{"id":11713,"date":"2021-09-25T12:40:23","date_gmt":"2021-09-25T04:40:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/?p=11713"},"modified":"2021-09-25T12:40:24","modified_gmt":"2021-09-25T04:40:24","slug":"malaysia-needs-to-draw-new-approaches-to-the-taliban-government","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/?p=11713","title":{"rendered":"Malaysia needs to draw new approaches to the Taliban government"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 25\u00a0—\u00a0Malaysia needs to draw new approaches to the Taliban government in Kabul, said\u00a0former Special Envoy to Afghanistan Datuk\u00a0Seri Zainal Abidin Mahamad Zain.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe need not be pessimistic. It\u2019s a different scenario today, different situation, people (Afghans) have changed and more of them are educated now,\u201d he told BERNAMA recently.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00a0Zainal Abidin, 71, was the Special Envoy for the then Prime Minister Datuk\u00a0Seri Najib Tun Razak. He held consultative meetings with the Contact Group of 50, an open-ended organization established by the US and European countries, from 2010 to 2014.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This contact group was non-military in nature. Malaysia has, in the past, contributed much to a war-ravaged nation, particularly under the Malaysia Technical Cooperation Programme (MTCP), such as providing scholarships to their young people pursuing tertiary and technical education at various institutions here.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOur armed forces have also put forth their medical skills to screen the health status of a number of the population there, and\u00a0our female officers treated female patients and delivered babies,\u201d said Zainal Abidin, who was one of those foreign ministry officials that were involved in crisis helping Malaysians abroad.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI was in Tehran two weeks before the Iranians took over the US embassy and stayed in Tehran throughout the 444 days,\u201d recalled Zainal Abidin, who was also accredited to Afghanistan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"to<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

But when the date came to leave in order to present his papers to Foreign Minister of Afghanistan, the Soviet tanks rumbled into Kabul in late December\u00a01979.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, an opportunity offered itself when Zainal Abidin was appointed as Special Envoy of the Prime Minister, and in 2010 he traveled to Kabul to attend meetings of the contact group.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cKabul is a city with people busy at work, walking everywhere. Nobody seems frightened. People like us, however, remained careful at places we go to.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cFor example, avoiding busy streets. There were ladies of course, in their robes, walking on the sides. Basically, a normal pattern of living,\u201d said Zainal Abidin, describing his first visit to Kabul.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This was the year that the US, with a new strategy, increased its presence by adding 30,000 troops by June that year, and with that, saw a surge of attacks on its forces. Also, the then Afghan President Hamid Karzai, who had won a new five-year term in an August 2009 election, was struggling to manage the nation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Zainal Abidin said there is a need to develop policies that are mutually beneficial the way it had been done in the past with other countries \u2013 by working, in particular, with major powers. He pointed out, as examples, the oil exploration activities in Sudan where PETRONAS joint-ventured with China National Petroleum Corporation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Therefore, Zainal Abidin added, there\u00a0needs to be\u00a0similar collaboration and cooperation with other countries to jointly venture in exploring the resources such as lithium and copper deposits, among\u00a0others, in Afghanistan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One interesting perspective mooted by the Chairman of the Movement for Monetary Justice, Prof. Datuk\u00a0Dr. Ahamed Kameel Mydin Meera, is that \u201cthe situation in Afghanistan offers us an opportunity to establish a waqf-based economic system.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Reports of an economic and financial crisis\u00a0\u2013\u00a0coupled with humanitarian catastrophe\u00a0\u2013\u00a0befalling the population only point out the unsustainability of the present system.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe need, therefore, arises, to look beyond traditional financial institutions and economic models to seek a sustainable, equitable system that will benefit all sections of the population,\u201d said Prof. Ahamed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He added that an innovative Waqf economy model that is being practiced in South East Asia can be implemented in Afghanistan.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00a0 Prof\u00a0Ahamed is in touch with his former students in Kabul. However, the chairman of PEMBELA, Aminuddin Yahaya, said it\u2019s untimely for Malay and Islamic organizations to even plan on lending a hand there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe have to wait and see developments there, on whether the Taliban have changed the way they govern its citizenry,\u201d said Aminuddin. PEMBELA is a coalition of Islamic organizations, providing check and balance initiatives since 2006.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Prof Ahamed added that even though Malaysia is yet to recognize the new government, preparations must be made now \u201cso that we can be well prepared to assist another developing country like Afghanistan.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMalaysians with initiatives to explore opportunities in Afghanistan should be encouraged to leave for Kabul,\u201d said Prof Ahamed further.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

BERNAMA<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 25\u00a0—\u00a0Malaysia needs to draw new approaches to the Taliban government in Kabul,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":11175,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[524],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11713","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nation"],"featured_image_urls":{"full":["https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/3ec0262a6b9b26b839a33b0395af4f076098c6c30a280.jpg",1110,694,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/3ec0262a6b9b26b839a33b0395af4f076098c6c30a280-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/3ec0262a6b9b26b839a33b0395af4f076098c6c30a280-300x188.jpg",300,188,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/3ec0262a6b9b26b839a33b0395af4f076098c6c30a280-768x480.jpg",640,400,true],"large":["https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/3ec0262a6b9b26b839a33b0395af4f076098c6c30a280-1024x640.jpg",640,400,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/3ec0262a6b9b26b839a33b0395af4f076098c6c30a280.jpg",1110,694,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/3ec0262a6b9b26b839a33b0395af4f076098c6c30a280.jpg",1110,694,false],"newsium-slider-full":["https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/3ec0262a6b9b26b839a33b0395af4f076098c6c30a280.jpg",1110,694,false],"newsium-featured":["https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/3ec0262a6b9b26b839a33b0395af4f076098c6c30a280.jpg",1024,640,false],"newsium-medium":["https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/3ec0262a6b9b26b839a33b0395af4f076098c6c30a280.jpg",720,450,false]},"author_info":{"info":["Editor"]},"category_info":"Nation<\/a>","tag_info":"Nation","comment_count":"0","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11713","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11713"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11713\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11714,"href":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11713\/revisions\/11714"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/11175"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11713"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11713"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11713"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}