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Friday, December 20, 2019

Dr Asri says his ‘Buy Muslim-First’ is not racist


FMT:

Asri takes ‘Buy Muslim-First’ campaign to KL Islamic summit


by Minderjeet Kaur



Perlis mufti Mohd Asri Zainul Abidin 

KUALA LUMPUR: Perlis mufti Mohd Asri Zainul Abidin told delegates at the Kuala Lumpur Summit here today that it is the duty of Muslims to buy products from Muslim nations.

Speaking at a talk titled “Redistribution of Wealth: Shared Prosperity”, he said there are some 1.7 billion Muslims worldwide who could increase the purchasing power of Muslim countries.

“This buying power can be positively exploited to help Muslim countries,” he told members of the audience who include leaders of Muslim countries.

He also referred to the “Buy Muslim-made first” campaign in Malaysia, saying that when a Muslim urges other Muslims to buy such products, they are labelled as racist.



“We never ask anyone to boycott non-Muslim products,” he said, adding that the campaign was merely to help Muslims in Malaysia to prosper.

He said Muslims, especially in Malaysia and even in Indonesia, are relatively weak in the business sector.

“They face problems marketing Muslim goods,” he added.

He also said Muslim countries are still dependant on the West, to the extent that they become “puppets” even though they are rich in resources such as oil and gas.

This, he said, was because Muslim countries lacked a trade bloc that united all Muslims.

“This is the sad reality of the ummah.”

He urged Muslims at the individual, national and international level to foster “Islamic solidarity” in order to achieve economic freedom.

He said this could put an end to the issue of halal and haram food while ensuring food security among Muslims.

To be fair on one aspect, Dr Asri has NOT been the ONLY one who called for Buy-X first (equivalent of Buy-Y last) or Buy-Z first.

Mahathir once told us to buy British last. From Searching in History blog, we read:



news headlines incorrect
should be "Malays win control of Guthrie in Market raid"


Mahathir was worried Guthrie was going to sell its subsidiaries to the Multi-Purpose Holding of the Malaysian Chinese Association (MCA)

Causes of the Buy British Last Policy

The Buy British Last Policy was announced by Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad in 1981.

The policy was a retaliation from a number of British aggravations. The main spark involved the large British rubber company of Guthrie. Guthrie owned about 200,000 acres of rubber plantation in Malaysia.

In 1981, the Malaysian Perbadanan Nasional Berhad or the National Equity Corporation launched a dawn raid at the London Stock Exchange that resulted to the acquisition of Guthrie. But the takeover of Guthrie was a reaction by the Malaysian government for the British company’s decision to sell its subsidiaries to the Multi-Purpose Holding of the Malaysian Chinese Association (MCA). This selling to the MCA was against the agenda of the Malaysian government under the New Economic Program, which aimed 30% corporate ownership by ethnic Malays in the country by 1990.

The British government was shocked from the audacious takeover and decided to change the rules of the London Stock Exchange to avoid another dawn raid and take-overs.




Another grievance done by the British to the Malaysian government was its decision to increase the tuition fees of foreign students studying in Great Britain. The increase was threefold, from about £300 to £900. The increase highly affected the Malaysians, having 13,000 government-sponsored students studying in Britain. Henceforth, it made sending students a heavier burden for the developing Malaysia.

The two events resulted to the dismay of the Malaysians. The change of rules blocked any hope of owning any further British companies that had significant assets to the natural resources of Malaysia. The tuition increase resulted to the rise of government expenditures for sending students to Britain.

As a result of the British government’s action, Prime Minister Mahathir announced the Buy British Last Policy.

Mariam also wrote about Mahathir's 'Buy British Last' in FMT - I obtained this titbit from SeaDemon Says blog:

Was this an inadvertent snub to Mahathir? After all, the British are known to have a wicked sense of humour.


Immensely loyal to her friends, she valiantly defended Chile President Augusto Pinochet for the latter's help to Britain during the Falkland War with Argentina. Pinochet was then arrested in Britain on Spain's request to extradite him to face a human abuse trial in Madrid.T'was said that while Pinochet was under house arrest in Surrey in 1999, he received a fine malt from Thatcher who wrote in an accompanying note: “Scotch is one British institution that will never let you down”.
She didn't volte-face turned on those who helped her and her nation, unlike one man who asked Suqui for help but after securing Suqui's help to win the Malaysian 1994 general elections turned against Suqui, rejecting all their appeals and branding Suqui as traitors, a communist and extremist outfit over the appeals, in comparison with Al’Ma’unah (armed cult group) - the treacherous wiles of a King Cobra

Margaret Thatcher and Augusto Pinochet

Thatcher and Mahathir had little in common. Their acquaintance started by aircraft landing rights disputes, the dawn raid on Guthrie companies in the London stock exchange, the tin corner scandal and university fee increases for Malaysian students to the UK.Despite Mahathir’s “Buy British Last” call, he conducted secret deals with Thatcher which culminated in the Pergau Dam scandal.


