Ways to Raise the Islamic Empire

Islamic countries are now more westernised than ever before. In order to be an Empire of the one Islamic Faith, Muslim nations (where Muslims have the full power to implement the laws of ALLAH swt) need to purge (get rid from within ourselves) the western elements in our Muslim life. Islam is not just about culture, nationals, politics. Islam is a whole way of life that encompass government (which may not necessarily mean politics), economic, education, military (which does not mean aggression, but the right to protect the Islamic nations from undue western or non-Islamic influences), and many, socio-economic development, technological advancements, and much, much, more - the spiritual advancement in the name of ALLAH. Islam also transends all boundaries that these elements (stated above) create.

In other words, to bring back the past glory of Islam, and make it ever more relevant in today's world, Muslim nations need to be confident to do away with (to rid ourselves of) this scourge of the Earth - the culture, the economics, the politicisation of governings, etc., etc. that of the WEST. It has been proven time and again that all doctrines of the west have been ultimate failures. The Western global economy has failed miserably once in the early 20th Century, and its repeating itself now with greater failures across all industries, and even greater destruction to humans and the environment. Through the prevalent use of riba' in finance/economics, the West propagates and support the principles of "the rich should get richer - and the poor perpetually should serve the rich". That is why Muslim nations will forever be poor, even though they have "oil" underneath their feet. Just imagine those Muslim nations with no natural resources - how deep into slavery they have become to the western world. We have seen the destruction of moral values and ethics that Westerners propagate through their socio-economic "developments" and their so-called moral "advancements" - their moral degradation is so prevalent in their western societies that they can't distinguish what is right or wrong, or what is good or bad for humanity. Western family institution is in shambles - no westerners believe in the sanctity of marriage and family life, or in community advancements - and to them family/marriage is to just serve their "uncontrolled desires and lusts".

Muslim governments need to really assess how they govern their countries, and develop their economy such that they are not influenced by western powers. Maybe think about these strategies for once;

1) Gold transaction

Muslim nations need to establish an Islamic economy with the use of Gold as "money" in transacting goods and services. This can be a first steps to eliminating riba' from our economic systems. I just can't emphasize enough about the VERY STRONG PROHIBITION OF RIBA' by ALLAH swt, that which many Muslim nations take for granted. Islamic Banks must be established throughout all Muslim lands, implementing the Syariah, in all its operations for both banking and investments. Because economic transaction affects each and every Muslim individual, young and old, poor and rich. Establishment of a RIBA'-FREE Islamic Economy is SO IMPORTANT and has to be done fast and NOW, so that, the Western banks do not have a foothold in any industry of any Islamic nation. This is the only way to get rid of control of Western companies over companies or economies in Islamic nations. Working together (just like the OIC), companies & banks in Islamic nations have enough funds to operate without incurring debts from Western banks. In fact, its proven time and again than western debts (with its riba' components) are far more expensive than Islamic banks' instruments.

2) Islamic Economy

Industries within our Muslim nations must look inwards towards other Muslim nations. There are over 50 strong Muslim nations that have enough markets to sell/buy all products/services of any Islamic nation. We are more than 1.5 billion strong. If the poor cannot afford the prices, lower the prices so that volume alone can offset any high costs of operations across the vast Islamic countries. In this way, the population of Muslim nations can get the necessary resources (funds, products, services) to advance itself in economy, technology & knowledge advancements, etc.. If the markets in Muslim nations are not enough to go by (which I'm very doubtful - only the greedy RICH will think its still not enough), then look at the non-western, non-Islamic countries like those in Africa, former republics of the Soviets, central/south Americas, etc. - But only look at these after you've considered all Muslim nations first.

To get the above going, richer Muslim nations must first support the other not-so-rich Muslim nations, in all aspects of the economy - so that the markets in all Muslim nations can grow together, and thus nurture and support a BIGGER and STRONGER base for industries to flourish across all Muslim lands - thus, sealing off any entries from the WEST. In this instance, Muslim nations must let go of their egos, nationalistic tendencies, and selfish behaviors in trying to protect their domestic needs/economy. The West has been successful in dividing Muslim nations into many separate lands and identities, with new borders established with the only purpose of making Muslim nations as weak as ever throughout time. Muslims should wake up to this fact. While we can still let these borders remain (as Muslims gesture of courtesy and respect for each other), we should not create and strengthen borders that separate our Islamic economies, markets, societies, population, technologies and knowledge. All these must be shared thoroughly and with speed. Muslims must be free to participate and get benefits from these elements that are offered by all Muslim nations.

