IN gearing towards a fully developed nation in 2020, Malaysia must focus its attention on technological development.
Home-grown technology is an important element in guaranteeing sustainable economic growth of the nation in the years to come.
It is imperative that Malaysia finds a way to intensify the “creation” of new technologies to become more competitive. Malaysia could not afford to just be a producer and exporter of commodities.
Looking at the global scenario today, Muslim countries worldwide produce 60 per cent of the world’s commodities. Sadly though, the vast majority of the Muslim world is plagued by poverty.
Why does this happen? This divide exists as a result of the inability of the Muslim world to process the raw commodities into value-added products. These raw commodities are exported to developed nations which, in turn, process the raw commodities into valueadded products.
Ironically, these products would then be sold back to the countries which originally exported the raw commodities, usually at a much higher price. No doubt this would put developing nations as well as commodity-exporting nations at the losing end.
Therefore, Malaysia must learn from countries like Japan and Taiwan. At one time, these two countries were well known for copying technologies from the West. Today, these countries are able to develop their own home-grown technologies.
As a matter of fact, some of these technologies are so advanced, they go beyond those developed in the West. Perhaps, a good example of this is the achievement made by the Japanese company, Honda, in the area of robotics. Honda’s humanoid robot, Asimo, is an epitome of technological advancement that surpasses that of the West.
The question now is, would Malaysia be able to develop its own technology which would be on par with developed countries? The answer, to the writer’s mind, is yes.
We find that today there are many Asian scientists including Muslim scientists who are playing crucial roles in developing new and advanced technologies in the developed world.
To take an example, there are many sci-entists from the Indian subcontinent who are based in Silicon Valley who are involved in the development of information and com-munication technology (ICT).
Several Muslim scientists are known to be working with American agencies such as the National Aeronautics and Space Admini-stration and institutions such as the Massa-chusetts Institute of Technology.
Even though modern and advanced technologies are produced in the West, this does not mean that the West enjoys a competitive edge over other parts of the world.
On the contrary, the West still depends on the expertise of researchers, scientists and technologists from all other parts of the world, including from the Muslim world.
Islam acknowledges the fact that there are physical differences among people of different races, as stated in verse 22 of Surah al-Rum: “And among His signs is the creation of the heavens and the earth, and the variations in your languages and your colours; verily in that are signs for those who know.” Nevertheless, these variations do not make one race more superior to others, in terms of the ability to develop knowledge and new technologies. In fact, without co-operation among the various researchers of different races, it would be impossible to develop any technology.
In the case of Malaysia, the spirit of “Malaysia Boleh” should be adopted when it comes to the issue of technological development. After all, “Malaysia Boleh” is in line with what is mentioned in verse 11 of Surah al-Ra’d, to the effect that “verily never will God change the condition of a people until they change it themselves”.
In gearing towards the development of home-grown technologies, Malaysia should utilise the brains that are already in the country. We have experts in various fields in the country working at various institutions of higher learning as well as research institutions. Their research findings and innovations should be commercialised, and not just be left merely as a paper published in an academic journal.
On top of that, brains from other countries in the Indian subcontinent, former Soviet republics, the Middle East and Africa should also be roped in to contribute towards the development of technologies that are bred in a Muslim country.
To do this, Malaysia would certainly require an institution that would act as a centre for research excellence where all the great Muslim minds could contribute towards the development of new knowledge and new technologies.
During the heyday of Islamic civilisation, we see brilliant minds across the Muslim world converging at centres of research excellence in Baghdad, Toledo and Cordova. With the backing of the caliphate at that time, research and development was conducted, and brought out the best of Muslim knowledge tradition which, to this day, is still unparalleled.
Learning from what happened in the past, perhaps Malaysia could take this as a cue in developing its own technologies. The first key ingredient would be strong support from the Government. Without this, it would certainly be almost impossible to progress.
In Malaysia, we are aware that the Government is indeed supportive of the development of our own technologies. In fact, initiatives such as the Multimedia Super Corridor and the BioValley are testaments to this.
The second ingredient is the establishment of an Islamic research centre for science and technology excellence. To establish such a research centre from scratch would indeed be costly.
Perhaps, a more feasible solution is to utilise existing facilities such as institutions of higher learning that specialise in technology and have a sound financial backing in order to conduct research and development.
If an institution of higher learning could bring in the best Muslim brains from across the world to work and contribute their knowledge to Malaysia, that would indeed be a giant leap forward for Malaysia and the Muslim world.
Definitely, if this institution is backed by a strong and stable corporation, it could indeed afford to bring these best brains to Malaysia.
The third ingredient is to identify who these best brains are and where they are based. At the moment, we are aware that there are many brilliant Muslim researchers, scientists and technologists.
However, because of the lack of research and development activities in their native countries, they are now working in developed countries in North America and Europe.
If these brilliant brains could be identified and brought to Malaysia, this could certainly help us in progressing that little bit faster. At the same time, local researchers, scientists and technologists could synergise with these foreign experts in the development of new technologies.
Malaysia has the potential to provide the best facilities for research and development if we understand the importance that this will bring for the betterment of the country as well as the Muslim ummah.
If we can build the world’s tallest buildings, organise the best of events, scale the tallest peak, reach the coldest of continents and sail across the seven seas, then the idea of becoming the centre for Muslim technological excellence is not at all impossible.