I FIRST heard about the Global Movement of Moderates (GMM) back in 2010 when I attended a conference aptly called the International Conference on the GMM, which was promoted by the government of Malaysia as the inaugural event of the movement, bringing together Prime Minister Najib Razak, Foreign Minister Anifah Aman, former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad as well other distinguished guests representing the political elite and Muslim clergy of Malaysia and Asia-Pacific countries

A foundation was subsequently launched in 2012 with Razali Ismail as the chairman. There was a glimmer of hope as he had been a distinguished practitioner of diplomacy, whether we agree with him or not. 

Here we are in 2018, a full six years later, looking to see if anything has changed, starting with the name. I wonder which part of the Global Movement of Moderates Foundation is global. I’ve been following it closely since the inaugural ICGMM as I feel that moderation needs to be promoted and encouraged, yet I fail to see the global element, let alone effectiveness in fostering any sort of moderation. There has been a deafening silence on the pockets of extremism that are popping up everywhere in Malaysia. What is the solution? Surely GMM should be seen as the prime mover in such an endeavour to create a moderate society.

If governance and rule of law are a priority, as listed in its seven initiatives, why aren’t there any board members?  If I recall correctly, there was board at inception back in 2012, consisting of some distinguished people. It’s now 2018 which makes it almost three years since Nasharudin Mat Isa has helmed the organisation and they have also created a new website which was in fact recently launched by the PM himself whereby there is even less information on its structure. Where is the check and balance? Any credible organisation would have information on its key people. The foundation itself doesn’t appear to produce any content. A quick browse on their website confirms this. The size of the organisation is unknown. There have been no annual reports since inception.

What I can gather from the website is that there appears to be a lot of overseas trips and a collection of photo opportunities for Nasharudin.  This shows a lack of substance in an organisation that is a “think-tank”, which appears to be creating no meaningful difference at all. I’m curious to know what transpired as a result of all these travels and here I am scratching my head trying to find any research papers, or even position papers, anything except press statements by this Global Movement of Moderates. Perhaps its solution is to fly to every country on the globe to introduce this “Global Movement. I’m not really sure as I’m not an expert nor am I paid to be one. If you don’t believe me, have a browse on the website. It would be more aptly named the Global Movement of Nasharudin.

Surely if Nasharudin can fly first class with his entourage half way across the world, there should be some tangible results of these so-called engagements and surely a programme would not cost more than the flight tickets to Europe or the Americas. Certainly I have not seen any programmes initiated by GMM, only events they have attended. Destination-wise, New York, Paris and London are firm favourites, but that must just be a coincidence as it would be blasphemous for a PAS leader to hold such “kafir” nations in high regard. What exactly is an “engagement session” when nothing happens after a photo is taken?

It is worth mentioning that prior to Nasharudin in 2015 there was an East Asia Summit Declaration on the Global Movement of Moderates. Fast forward to today and there is no mention of it in the declaration; what could have possibly happened between 2015 and 2017 whereby this “Global Movement of Moderates” has been conveniently dropped? Could it be due to Nasharudin himself? In fact, the newly launched website itself confirms this as it shows that post-2015, there have been no milestones, the last being the East Asia Summit. Ironically, references to GMM have since been dropped from the East Asia Summit for 2017 and it comes to no surprise because there isn’t even a single activity worth mentioning in the past year. GMM is just a vehicle for Nasharudin to make trips abroad, shake hands and make empty claims.

To add to that, consider the UN General Assembly vote on December 8, where an overwhelming majority of nations voted in favour of a resolution on moderation (not to be confused with a resolution on “Global Movement of Moderates”, which i suspect was the real aim).  However the US voteed against it because, in the words of the US representative, of the inability of the GMMF to conduct programmes, as seen here. 

Wow, is it possible that GMM is unable to conduct programmes? With all the resources and staff that they have at its disposal, surely this can’t be the case. Now if only they could list down who exactly are the people working at GMM, like, who does the research?. Indeed, it has moved into a bigger office during the tenure of the current chairman and CEO, which I suppose is a bigger priority than the organisation structure itself, not to mention the frequent travelling that Nasharudin does on a regular basis.

One only has to google these exact words “UN Resolution on Moderation” and can see the desperation of Nasharudin to give the impression that he was instrumental in the negotiations, but anybody with basic knowledge of the inner workings of the UN would know that GMM has no say in anything to do with the UN. It is not even recognised, and the adoption of the resolution is far from historic! If no countries voted against it, I suppose that would be more historic. On the other hand, Algeria’s resolution was adopted by consensus whereby the General Assembly declared May 16 as the International Day of Living Together in Peace, on the same day of Malaysia’s resolution.

What we see here is a major case of self-praise, and I suspect, a hugely inflated ego which is not very Islamic, by the way. There is a saying, “self-praise is no praise at all”.  When you praise yourself, you boast about what you feel you’ve achieved and it doesn’t take a genius to realise how meaningless it is.

So, references to this entity GMM have been dropped from the EAS summit and subsequently, from the “historic” UN resolution. That’s a failure of Malaysia’s foreign policy; how can the foreign minister stay silent, let alone the prime minister? There was nothing spectacular about this GMM to begin with and the change in leadership over the years has not made it any more effective. In fact its popularity and significance have dropped dramatically since 2015, considering what has transpired.

I recall a magical Langkawi Declaration on GMM back in 2015. As of now, only two events have been conducted as a result – one in Singapore and the other in Laos. For taxpaying citizens would or at least should be supporting a movement of moderates in principle, many questions and calls to the media department have gone answered. What policies does GMM hope to shape? If there is no unity at home, how does one expect to talk about it to other countries? If the government wants to play safe and keep silent, that’s when GMM should step in – to be the voice of reason.

There is no global element, no movement apart from the chairman and his entourage, and no definitely no moderation. All we see is excess. So, let’s wait and see what GMM has in store, I’m looking forward to a moderate Malaysia in 2018. If we leave it to the “kampung mentality” types, our Indonesian brothers will surely catch up, if they haven’t already, on the global stage. I’d really like to see some credible organisations support this movement on their own terms, rather than be dictated by the “Global Movement of Moderates”.

The latest news I heard was about a GMM-Unesco collaboration. The news appeared on the usual local media channels such as Bernama and Astrom, yet  is strangely missing from the Unesco website. How could such an important collaboration not be worth mentioning to Unesco? I find that very suspicious.  Usually, such collaborations can be easily found in the media section of any reputable website.

Nevertheless I have faith that with the proper leadership of this organisation, Malaysia can once again be a respected middle nation on the global arena. It doesn’t take a genius to have a force for moderation, and I believe it is in the Malaysian DNA, but with the pace at which the current leadership works, coupled with the lack of credibility and support, Malaysia is doomed to fail in its current capacity of meeting its target of a Year of Moderation in 2019 as expoused in the UN resolution adopted last year. That would be a historic embarrassment.

Let’s hope the efforts of Prime Minister Najib Razak to champion Malaysia as a leader of the Global Movement of Moderates will not be derailed by an organisation that is lead by a delusional leader. What we need are people of substance, not mere cheerleaders with political baggage which are not global in reach, afterall the audience is global and not rural Malaysia which happens to be PAS strong point coincidentally so the stakes are very high, unless this whole setup is after all just a political charade. There is a proverb that captures the essence of this article: “Pride goeth before a fall”.

* Concerned Taxpayer and Moderation Advocate reads The Malaysian Insight.
 

* This is the opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of The Malaysian Insight. Article may be edited for brevity and clarity.