OIC SECRETARY GENERAL RECEIVES UNQUALIFIED SUPPORT FOR HIS OIC REFORM PLAN FROM MALAYSIAN DIGNITARIES AND THE OIC COMMISSION OF EMINENT PERSONS
(PUTRAJAYA, 26-28 JANUARY 2005)
The OIC Secretary General, H.E. Professor Dr. Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu, concluded a highly successful visit to Putrajaya, Malaysia from 26-28 January 2005 to participate in the inaugural meeting of the OIC Commission of Eminent Persons.
The OIC Commission was established pursuant to an initiative of President Pervez Musharraf of Pakistan, which was unanimously adopted under Resolution No. 45/10-P(IS) entitled "Islam and the Muslim World in the 21st Century ââ¬â The Path of Enlightened Moderation" during the 10th OIC Summit in Putrajaya, Malaysia in October 2003 and reiterated under Resolution No. 50/31-P during the 31st Islamic Conference of Foreign Ministers in Istanbul, Turkey in June 2004.
Under the provisions of these two resolutions, the Chairman of the OIC Summit was mandated to constitute an OIC Commission of Eminent Persons in order to finalize recommendations on the following three areas. These finalized recommendations were to be submitted to the next ICFM in Sana'a in June 2005 and subsequently adopted by an Extraordinary Session of the Islamic Summit Conference:-
i. To prepare a strategy and plan of action enabling the Islamic Ummah to meet the challenges of the 21st century.
ii. To prepare a comprehensive plan for promoting universally and in particular within Islamic societies, policies and programmes for promoting enlightened moderation.
iii. To prepare recommendations for reform and restructuring of the OIC system, taking into account the efforts already initiated in this regard, as well as the question of voluntary financing of OIC's activities and programmes.
Consequently, the Government of Malaysia hosted the inaugural meeting of this OIC Commission of Eminent Persons comprising 16 Commissioners representing five countries each from the African, Arab and Asian regions, under the Chairmanship of the Commissioner from Malaysia. The meeting was attended by 13 designated Commissioners.
The opening session of the inaugural meeting was addressed by H.E. Dato Seri Abdullah Haji Ahmad Badawi, Prime Minister of Malaysia; H.E. Professor Dr. Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu, the OIC Secretary General and H.E. Dato Seri Syed Hamid Albar, Foreign Minister of Malaysia. The complete text of the Secretary General's key-note address, which was widely disseminated in the media, is also available on the OIC's web-site.
Following the opening session, three working sessions were held of the Group to exclusively focus on each of its three mandated tasks. For its part, the OIC General Secretariat had prepared and circulated three working papers for facilitating the deliberations of the three working sessions.
The Secretary General actively participated in the third working session on the reform & restructuring of the OIC system. He elaborated the following three priority areas for reform of the Organization. All these three priority areas were strongly supported by the Commissioners and subsequently incorporated in the Group's final recommendations:
i. Revision of the outdated OIC Charter, including the need for elaborating a disciplined criteria for OIC's membership.
ii. Radical reform of the OIC General Secretariat by employing qualified and committed personnel, in a transparent manner.
iii. Establishment of an effective mechanism for implementation of OIC Summit and Ministerial resolutions, through possibly the two Summit and Ministerial Troikas and the host country.
Utilizing his visit, the Secretary General called on H.E. Dato Seri Abdullah Haji Ahmad Badawi, Prime Minister of Malaysia, H.E. Dr. Mahathir Muhammad, former Prime Minister of Malaysia and also held an extensive meeting with the H.E. Dato Seri Syed Hamid Albar, Foreign Minister of Malaysia. All these meetings received prominent coverage in the electronic and print media.
During all these meetings, fruitful discussions were held on various ways and means to achieve the objectives of improving the effectiveness of the OIC; of projecting the causes of the Muslim World and in collectively confronting the unprecedented global challenges. The OIC Secretary General was assured the unequivocal and categorical support, both in financial and political terms, by the Malaysian dignitaries for undertaking the necessary reforms in order to transform the organization into an effective and credible interlocutor on the world stage.
As a reflection of Malaysia's commitment to remain actively involved in the OIC reform plan, Prime Minister Badawi intends to follow-up his discussions during his forthcoming visit to the OIC General Secretariat on the sidelines of the Jeddah Economic Forum.