The Horizon This Week
OIC : Serving an Important Purpose
BORN in Rabat, the capital of Morocco, OIC, the Organisation of Islamic Conference, is the largest Islamic assembly of nations and responds to a long felt urge of the Islamic world.
The OIC was born in the backdrop of arson that burnt down a large portion of the Al-Aqsa mosque of the famous Dome of the Rock. Situated in Jerusalem, this is the third holiest shrine of Islam. As is well known, Jerusalem used to be the first Qibla and the Muslims turned their heads towards this shrine before deciding on Makkah-al Mukarramah. Almost simultaneously with the birth of the OIC, an Al-Quds (Jerusalem) Committee was established under the chairmanship of His Majesty King Hassan II of Morocco, with headquarters in the Moroccan capital, Rabat.
The present strength of OIC is 55 member states. After its birth it has chosen Jeddah, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, as its headquarters. The organisation is patterned after the UN with some important differences. Like the UN it is a multinational, multilingual secretariat, which looks after the functioning of this international body. Like the UN, at the head of the organisation sits a Secretary General, elected by all the Foreign Ministers, who gather annually in a different capital. Whereas all the Annual General Assembly sessions of the UN are held at the headquarters in New York, the Annual Foreign Ministers meetings of the OIC are held in different capitals of the member states. The Secretary General is assisted by four Assistant Secretary Generals, who too are elected by the Foreign Ministers with concurrence of the Secretary General. The Secretary General and the Assistant Secretary Generals are elected for a single non-renewable term of four years. Below them sit Directors and they are followed by a hierarchy of officials, all provided by various member states. Until recently, Arabic, English and French were used as three working languages. Following the break up of the Soviet Union and the joining of a large number of Russian speaking Muslim majority states, Russian has become the fourth language of the OIC.
The membership of the OIC has been in general on the basis of countries having a Muslim majority population. When OIC was born in Rabat with the presence of Ambassadors of prospective member states, the Sikh Ambassador of India was present but on Pakistan's objection had to withdraw. The yardstick of Muslim majority is not very strictly applied specially with regard to countries from Africa. By and large a state is admitted to membership, when it signifies a desire to become a member and there is no opposition from any important member state.
OIC has 55 members spread over Africa, Asia and the Arab world. Africa provides nearly half the members and the Arabs and Asians dividing almost equally the rest. Although Islamic Ummah is one and indivisible, in practice the three regions are taken into account. Thus the practice has been that the Secretary General rotates between the regions. The Secretary General is all-powerful in the OIC. This is in keeping with the Arab system of handing over unlimited powers in the hands of the 'rais'.
Of the three groups, namely Arab , African and Asian, the Arabs play by far the most important role and particularly the Arabs of the Gulf. Saudi Arabia, because of the headquarters of the OIC being located in Jeddah and because it is the seat of the Holy Kaaba and added to it the financial clout of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, plays a larger role than any other member state. Along with the Secretariat of the OIC the Islamic Development Bank, the financial arm of the Organisation is also located in Jeddah. The Head of the Institution is a Saudi National.
Over the years the OIC has grown in size. Thus specialized institutions have been added to this Organisation. The Permanent Committee on Economic Affairs has its annual meetings in Istanbul, which is its headquarters. There is an Islamic Cultural Affairs Organisation also housed in the famous Yildiz Palace of Istanbul. There is another OIC institution on Technical and Statistical matters located in Ankara , the capital of Turkey. In Islamabad, Pakistan, there is a permanent committee on Science and Technology, which meets annually. In Rabat, Morocco, there is a cultural centre and a centre for trade in Casablanca. In Dhaka, Bangladesh there is an institution, where degree courses are offered to students from all over the Islamic world on engineering subjects.
