Our intentions misunderstood, Dr M tells those slighted, suspicious of KL Summit
The Kuala Lumpur Summit concluded today, but the four-day gathering of Muslim nations had generated its fair share of international controversies that even Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad cannot ignore.
Mahathir, in his closing remarks at the summit at Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre, sought to address the controversies from the onset, particularly criticisms from Saudi Arabia but did not name names.
The Kuala Lumpur Summit 2019 concluded today but the four-day gathering of Muslim nations generated its fair share of international controversies that even Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad could not ignore.
Mahathir, in his closing remarks at the summit at the Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre, sought to address the controversies from the onset, particularly criticisms from Saudi Arabia though he did not name names.
"Before we address what had transpired, discussed, debated and agreed upon during the course of this three days, I would like for us to just take a step back and reflect on why we wanted to hold this summit and what we hoped to achieve.
"Admittedly, some had misunderstood our intentions, intentionally or otherwise. Some had felt slighted while a few were suspicious.
"By now, I am sure it is obvious that the negative opinions were misplaced and not justified," he said.
Saudi Arabia, which had snubbed the submit, had said the gathering was the wrong forum to discuss Muslim issues and expressed concerns that it was intended to create a competing Muslim platform to the Jeddah-based Organisation of Islamic Cooperation.
Among the notable attendees at the summit were Saudi Arabia's rivals Iran and Qatar.
Mahathir, in his speech, refuted claims that the summit sought to replace the OIC.
"We are not here to replace any other Muslim platform. Neither are we intending to create different categories or classes of Muslim nations nor to undermine others.
"It is a congregation of a few Muslim nations of which some of the leaders wanted to get together and discuss some areas that are possible for us to establish collaborations that will first, benefit the nations involved and then taken onto a bigger platform and collaboration to benefit the Muslim world as a whole," he said.
Mahathir said he is proud and extremely pleased that the summit had witnessed 18 successful exchanges of instruments in various fields including high technology, media collaboration, centres of excellence, food security and youth leadership and exchange programmes.
"There are several more in the pipeline which are being worked out resulting from discussions during this summit.
"These are tangible outcomes from the summit as how we had envisaged when we embarked on this programme.
"While it may not allay some of the suspicions and opposition raised, we would like to again reiterate that this summit is focused on its objectives of finding solutions and programmes that we believe can assist and eventually save the ummah from their current plight," he said.
The summit had also attracted ire from India, which yesterday rebuked Mahathir for lambasting its new citizenship laws which critics said were discriminatory towards Muslims.
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