By doing so, maybe a lot of changes or modifications need to be made to national constitutions and laws of the Muslim lands - because basically, these are colonial laws established by colonialist countries of the past, that are the West. Most of these laws and jurisprudence are against the very basic Islamic principles of the Syariah and Fikh laws.

3) Islamic alternatives to Entertainment and Sports

There must be an Islamic alternatives for the population to engage in sporting and entertainment activities - because half the population of any Islamic nation will have a strong tendencies towards these two activities - that are amongst the YOUNG and the POOR. In these the mosques/etc and the communities must play strong roles in ensuring the Islamic elements are forever present in these activities. Governments must be serious in implementing Syariah/Islamic laws in Muslim nations. Entertainments and sports must be monitored rigorously such that it does not contain western elements that result in moral degradation and faith-challenging issues amongst Muslims, abuse of the rights of a Muslim which are divinely decreed by ALLAH swt, when participating in those entertainment or sporting acts. Cable TV and the internet are great cause of concerns. While knowledge can be extracted through these media/means, the majority bulk of the information that goes through these channels are against the principles of Islam. Maybe Muslim nations as a group, need to think up of a new "Islamic World Wide Web"- an IWWW instead of the "WWW". For entertainment, 50 Muslim countries offering 50 Islamic channels each can give a single Muslim a lot to choose from - don't you think? The same goes for sporting events.

4) Research, Development, Advancement, and Sharing of Knowledge

There must be a cohesive joint-efforts between ALL MUSLIM NATIONS to collaborate in the knowledge discoveries, advancement and sharing in all fields of Islamic and selected Western knowledge, like, on Islam, science and technologies, history, society, economy, etc. etc. Education must be a prime strategy and focus of governments, making education very affordable and easily accessible to all walks of life from infanthood to college years, through to working life, and continuing on to later adult life.

5) Establishment of a strong military force for defensive purposes

This Islamic force is at two levels - at the national level of each Islamic country, and at the international level - an OIC Islamic force. The reason is simple. So that Islamic nations can freely institute Islamic laws on their own nations without fear of any reprisals from non-Islamic countries, especially the WEST, be it in the form of economic sanctions or military aggressions. Islamic nations must be strong enough (individually or as a group) to counter any attacks on any Islamic Land in terms of the economy, military, or socio-economic developments, etc.


These are only a few steps I can think of. I'm pretty sure our more than 1.5 billion Muslim brothers and sisters around the world can think and have thought of a whole lot more before. Once Muslim nations have their own unique economy that does not include any western element or influence, once we have the populations of Islamic nations imbued with all the knowledge of this modern world and of the glorious past Islamic history, once we can stand on our own defending our own unique Islamic territories, lands and ways of life, and once we can do all these TOGETHER (and never alone) as Muslims of the World - THEN only can we be a strong Empire of the Islamic Faith. Insya-ALLAH.

South-East Asia - The Next Hot-Spot

US ship in China spat was hunting subs:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090310/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/us_china_incident

Sea levels rising faster than expected:
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSLA435701

After reading these two articles, I can’t help but feel a bit uneasy at the prospects of military showdowns and environmental catastrophe, both happening at the same time and being so close at home. There is a high chance that these events can happen within our lifetime, here at home.

While the first article hints on the possibility of future military confrontations between two superpowers, China and the US, at our very own backyard, the second but more discerning is the inevitable effects of global warming on our own little region of South-East Asia, and that is the rising sea-levels, which would ultimately destroy centers of population, inundating them with at least, meter-high floodwaters. If these two human and natural events were to happen simultaneously, there won’t be ground to stand on, nor food to eat. Life, as we know today (and the good side of it, as we so often take for granted) will cease to exist. Don’t worry about industries and economies - there won’t be land here to build these on.