OIC is an observer at the UN and its affiliated bodies. The OIC Ambassadors at the UN meet annually on the eve of the UNGA. Subjects concerning the Ummah are discussed and attempts made to harmonise the positions of member states. Bangladesh joined the OIC in 1974, that is three years after her birth. It was not a simple matter. It involved the mutual recognition between Bangla-desh and Pakistan. Some Arab States and particularly President Houari Boumediene of Algeria, played an important part. I was Ambassador of Bangladesh in Algiers and our Foreign Minister Dr Kamal Hossain, paid a visit. Right at the beginning Bangabandhu had taken a decision that he would visit only such capitals that would recognise the independence of Bangladesh. In the case of Pakistan this was even more important. The formula of mutual recognition between Bangladesh and Pakistan was applied. President Boumediene sent his personal plane to Dhaka along with a group of officials to carry Bangabandhu to Lahore in 1974 for the Islamic Summit. The reconciliation between Bangladesh and Pakistan took place at the OIC Summit in Lahore.
Bangladesh has played an active role in this largest Islamic organisation. Bangladesh nominated Justice Abu Sayeed Chaudhury, a former President of Bangladesh as candidate for the post of Secretary General for election in 1979. When it looked pretty certain that he would be elected, Pakistan put Gholam Ishaq Khan, a senior bureaucrat of Pakistan as a candidate. An impasse developed and the compromise candidate Habib Chatti of Tunisia was elected. In the OIC election in the real sense never takes place but a consensus is reached and one person is declared elected by the Foreign Ministers. Since Bangladesh stood down it was given to understand that at the next election a Bangladesh candidate would be elected the Secretary General. A R S Doha, Foreign Minister of the Government of H M Ershad was nominated by the government. But he failed and his candidature had to be withdrawn in favour of the Pakistani candidate Syed Sharifuddin Peerzada.
The OIC has faced two major tests in the political field and has failed to give a good account. The first one was the Iran-Iraq war, which started in 1979 and lasted for eight years. It was a grave challenge to the OIC, established on the basis of Islamic brotherhood. I joined the OIC in September 1980 and was assigned the Political Department, Palestine and Jerusalem, Information and Legal Affairs. I was the first deputy of the Secretary General and often served as Acting Secretary General. The first OIC Summit in Saudi Arabia was inaugurated by King Khaled in front of the Holy Kaaba, in the presence of nearly fifty heads of state and government. The conference then moved to Taif, in the hills north of Makkah al-Mukarramah, where an entire city in marble had been built in record time. Iran, the aggrieved party in the war, refused to attend and Habib Chatty was sent post haste to Tehran to bring the Iranian delegation to the conference.
The Foreign Ministers Conference, a prelude to the summit was on and I represented the OIC Secretariat. The summit decided to set up a peace committee composed of eight heads of state including from Bangladesh. The peace committee met at the Royal Palace in Jeddah, elected president Sekou Toure of Guinea, Chairman and quickly adopted a resolution to be presented to the two warring parties. With a plane provided by the Saudi authorities the committee flew the next day to Tehran and Baghdad. In Tehran it was rough sailing. The committee of eight heads of state was received by Imam Khomeini. He poured cold water on the OIC peace plan by demanding that the OIC brand Saddam Hussain, the aggressor. He would also have nothing to do with Saddam Hussain. Sekou Toure's presentation that he was speaking on behalf of one billion Muslims did not cut any ice. In Baghdad it was smooth sailing, for Saddam readily accepted our plan. The fact was that after some initial successes on the battlefield Saddam's forces were on the retreat and he was prepared for a ceasefire immediately. The war see sawed and the crack within the OIC became visible for all to see. Although it was never spelt out, the Arabs covertly and sometimes overtly backed their Arab brother Iraq, whereas Iran had to fend for herself. Thanks to her size and resources she more than held her own.
Many mediators came and went and the OIC mediation bid just about petered out. Finally after eight years of murderous war, a settlement was reached by the intervention of the UN. Khomeini exclaimed, 'I have taken poison'! The Iran-Iraq war and more particularly the impotence of OIC to do anything about it, was a severe blow to the prestige of this organisation based on Islamic brotherhood. The second most severe blow was the aggression by Iraq against tiny Kuwait. This was a more serious challenge against the OIC for two Arab states were locked in fratricidal conflict. The US mounted a massive campaign against Iraq and pulled some Arab states on her side and Turkey provided some support in the shape of shutting off the pipeline carrying Iraqi oil to the world market. Here again OIC remained utterly impotent. Her authority was severely shaken.
