KL Summit starts with divisions among ranks
The KL Summit, whatever the noble reason behind it, starts with snubs, divisions and confusion among some.
To begin with, Turkish President Recep Erdogan did not attend an official dinner with Malaysian Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad.
Before that, the Pakistani Prime Minister did not show up despite a personal invitation from Dr Mahathir.
The Malaysian PM had to explain why Imran Khan is absent. He says the latter feared there will be complications if he were to attend.
GeoTv says it clearly: If he attends the event, it will piss off the Saudis.
Indonesia altogether did not turn up for the event. It was listed as one of the main countries that would lead the KL Summit.
The bad start for the summit headed by Dr Mahathir is a perfect mirror of the situation in the Muslim world.
It is a world in turmoil, divided in the face of a revolution of the minds.
COPY CAT?
Turkish leader Erdogan made a passionate plea at the opening of the KL Summit. He got a round of applause in the middle of his speech.
He qualified the UN as outdated with only five nations deciding on the future of the world.
Erdogan meant to say the UN is run by the five nations in the Security Council.
Yet, the KL Summit has also chosen to have a selected few Muslim countries as the leading nations to solve the Muslim world problems.
Dr Mahathir says this is only a beginning a small step in the direction.
But is the start not a copy of the UN’s start where in the end, only five nations dominate?
ANWAR IBRAHIM
While the focus of the event is the efforts made by Dr Mahathir to rally the other nations – Turkey, Qatar, Iran – on his side, the real story is Anwar Ibrahim.
Not an official figure in Dr Mahathir’s attempt to solve the Muslim world’s problems, Anwar stole the limelight.
Officially invited at a dinner in Kuala Lumpur, at the official residence of the Turkish Ambassador, Anwar made the headlines.
At least on some blogs. And this is no small matter because it shows the state of the relationship between Malaysia and Turkey.
Dr Mahathir went on an official visit to Turkey this year. We can guess the talk was about the KL Summit and roping in Turkey to join in the efforts.
But we heard that Dr Mahathir also spoke of Anwar in Istanbul and we can guess again this did not go down well with Mr Erdogan.
What did Dr M say about Anwar is not privy to us, though we heard more rumours on the matter!
Erdogan’s dinner with Anwar says it all.
What a bad start for a noble project with the intentions to fix the Muslim world!