News & Comment
The Shackle of Chinese Investment Silences Southeast Asian Muslim Countries on Uyghur

News

As reported by Reuters, Southeast Asian countries should be cautious in negotiating with China on its flagship Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) to avoid being trapped in unsustainable debt, 70 percent of respondents said in a policy survey released on 6th January. The survey by the ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute, affiliated with the Singapore government, polled 1,008 respondents from all ten nations of the ASEAN grouping, drawn from government, academic and business communities, civil society and the media. Some Western governments have accused China of pulling countries into a debt trap with the initiative, an accusation China has denied.

This debt trap also makes the stance of a Muslim ruler such as Jokowi regime in Indonesia abstain for the oppression of Uyghur Muslims, as was December 17, 2018 Vice President Jusuf Kalla said, the Indonesian Government could not interfere with domestic problems experienced by Uighur Muslims. "That is China's sovereignty," Kalla said. The governments of countries that are predominantly Muslim, including Malaysia, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Indonesia have avoided raising the issue openly. Chinese investment in Middle Eastern and North African countries from 2005 to 2018 has amounted to AU $ 144.8 billion. While in Malaysia and Indonesia, the amount is AU $ 121.6 billion compared to the same period, according to the think tank American Enterprise Institute.

Comment

China's giant economic infrastructure projects seem to have increasingly perpetuated submissive political stance to the power of capital. Although there are concerns to China as revealed by the ISEAS survey above, it still does not change the rule of game that investment and infrastructure projects are always above humanitarian issues. Indeed, capitalism is not only successful in dehumanizing human civilization with poverty and inequality, but also has succeeded in turning off the "humanity reason" among the modern ASEAN rulers who often shout about human rights.

Muslim rulers in Indonesia who are in debt to China for US $ 16.32 billion - have also been successful in showing humility because they have established a friendly attitude with those who openly persecute Muslims, maintaining their silence for China oppression, respecting their crimes with economic agreements and debt! What a shame!

This despicable attitude is clearly derived from the politics of secular democracy, where the rulers are allergic to the laws of Allah (swt), and hasty to build good relations in the name of the economy, with those who carry out open wars against Muslims. They ally with the oppressors even though Allah (swt) said:

(إِنَّمَا يَنْهَاكُمْ اللَّهُ عَنْ الَّذِينَ قَاتَلُوكُمْ فِي الدِّينِ وَأَخْرَجُوكُمْ مِنْ دِيَارِكُمْ وَظَاهَرُوا عَلَى إِخْرَاجِكُمْ أَنْ تَوَلَّوْهُمْ وَمَنْ يَتَوَلَّهُمْ فَأُوْلَئِكَ هُمْ الظَّالِمُونَ)

“Allah forbids your alliance with those who fight you because of your Deen, and drive you from your homelands, or aid others to do so: and as for those who turn to them in alliance, they are truly oppressors.” [Surah al-Mumtahina 60:9]

Islamic principles with its noble foreign policy vision will never allow the spilled blood of Muslims at the hands of the tyrant regime kufar such as China, let alone the millions oppressed Uyghur Muslims in Xinjiang. Islam through its political shield i.e. Khilafah will mobilize its army Islam to liberate the land of Xinjiang in order to return to the bosom of Islam. It will end the weak foreign policy of the Muslim countries that are based upon submission to the West, nationalism and the betrayal of the Western puppet rulers. The Khilafah will replace it with a noble foreign policy to spread the noble da'wah of Islam to the whole world by the method of da'wah and jihad. Soon bi ithnillah!

Written for The Central Media Office of Hizb ut Tahrir by
Fika Komara
Member of Central Media Office Hizb ut Tahrir