I haven’t a clue how the people at PAS HQ vet things they publish on their website. This paper by Sabri Haron contains some very misleading statements, if not utterly wrong. Let me quote to you the stuff he wrote about capitalism:
Kapitalisme
Sistem ini dikenali sebagai sistem perusahaan bebas. Di bawah sistem ini seseorang individu berhak menggunakan dan mengawal barang-barang ekonomi yang diperolehinya. Mencegah orang lain dari menggunakan barang-barang itu dan memutuskan bagaimana barang-barang itu diuruskan setelah dia mati.
Dalam hal ini individu bebas berbuat apa sahaja dengan harta kekayaannya asal sahaja kegiatannya tidak mengganggu hak orang lain. Oleh kerana hak-hak memiliki harta dibenarkan oleh masyarakat, keseluruhannya hak-hak ini boleh dibatasi melalui tindakan masyarakat.
Persaingan dianggap sebagai daya penggerak untuk menghasilkan operasi yang cekap. Pada umumnya persaingan dalam sistem kapitalis ini merupakan daya yang kuat dan dibenarkan berjalan lebih bebas berbanding dengan sistem-sistem ekonomi yang lain.
Sifat-sifat istimewa sistem ini ialah:
1.Ia menolak nilai-nilai akidah, syariat dan akhlak yang mulia
2.Pengambilan riba iaitu peminjaman wang melalui institusi kewangan (bank dan industri kredit) yang mengenakan riba (faedah)
3.Faktor-faktor ekonomi dikuasai oleh individu-individu tertentu secara terus menerus atau dipunyai oleh sekumpulan manusia yang tidak dikenali melalui sistem saham
4.Pemodal-pemodal bank yang besar mempunyai kuasa yang berlebihan ke atas aktiviti-aktiviti ekonomi dan seterusnya politik negara. Kuasa penentu dalam sistem kapitalisme dan demokrasi barat kebanyakannya mirip kepada pemilik modal
5.Sebahagian besar dari barang-barang dan perkhidmatan yang dihasilkan di bawah sistem kapitalisme telah dibebankan bukan sahaja dengan faedah-faedah riba, tetapi juga dengan bayaran-bayaran pengiklanan yang berlebihan
6.Kapitalisme mempunyai unsur-unsur mengasas monopoli, kerana adalah menjadi hasrat setiap pemodal untuk menguasai segalanya dan menghapuskan semua persaingan dengannya
None of the above is recognisable to me. He may have read the wrong book or he may have been taught by a wrong teacher and, like many, he may have blindly trusted what he read or was taught. In any case, he is wrong.
Capitalism is an economic system, not a religion. It is religion-neutral. Capitalists believe that means of productions should be privately-owned and the owners should be free to utilise their capital for profit if they want to.
Capitalism calls for respect towards property rights – unlike socialism which calls for nationalisation of assets.
Capitalists respect mankind’s ability to think – Allah’s most precious gift to mankind – and that is why they give utmost importance to the price mechanism. Through pricing, men as consumers can freely think and choose what to buy and what not to buy.
In the condensed version of ‘Capitalism’, Arthur Seldon said:
Only capitalism can make the consumer in us sovereign … because the competition of the market can prevent us from myopically asserting our interests as producers by protecting established but outdated industries, occupations and jobs.
Islam teaches us to respect Allah’s greatest gift to us – the mind. Capitalism allows us to exercise our ability to think in the market.
I am most baffled by Sabri Haron’s accusation that capitalism “menolak nilai-nilai akidah, syariat dan akhlak yang mulia”. How many people has he misled by this wild accusation? Where in the world did he learn this?
Filed under: Freedom & Liberty, Malaysia
Welcome to the reality of PAS world. Of course I didn’t generalize all of the, but this kind of mentality have been promoted by some kind of leaders, for the short term political gain.
As we know, the kind of totok PAS keep exploiting Quran & Nas, giving the wrong interpretation and bla..bla..bla… Who are we to question on ‘amal soleh that have been done by other people/jamaah? WHO give them authority? Allah and rasul?
It’s ok if PAS want to be in opposition forever. If they want to rule the country, they should shift their paradigm, relearn & throw the ego that they are ‘the best’ and learn to take the hikmah from others…
If not, the re badging PAS campaign is nothing.
the islamist (can i use this term?) sometimes (read=always) has the prejudice towards the things that come from the west. they tend to have an initial judgment before going into dept. i once had this sydrome.but after a while, I couldn’t accept the fact that muslims nowadays are so mimpi disiang hari. one more fact is that many muslim now have many shops in europe. but still they cannot compete in terms of price with other giant supermarket. sometime they are protected by term halal food, where they can regular customer because muslim had no choice to get the halal meats. I believe capitalism can offer the customer with better price and more choice. we still can buy things from tesco if they offer us a better price! Allah knows best