Territorial Claims

Unknowing to most of us, both the US and China (plus the nations that surround this region) have actively participated in surveillance and counter-surveillance of the territorial waters of the South China Sea, the Gulf of Tonkin, the Malacca Straits, Taiwan Straits, Sulu Sea and the Java Sea. In particular, the South China Sea is rich in natural resources such oil and natural gas. Furthermore, the 250 islands and reefs (mostly, just 1 km-square) that pop up here and there in the South China Sea alone can be used as staging areas in any military conflict. About 75% of these islands form the much-disputed Spratly Islands, spread over 800km by 900km area. This “strategic” Island group is also a subject of several competing claims of sovereignty by at least six nations, China, Vietnam, Malaysia, Indonesia, Taiwan, and the Philippines (nine nations in all, if you consider Brunei, Singapore and Thailand, all of whom have made such claims sometime before). And it wouldn’t be far off if Australia too would make a claim, one day.

So, why is everyone so interested in the region? For a long time, they have been interested but never really publicized their interests, intentions, or activities in this area. Only when the nations in this region have become stronger, both economically and militarily, that they are now bolder than ever before to publicly stake a claim in these territorial waters. Besides, these waters are “under international law, a 200-mile economic zone under the control of a state, which ultimately, gives a state certain rights over the use of natural resources within these zones”. So, anyone near enough these bodies of waters (within the 200-mile limit) have a right to claim as their sovereign territory. It’s ludicrous to think that the Aussies would want to stake a claim to these waters – they’re definitely more than 200 miles away!

So now, the question that comes to mind is, why the heck, is the US concerned about this South China Sea, that they are putting substantial resources to monitor the activities here (militarily), and at the same time, undermining the sovereign claims of these rightful South Asian nations (by going against international laws that govern these waters). Well, as stated in the article, this international law goes against the very principles of “America's doctrine of ocean navigation — the right to unrestricted passage in international waters as long as vessels are not encroaching on the economic interests of the country they pass.” In other words, what the US is saying is that, “you can pretty much define what you mean as your territory (200-mile, or 2,000-mile zone), BUT I have the “god-given” right to pass through your territory (or any other’s), PERIOD!

Well, there’s more to this.

The bulk of the world’s “oils” are still in the Middle-East, and these resources will continue to be valued and the demand will not subside any time soon. And the major buyers are none other than the US and Europe. While Europe has an easier access and shorter route to the fields of Middle-East (via the Suez Canal, or the Cape of Good Hope route), the US (while they can also use these European routes) are always in need of alternative routes (in case, the Suez is not available for some reasons). Thus, they have to contemplate either using the cheaper Panama Canal or the more treacherous South America southern-most tip as its route to get to the Middle-East. Using the cheaper “canal” route (via Panama), and then through to the South China Sea & Straits of Malacca, US companies can save on time and safety of their goods are guaranteed. Thus, it makes pure economic sense to ply these routes. Naturally, it also makes absolute sense for the US to start worrying when “rightful” nations start to stake claims in these waters that are so vital to the smooth flow of trade within these waters (for their own interests), so as to sustain the US economy. What more, now that the South China Sea has found to hold huge oil and natural gas reserves. So, everyone in the world now (especially, the US) wants to stake a claim here, and have unlimited and unrestricted access through these zones/routes. It doesn’t matter if an area belongs to any country which has sovereign rights to these areas, as per “international law”. Who really cares – just like the Palestinian Issue. They have sovereign rights over their land, too, as construed in hundreds of UN resolutions, and yet the WEST turns a blind eye, acting as if these resolutions never existed!

Considering these circumstances, it is fair to assume that there will be a time in the very near future that China will aggressively pursue their military intentions to secure these territorial waters as their “rightful” economic zone, AND that the US will also aggressively make a stand to secure these territorial waters as their “rightful ‘rights’ to unrestricted passage”. Then, it is also fair to assume that when diplomatic and economic negotiations fail between these lumbering “giants”, there is bound to be military conflicts that will spill throughout the whole region of South-East Asia, particularly Malaysia – because the islands and much of the South China Sea are smack exactly right in between Peninsular Malaysia and Sabah & Sarawak. We will definitely join in the fray – a 10-nation, free-for-all, last-man standing, royal “water” rumble (11-nation, if them dumb “Aussies” consider staking a claim, too). And guess who will be the last man standing (or rather, sitting) – Singapore! Yes, our neighboring tiny “thorn in the ass” of a port-city nation. Think about it. You’d think, they’ll join in the fray? Please. They’ll rather sit this one out, lest they’ll be wiped off this Earth. They’ll be more than happy to just watch from the sidelines and see the other 9 decimate each other, then come in to claim the final prize.

