Political Rethoricisms : D-8 and G-8 Groupings Playing to the Gallery

Today sees the opening of the Developing-8 Summit in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, while a similar G-8 Summit almost at the same time taking place in Hokkaido, Japan.

At the the D-8 gathering today, Malaysia is expected to take over the chairmanship of the Grouping (comprising 8 developing Muslim countries namely Bangladesh, Egypt, Indonesia, Iran, Malaysia, Nigeria, Pakistan and Turkey) from Indonesia for the next two years. What can the D-8 achieve for the benefits of the Muslim Ummah ?

The G-8 which is made up of 8 developed countries has proven itself to be an outing for its leaders to make promises and pledges of international aids only to dishonour them later. They are more interested in protecting their own interests than seeing a better world for everyone on the planet. It is a platform to appease each other at the expense of the rest of the world. On the environmental issue, for example, the US has stated that she would comply with the Kyoto Protocols if both China and India would toe the line. But China and India are not members of the G-8. How ironical it can be ?
At the current D-8 meeting, Iran has rejected any deliberation on the issue of oil price hike dismissing it as inappropriate, but on the sideline her Foreign Minister has advocated the use of Gold Dinar to replace the US Dollar as an international currency after the failure of the Bretto-Woods Declaration. I hope Iran Iran will pursue this issue at the next OIC gathering for adoption and subsequent implementation. Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamed used to advance this idea once before. We have to keep the momentum going for its eventual realisation.
The D-8 Gathering should not be made a gallery for political rethorics, tall declarations or communique. It should be a platform to coordinate international aids to less fortunate Muslim countries like Chad, Somalia, Albania, Kosova, etc. They should think of setting up a Rapid Deployment Force to spearhead rescue operations in any Muslim country facing natural calaminities such as earthquake, flood, tsunami, typhoon, famine, plague, etc, etc, or creating an international petroleum reserve for poor Muslim countries. Apart from enhancing trades among the Muslim countries, the D-8 should set up a joint-commission for arms research to enahnce military capacity of the Muslim countries, including nuclear arms capacity, as well as how to address immediately the problems of food shortages in the Muslim world.