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