Should we all be concerned about this little incident happening in our very own backyard (i.e. the first article, quoted above), which apparently, already have had a long history to begin with? Today, it may be this “spit-and-spat” between these 2 superpowers, next maybe a Spratly invasion. Who knows then, the Straits of Malacca and the escalating piracy issues can then be good reasons for UN-led US puppets to invade Port Klang, Penang & Malacca (:D :D :D, Malacca invaded again?). Oh, by the way, noticed how frequent foreign aircraft carriers and warships seemed to be dropping by Port Klang lately for the past few years – to get used to the staging area, and do a bit of reconnaissance while everyone is still asleep! Extreme scenarios these may be. For some, they’re far too inconceivable – besides, it’s our kids’ turn to start worrying about these things in the future. We should be cozily retired by then, or happily dead. So, as them dumb idiots down-under, always say, “no worries, mate!”

Rise in Sea-Levels

The second article warns of impending climate change and the rise of sea-levels all over the world. While previous estimates put the rise at only half a meter in the next 100 years or so, new estimates indicate it will exceed more than a meter. What this means is that low-lying areas of population near or at the coastline will be permanently flooded in under, at least, one-meter of water. Cities across the globe would be devastated and permanently left in ruins beyond any systematic repair, and thus, uninhabitable. In many countries that have coastlines, most of the major cities will be destroyed. And for Malaysia, Penang, Port Klang, Port Dickson, North Port, Malacca (yes, the one, discussed above, that was going to be invaded AGAIN sometime in the near future), Kuantan, Johor Baru, Kuching, Kota Kinabalu, and many more towns will be under water. Imagine 50% of our cities destroyed – by permanent floodwaters – in this case, seawater. Good thing though, we have mountain ranges on both sides, East & West Malaysia, so city planners can start building new cities up on or by these mountains. While the expected rise in sea-levels will be gradual, throughout a 100-year period, there should be some sense of urgency in our Home Ministry to start planning for the eventual but gradual mass migration across the whole demographics of our population, away from the coastlines to further up in the mainland and at higher elevations.

Okay, that was the easy scenario, where we deal with this natural catastrophe pretty much on our own. Now comes the sticky part. Remember our neighboring tiny “thorn in the ass” of a port-city nation, which many times has been quite a pain in our butt, especially recently, with the issues on water and the half-bridge. Well they won’t be the “thorn in the ass” anymore. They will be the spear in our very heart. Imagine this, all of the coastline of that island nation, with all its skyscrapers, industries, residential flats, and airport, is under water when the sea-levels rose by one meter. Most of the island is no more than 15 meters above sea level but that is an average elevation of the island nation. The highest point is a hill with a height of only 164 m, while most of the island consists of sandy and flatter land. It has reclaimed land with earth obtained from its own hills, the seabed, and neighboring countries. As a result, the island’s land area has grown from 581.5 km² in the 1960s to 699 km² today, and may grow by another 100 km² by 2030. But how much elevation above sea-level can you get when you reclaim land, maybe an average of 5 meters, at best.

What this means is that, the economic base of the island nation will be totally destroyed. That island has no natural resources, and definitely, not enough land with high-enough elevation from sea-level to accommodate its entire population and industries. The only alternative they will have is to move out of the island and find somewhere else to settle, just like, how the Jews did when they move out of Europe to settle on Palestinian lands. What do you think their government would do now if they knew this is going to happen to their island, their nation, their people, their way of life. I dread to think of the consequences of what they might think.

One scenario would be that they will draw out plans for eventual migration of the whole population, and definitely, that migration must be a feasible one and an achievable one, too. Which means, their next door neighbor will be their obvious target destination. And if we don’t want any part of that plan, guess what, they’ll shove it in our throats. Meaning aggressive behavior is necessary for their survival, just like what the Jews felt when they forcefully evicted Palestinians from their rightful lands. Now of course, we won’t be sitting down, allowing them to walk all over us. We’ll definitely fight back. But this is the easy scenario, where they openly exhibit aggressive behaviors, and every time, we beat them back, and along the way, teach them a few hard-earned lessons on survival.

