Yudhoyono Hopes the Islamic Conference Organization (OKI) Will Focus on Poverty Eradication
Friday, 14 March, 2008 | 15:02 WIB

TEMPO Interactive, Dakar: The President hopes that the meeting of the Islamic Conference Organization (OKI) will focus on poverty eradication in the Islamic world and to rid the non-Moslem world of Islamophobia. By doing that, President Yudhoyono hopes for solidarity among OKI members.

According to President Yudhoyono, national leaders attending the OKI conference that represent 1.3 billion Moslems in the world are generally positive to this proposal. Saudi Arabia has declared that it will donate US$ one billion, Malaysia U$ 20 million, and Indonesia U$ 25 million.

Indonesia, said Yudhoyono, should be bold in donating sufficient funds because there are many poor people in the country. “It means there will be some funding for the Indonesian poor”, he said.

The eleventh high level conference of OKI was opened this morning in Dakar, Senegal. A teenager began the opening of the conference by reading the Qur’an. It was attended by 40 national leaders,at the Meridian President Hotel.

President of Senegal, Abdoulaye Wade, started his speech by criticizing the Islamophobia syndrome. He said, terrorism is not aligned with Islamic teaching. “It is necessary to build a dialog with the non-Islamic world to create tolerance”, said the 80-year President.

The new head of OKI also suggested that Israel and Palestine to immediately work toward peace. He stressed the importance of respecting Palestinian human rights.

Development in Palestine has been a subject on everyone’s lips in this conference attended by 57 countries. “I am happy that Palestine became the center of attention”, said Abdulazez Abughosh, ambassador for Palestine in Malaysia, who was former assistant for the OKI General Secretary.

Malaysian Prime Minister, who was head of OKI, cannot attend the conference in Dakar. “He is busy because the election has just ended,” said a Malaysian reporter. The foreign minister of Malaysia also cannot attend it because his mother has just passed away. Head of the Malaysian parliament, Abdul Hamid Pawanteh, attended the conference in his place.

Malaysia should have surrendered the leadership of OKI that has been held from 2003 to 2006. But due to lack of preparation, Senegal delayed the congress to 2008.

Senegal intended to use this opportunity to make peace between Chad and Sudan, two countries of OKI that had been conflicted. Unfortunately, this effort is still a long off because of the meeting between President Idriss Deby and President Omar Al-Bashir, witnessed by Ban Ki Moon, Secretary General of the UN, has not reached an agreement.

This peace effort, initiated by President Wade, is in line with the aim of OKI that was established in 1972 in Rabat, which is “to build solidarity among Islamic people.” The aims not easy to achieve because there has been conflict among OKI member.

Bambang Harymurti (Dakar)