial gap, we would like to see more Muslims becoming involved in R&D activities. As far as technological activities are concerned, Malaysia must be able to go one step better than the existing developed nations.
As much as we want to promote the R&D activities, we must observe the ethical requirements, including from the Islamic perspective. We should take a more holistic approach to R&D by taking into consideration its impact on employees, consumers, the environment and the public. This is where ethics play important roles.
For example, developing an advanced military technology for the purpose of self-defence is essential. However, to use the technologies against others or to blackmail others would be unethical.
We also need to re-examine the needs to undertake research projects into human cloning. This is a very pressing issue today.
Many super powers of the world use their technological advantages to blackmail and bully the rest of the world. The United States is a good example. The country claims to be the proponent of ethics and human rights. However, through so-called global policing policies, it uses its advanced technologies against others.
In fact, its willingness to employ its military might just to conquer the oil fields of Iraq raises a big question of ethics. Where product development is concerned, the ethical requirements should be observed from at least two different but supplementary angles – first, the benefits of the outcome and second, the process of the R&D itself.
For Muslims, the outcome and process must be consistent with the requirements of the syariah. Therefore, Malaysia must formulate comprehensive policies to attract and at the same time guide its R&D activities.
In the past, the focus was mainly on financial incentives to encourage firms to be more involved in R&D. Viewing the needs to instil ethics into R&D, it is necessary to introduce appropriate and specific guidelines on this matter.