Now imagine a more likely scenario, where they plan bits and bits of their population to gradually migrate to Malaysia and assimilating into our population, either by appeasement, appealing to our sense of morality and humanity (our government allowing their settlements on our lands), or by gradually emigrating the population to work here, settle here, eventually receiving permanent residence, and ultimately earning citizenship here. All of these scenarios are done at an early stage, preferably now, starting today, so they will have another 100 years to migrate the whole population. As a strategy, this seems more plausible and achievable, as the survival of their race is guaranteed.

Now, actually, there is nothing wrong with this second scenario because at the end of the day, we are still Asians, and some of us have roots in that island nation. More important, this second scenario is more accommodating to all, with both sides having to compromise on many issues so as to achieve the final objective of assimilation into one population. What will be the cause of concern is when the island nation takes an aggressive stance (first scenario), resorting to military means, usually with the close support of their “friendly” superpower nations to achieve their objectives.

Looking at history and the egoistic behaviors of many of their government officials towards Malaysia, it is not inconceivable that they might just start planning for the first scenario. – an all-out confrontation with us. And the US-China skirmishes in the South China Seas, and the assumed subsequent fall-out resulting in multi-nation military conflicts in this region, might just play out to their advantage. While giving the US an excuse to open and monitor the sea lanes in the South China Seas and all other seas in this region, the presence of US forces here (either stationed on the island itself, or on its carrier vessels or somewhere near this region) could prompt and encourage the island nation to constantly provoke its neighbors with sensitive and “out-of-this-world” issues. And prolonged global economic meltdowns might just push nations on the edge, eventually dragging us all into open wars. For the island nation, playing the victim in this scenario is easier this way, and thus getting full support from the international community is guaranteed – especially when we are currently in the US list of “Special Status” nations. Next thing you know, you have Marines on our soil because we are being accused of an unprovoked attack on a harmless, tiny, peace-loving island nation. Remember Kuwait and Desert Storm I. Well here’s JB and Jungle Storm I! This type of bullying tactic never cease to amaze me, and the world is always duped into accepting it as a justified cause!

For the betterment of the human race, let’s hope the second scenario plays out well, when the sea-level rises another meter, or centimeter. Me, I’m happy living on a hilly area with a density of 1,000 trees per person, about 100 meters above sea-level, and no coastline in sight!

PTA Website - a Strategic Communication and Knowledge Management Tool for the PTA, Parents, Teachers, School Administrators and Students

A PTA (Parents-Teachers Association) website, if there is a functioning one, can be a strategic communication and knowledge management tool for the PTA, parents, teachers, school administrators, and students, alike.

Attended the PTA AGM (Annual General Meeting) this whole morning. I must say, I wasn't very impressed with the discussions that took place. Except for the above sentiment being voiced by many attendees, the rest of the proceeding was full of bureaucratic protocols, very mundane issues were proposed and debated, and not much (or rather, none) of issues discussed were on the human/emotional and intellectual development sides of students. But that was an AGM, what more can one expect. But then, when or where else can parents voice out their concerns about their kids and the environment they are in, while at school. Still, there’s room for improvement for everyone. And this website can definitely serve that purpose – in an almost effortless manner, and very timely, too (considering the number of disciplinary issues that have been nagging school authorities and the PTA in recent years). All of us concerned needs to be on top of things (and in the know) regarding all issues faced by the PTA, the school, and the parents. Therefore, it is with great urgency that the PTA or the school administration appoints someone to lead the way in developing and managing this site (as a much-needed communication and info-sharing channel), and aggressively promoting it to all parents, so there’ll be more participation in future! The AGM did acknowledge this issue when raised in the meeting, but there is no clear-cut action plan, at the very least, strong intention and commitment, from the school or from the PTA CM (Committee Members) on addressing this issue.

