COMMENT | Malaysia has always been a strong supporter of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) since its very inception in 1967. The late Tunku Abdul Rahman (TAR) was the organisation’s first secretary-general too.

But OIC suffers from a lack of intermural or international collaboration. The 57 countries that formed OIC constitute only five percent of the global gross domestic product.

This is how abysmal and weak the Islamic world has become. Even on economic output alone, it cannot muster anything higher than five percent.

If oil and gas is taken out of its international trade equation, the actual figure is perhaps only two percent.

With or without the concept of a global halal hub, the Muslim world is in a state of serious disrepair. War, climate change, terrorism, sectarian conflicts and hunger are often the sources of their discord.

Indeed, despite spanning from Makassar in Morocco to Mindanao in the Philippines, most of the Muslim countries are trapped in some kind of complex social dynamics. Malaysia, Indonesia and Turkey are fortunate to be liberal democracies. The global population of liberal democracies stand at 4.5 percent only.

Be that as it may, Malaysia has never lost its interest to be an active promoter of OIC....