00:00It is with pride that I join you today in marking two important milestones.
00:12The launch of Malik Ben Nabi Rida and the establishment of the International Institute
00:18of Future Studies.
00:21Though distinct, they are connected by a commitment to intellectual renewal, critical inquiry,
00:29and the shaping of a just future.
00:33They are endeavours that embody the spirit of Malaysia Madani.
00:37And thank you, Usman, Zamri, Tahir, and of course, Zia.
00:44Now the unveiling of this two-volume work on the ideas and thoughts of Malik Ben Nabi
00:52is a cause for great delight.
00:55Ben Nabi's moral and intellectual convictions have profoundly shaped my own perspectives.
01:04So thank you again, Bahayam Sawi, for bringing this admirable book to fruition.
01:12This may well be the most elaborate or comprehensive exposition of Ben Nabi's thought to have graced
01:21the printed page.
01:24It is a work destined to be a cornerstone reference for many years to come.
01:35Ben Nabi's homeland, Algeria, paid a heavy price for its freedom.
01:42Stems from a country with one and a half million martyrs.
01:47Yet his vision was never shackled to one land alone.
01:53He saw the struggles of Muslims across Asia and Africa as shared struggles.
01:59He spoke not just for them, but for all of humanity.
02:05The subtitle of this speech, A Muslim Visionary in the Whirlwind of Colonial Modernity,
02:13is a succinct, evocative, and compelling encapsulation of Ben Nabi's intellectual and moral journey.
02:23Ben Nabi may have left us more than 50 years ago, yet his thoughts remain as timeless as
02:30they are profound.
02:33He sought to understand why some societies were vulnerable to domination while others
02:39strived.
02:42I mean, this is essentially Khaldunian, about those subjugated.
02:49But from my initial readings, not to include your two volumes, to me, that's a great strength,
03:01to give that push, that challenge to the ummah, that you can only be truly independent and
03:11mature as a society and succeed as a nation if you can overcome that captive mind being
03:20encapsulated by the colonial view.
03:25Ben Nabi, of course, understood that colonialism was not merely an external imposition.
03:34It was also an internal ailment made possible by the weaknesses within colonized societies.
03:41Now Ben Nabi embraces his fears with deep compunction.
03:47And from that platform of rectitude, reminds us that without the moral courage to grasp
03:54the guiding ideas of civilization, now guiding ideas was one of the theme of my speeches
04:02in the late 70s.
04:05We will be doomed if we repeat the errors because then we'll be consigned to the dustbin
04:16of history.
04:17Thus, Ben Nabi called for a revival, not just in political terms but in a deeper, more holistic
04:29sense, which I term is as madani or script.
04:36To break free from the legacies of colonialism, societies had to dismantle the mindset of
04:43subjugation as much as the physical structures of imperial control.
04:49This meant rejecting the culture of empire and cultivating what he termed as culture
04:57of civilization, a beautiful French phrase that he used, I would dare try, that is rooted
05:09in the ethical and spiritual principles that define human dignity.
05:16Now ethical, moral principles is in a deficit in today's world, in politics, in business,
05:26in the academia, and Ben Nabi called for this revival in a holistic sense.
05:35Now he is also able to see through the illusions piercing the rhetoric of progress, remember,
05:44the rhetoric of progress in civilization, their colonial powers willed to justify their
05:50subjugation of others.
05:54He recognized how modern science and technology, forces meant to uplift humanity, had been
06:03perverted into instruments of domination.
06:09Now nowhere is this clearer today than in Palestine, where the tiresome and mendacious
06:19claim of defending the only democracy in the Middle East is wielded as a shield to
06:28justify the dispossession of an entire people.
06:35Modern military technology, surveillance systems, modern bureaucratic state have been deployed
06:43in the service of murder and subjugation.
06:46Just as in the colonial past, power cloaks itself in the language of security and stability,
06:56when in truth it is entrenching displacement and genocide.
07:06For Ben Nabi, true liberation was not merely political or economic.
07:15A society that grants political rights, yet leaves its people in economic servitude is
07:24not truly free.
07:26Remember Ramanan, what Ambedkar said, without social independence, social democracy, independence
07:35would be rendered meaningless.
07:38The law is a society that ensures material security, while suppressing intellectual and
07:46political freedom.
07:48Ben Nabi envisioned democracy as a synthesis, where political and social democracy coalesce
07:56to ensure both liberty and dignity.
08:02This is the essence of Islamic democracy, a system that frees people not only from external
08:13oppression, but from internal servitude.
08:19So when the Quran declares that God does not change man's condition unless they change
08:26themselves, their inner selves, this is as much an injunction to bear responsibility
08:35for one's actions and by extension into the arena of politics, clearly a commandment for
08:43accountability without which democracy becomes a mere platitude.
08:49So I have popularised not just democracy as a democratic accountability.
08:56It's important for an Amno leader to nod with me on this.
09:01Hence, our Mardani framework of governance places paramount importance on democratic
09:10accountability.