Thatcher, despite her unpopularity, was quick to defend those territories under British control. Her decision to send troops to defend the Falkland Islands in 1982 against an Argentinian invasion, and the subsequent British victory, made her a hero and instilled patriotism.

The same cannot be said of a prime minister who gave out several hundred thousand identity cards to foreigners, in Sabah, in exchange for votes.


British prime ministers like Thatcher, rarely interfere in politics once they have retired from public office. Mahathir has remained active in politics to the detriment of the caretaker prime minister.

Both Thatcher and Mahathir had humble origins with fathers who told them to work hard to succeed. On her resignation, Thatcher made millions, legitimately, from giving public lectures on both the local and international circuits.


Mahathir is allegedly a multi-billionaire and his children have benefited from allegedly dodgy deals emanating from his time as prime minister.


During Thatcher’s funeral, the Bishop of London, Richard Chartres, gave a sermon in which he related the story of a nine-year-old boy, David Liddelow, who had written to Thatcher about Jesus. David asked Thatcher, “Last night when we were saying prayers, my daddy said everyone has done wrong things except Jesus. I said I don’t think you have done bad things because you are the prime minister. Am I right or is my daddy?”

Thatcher was known for her ability to reach out to the young and she replied to say that David had posed a “difficult question” but that she would “try to answer it”.

In a handwritten letter she said, “However good we try to be, we can never be as kind, gentle and wise as Jesus. There will be times when we do or say something we wish we hadn’t done and we shall be sorry and try not to do it again…

“As prime Minister, I try very hard to do things right and because Jesus gave us a perfect example I try even harder. But your father is right in saying that we can never be as perfect as He was.”

Contrast this with a letter written by another 10-year-old English boy, Darrel Abercrombie, to Mahathir in 1987. The letter has been mentioned in articles in “The Star” and “Sin Chew Jit Poh”. Darrel had requested Mahathir to stop logging activities in Malaysia because he wanted to study animals in the tropical rainforests when he grew up.


In a lengthy three-page typed document, Mahathir said: “It is disgraceful that you should be used by adults for the purpose of trying to shame us because of our extraction of timber from our forests.

“The timber industry helps hundreds of thousands of poor people in Malaysia. Are they supposed to remain poor because you want to study tropical animals? Is your study more important than filling the stomachs of poor people? Are Malaysians expected to lose millions of pounds so that you can study animals?

“If you don’t want us to cut down our forests tell your father to tell the rich countries like Britain to pay more for the timber they buy from us… I hope you will tell the adults who made use of you to learn all the facts. They should not be too arrogant and know how best to run a country…”


And I have witnessed such Buy-X first and Buy-Y last happening in a number of countries, for example:

The highly politicised "Freedom fries" in the United States in response to French opposition to the proposed invasion of Iraq.





Thousands of bottles of French wine and champagne were poured down the gurgle, much to the amusement of the French who much have wondered why the Yanks consumed French wines by wasting same, wakakaka.



But Dr Asri should recognise his "Buy Muslim First" is basically an indirect call to avoid Christian-Buddhist-Hindu goods, until there's no other choice but to buy them as a last resort.

I recall an Australian businessman who would urge Australians to buy Aussie goods in preference to imported goods (where coincidentally he produced Australian-made goods, wakakaka), until some other powerful Aussie businessmen told him off for fear "other" nations might take to boycotting Australian exports.

Just remember Dr Asri, your call to Muslims to "Buy Muslim First" is indeed your prerogative, just as it's non-Muslims' prerogative to "Buy Muslim last". Indeed, remember 'LowYat 2'.




changed name to MARA Digital 


soon will be Kipas Mall, wakakaka 


16 comments:

  1. for most food products, i buy china last, hand phone china first, i hv this tendency not to buy japs good but find it difficult in reality, i might buy muslim last as a gesture of protest, but i hardly know whats muslim good, is petronas one?

    ReplyDelete
  2. Trump says Buy American First. Muslims say Buy Muslim First.

    Same Same. Racist.

    Muslim-majority countries contribute just 8% of the global GDP, although they constitute nearly 25% of the world population. Take out oil and gas and we are talking about a tiny 2-3%

    They just don't have the economic clout. Most Muslim majority countries are over-populated and depend on food imports. Start a trade war and they will lose...big time.