These two political events left a deep scar on the psyche of the OIC. True it has grown in size and importance over the years, its membership embraces the entire Islamic world and yet faced with challenges of the kind like Iran-Iraq war or Iraqi aggression against a tiny member state, it became a helpless spectator. More important in popular perception, the failure of the OIC rebounds on the entire Islamic Ummah. The estrangement of Iran from the OIC has lasted from 1979 till 1997. In December 1997 the OIC Summit was held in Tehran and the Government of the Islamic Republic of Iran staged a grand show. The reconciliation of Iran with some of her neighbours was achieved thanks to astute diplomacy of Iran.
Iran will, thus, preside over this largest Islamic body for the next three years. The high level attendance from countries like Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Yassir Arafat of Palestine signalled the end of cold relations between Iran and her neighbours. It is common knowledge that Iran has been very critical of the Peace Treaty between some Arab States and Israel, notably Egypt and Palestine. It is also common knowledge that Hezbullah guerillas in South Lebanon are financed and trained by Iran. Iran was thus signalling an end to her activities in the Arab region. She even extended an olive branch to the USA and offered dialogue to sort out the differences. It can be confidently stated that with the Iranian presidency of the OIC Summit, the organisation itself has gained in health.
Although the OIC is supposed to involve itself with problems concerning the Islamic world, in focus has largely been the Arab problems, notably the Middle East and particularly Palestine. All the member states have to dwell on the Arab issues as a matter of routine. Over the years there has been erosion due largely to the Arab negotiations with Israel. Diplomatic relations was taboo for the Islamic world. That barrier broke down in 1979 when diplomatic relations were established between Egypt, the largest Arab state, and Israel. Egypt was expelled from all the Arab organisations and after an acrimonious debate in Fez, she was expelled from the OIC. She staged a comeback at the Casablanca Summit in 1984. Full or partial diplomatic relations have been established between Israel and Jordan, Morocco and Tunisia. Meanwhile Arab pressure continues on most Islamic countries not to establish diplomatic relations with Israel, so that pressure is exerted on Israel to make an honourable settlement with the Arabs - namely Palestine, Syria and Lebanon.
Turkey, which plays an important role in the economic activities of the OIC has seen her hands tied, due to her long-standing diplomatic ties with Israel. From relations at a low diplomatic level, they have blossomed into full diplomatic relations and lately into cooperation in the military field leading to consternation and protest from the Arabs and Iran. As the peace process between the Arabs and Israel proceeds, at times haltingly, it is inevitable that relations will grow and expand between Israel and some other member states of OIC. Turkey is fortunate to find support from the OIC on the question of Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus. Indeed OIC is the only international forum open to the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, where she finds diplomatic support.
What kind of a future for OIC? OIC responds to a deep felt urge among the Muslim Ummah for a united platform. It has steadily grown in size and continues to attract new members. It is today an assembly of 55 member states, second largest international organisation. It has financial clout as some of the member states have per capita income which can be matched with that of the richest nations on earth.
Islam is the bond that holds together this assembly of Islamic nations. Islamic brotherhood is the battle cry of the masses. That is why when an Iran-Iraq war erupts, tiny Kuwait is invaded by large Iraq, there is much hand wringing throughout the Islamic world. The OIC has been established on the basis of the essential unity of Islam and its message of brotherhood. Yet the organisation is patterned on the UN, which is an assembly of member states. In theory Islam knows no boundaries. Yet the OIC is an Assembly of Nation States. OIC has not been able to transcend the Nation State concept and embrace the universal concept of Islam without borders. In the world that we live, for the foreseeable future we are destined to live as Nation States. The OIC is serving a very important purpose by providing a forum to the entire Islamic world to ventilate their problems. Getting to know each other, through the interaction of meetings and conferences is no mean achievement. The OIC has come to stay.
Based on the author's speech delivered recently at the Bangladesh Institute of International and Strategic Studies.
For all latest news, follow The Daily Star's Google News channel.
Comments