    ReplyDelete
  3. When all this chest-thumping is over they will all go home and everything will be the same, as it was for the last 1,400 years.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Toonsie speaks out against India's new citizenship law which favours non-Muslims, but he does not see the opposite in Malaysia which favours Muslims, one in particular, namely Zakar Naik.

    "If we do that here (Malaysia) there will be chaos..." he says.

    This old fart simply has to go.

    QUOTE
    Dr M speaks out against India's new citizenship law
    Friday, 20 Dec 2019

    By RAHIMY RAHIM and CLARISSA CHUNG

    KUALA LUMPUR: Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad has spoken out against India's recently-approved citizenship legislation, which appears discriminatory towards Muslims.

    "I am sorry to see that India, which claims to be a secular state, is now taking action to deprive some Muslims of their citizenship.

    "If we do that here, you know what will happen. There will be chaos, there will be instability and everyone will suffer.
    UNQUOTE

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. he's just showing his domestic Heartland what a good Muslim he is

      Delete
  5. Trump says Buy America First.
    China buys sChinese First.
    Japan buys Japanese First.
    Korea buys Koreans first.


    So what's your beef ?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. they are all nationalists

      but Muslim-First? are all malaysians muslims?

      Delete
    2. Don't bring a pocket knife to a gunfight.

      The American, Chinese and Japanese economies are No.1, 2 and 3 largest the world.

      Even South Korea has long overtaken Malaysia, their GDP is nearly 5X ours.

      As Toonsie said not a single Muslim nation can be considered developed. No clout. So buy Muslim first will have no impact, in fact it will backfire.

      Delete
  6. I buy China last on anything that is eaten, is a medicine or health supplement , or may be absorbed through the skin.

    For use then throw away items where durability is unimportant, I buy the cheapest, and that is usually China made.

    For durable mechanical, electrical or electronic products, I buy Japanese first.

    For ICT hardware and software, I buy American brands first.

    In almost never buy from Melayu businesses unless it is unavoidable.

    That is my thoroughly prejudiced Purchasing habits, but that is my hard-earned money, nobody has a fucking right to interfere.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Wakakakaka…

    Ignorant fool!

    "I buy China last on anything that is eaten, is a medicine or health supplement , or may be absorbed through the skin."

    Next time before your doctor inject/administrate ANY forms of medications, especially pain killers or antibiotic, MAKES very sure u tell the doctor - not made in China lah!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. in my case, i always ask first, n whats the option, this i guess is what we mean by 'last'.

      Delete
    2. I am well aware China has cornered the manufacture and supply of many commodity medicines. Largely due to the greed of Western pharmaceutical companies who switched to 100% China sourcing and shut down their own factories.

      China has the capability to practically close down all American hospitals in 6 months, when they run out of antibiotics and many key medicines. It would take many years to rebuild the factories that have been shut down.

      But that does not prevent me from exercising my right to choose, when choices are available. That is the meaning of Buy China last.

      Delete
  8. Wakakakaka…

    Pray to yr god that u will be conscious to make that option when u r lying on the ICU operating table!

    YR last WOULDN'T be yr choice but the doctor's on duty to save yr life.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. i pray to god all chinese would improve our moral conscience so that i dont need to exercise any chioce when putting chinese made food into my mouth, n learn not to curse, its very coldhearted, indifference n merciless like what luxun said.

      Delete
    2. Mfer, u should pray to yr god that ALL unscrupulous people have more moral conscience.

      Chinese DON'T have monopoly on DOING cold-hearted, indifference & merciless things/business!

      Obviously staying under yr cozy tempurung, u have never heard of how many hospital patients in US lost their life bcoz of spurious medications claimed by the pharmaceutical companies.

      Ditto in EU.

      Likewise the metal needles incidents in strawberry/banana package of Oz & Nz!

      India too has many of her poors dying of methanol poisoning as it is been used to replace ethnoal in alcoholic drinks!

      Do u ever exercise any chioce when putting Taiwanese made food (especially bubble tea) into yr mouth, w/o knowing that there r forbidden industrial dye been used for its favour & colouring?

      Don't quote 鲁迅 lah - an inward looking 大儒-class scholars (in the same class as those 山东大儒 of 唐太宗统治下的贞观之治) who ONLY knew how to criticise his own people w/o any substantial worldview inputs.

      鲁迅, like 柏杨 (醜陋的中國人) wrote about the Chinese characters w/o the inputs of WWW. They saw what they wanted to see - 他们肤浅地崇洋媚外 bocz all they saw within China then were in ultra contrasts to their understandings of the advanced culture(??) as showcased by their limited western view points!

      Mfer, u SHOULD start by cursing yrself for been born Chinese! U r in NO difference from those HK/Taiwan 废青,忘宗忘祖 的 coconut!

      Delete