One of the issues raised in the AGM was the lack of communication between the PTA CM and parents on a lot of things/issues. The need for the use of a website for PTA was mentioned but the response from the CM was that the site is already there but it was not updated (last update was in 2006), there are no moderators to manage the site, there are not enough contents to upload or someone to upload them. From the looks of it, I think this site really needs a lot of improvement works. A total revampment may be the appropriate words. Furthermore, it is my feeling that parents are not aware of the existence of this site, hence, no participation or concern from them. I came to know of this site just a few hours ago, and I am already concerned. So, please, PTA and school administrators of this site – develop this site earnestly, and promote aggressively to all parents of this school, so that, ALL PARENTS become participating members. Then only, can there be a reliable communication channel for the flow of information between the school, the PTA, parents, and students.

So how do you leverage this PTA Website as strategic tool for communication and knowledge management?

1) Admit that there is a problem in this area of communication

First, everyone (stakeholder) that has a stake (interest) in this school (meaning; the PTA, parents, teachers, administrators/workers, and even students) must admit that there is a lack of communication with everyone, in terms of, frequency and depth of communication, on many issues that affect everyone. The information flow is so slow and inadequately brief, and I suppose, most of the times, ineffective in bringing out the message intended. When there is critically slow or no information flow (eg. from the PTA CM), then there will be low or no awareness by the intended recipients of that information (eg. the parents) – and understandably, there will be low or no response/participation from the intended recipients (eg. parents). In short, there isn’t a systematic approach to communication, at least, at the PTA level. In industry terms, many organizations, unknowingly or ignorantly, do suffer from ineffective “infostructure”, where the communication system is virtually non-existent, or at the very least, ineffective in disseminating and sharing information with all concerned parties.

With so little resources at everyone’s disposal (limited number of teachers and PTA CM members to run and manage the programs outlined, so little budget at PTA’s disposal, so little time to deploy the activities/programs planned, so little time and effort contributed by parents, so little time left for students to allocate for PTA activities/programs, and many more shortages), this PTA website can fill that gap, at almost-zero cost – and with speed. What’s needed from all concerned is only TIME to contribute ideas, thoughts, and effort in running and participating in this site. I’m surprised no one is taking this hint, or noticing this website at all, such that, this issue (lack of communication, and thus, a need for a website) was raised at the AGM. And I must say, the response to this issue raised, was rather pathetic, if not appalling. And to think that we take great pains in educating our kids on ICTL (Information-Communication Technology Learning), and out of school hours, some more!

Currently, the only communication for parents and the PTA (at least, for me) is a booklet for the AGM that briefly outlined the programs carried out by PTA (got it on the day of the AGM itself), infrequent (and far in between) correspondence from the school/PTA (only once in two months), minutes of PTA CM meeting (which is held once every 2 months or so), and the school’s bulletin board that does not provide relevant information for parents (for obvious reasons, of course – they are there, primarily, for students).

The PTA (and of course, everyone else who’s concerned about the students) must make a strong and committed change – at least in the area of communication, and that is, creating an easily-available, easily-accessible, easily-manageable, and very cost-effective communication system. No need to hire a consultant, no need to dish out a single cent, and no need to allocate a lot of time in developing this communication system. Start with developing a simple and free-hosted website. We may want to look at other school’s website, as comparison and reference! Once completed, the next immediate step is to leverage this site to the fullest. Everyone “concerned” must participate, get genuinely-involved in the forums/discussions and in knowledge-sharing and dissemination, and a whole lot more – just allocate time and put in some effort to get involved. We may be looking at a 3-6 month timeframe, but time must be expensed in this endeavor. For parents, there really is no recourse. There is no other effective alternative to the current communication woes parents face, and I suppose it has been an issue all this while.

It’s high time that the PTA make a strategic change from being accused of “lack of communication” to being lauded for “seamlessly-effective communication”. By now (after so many years in existence), the PTA must provide communication for all with a channel that provides;

a) continuity (no temporary/permanent disruption or discontinuation of information flow).

b) accessibility (available 24x7x365), affordability (zero-cost to the users), manageability (restrictive usage, upgradeability), and security (privacy, safety of information shared/disseminated).

c) variety (information caters to many needs of all concerned, and to all immediate and peripheral issues affecting everyone in this little “PTA” community of ours).

d) relevancy (up-to-date, latest, meaningful information, and depth of information – for fast decision-making and forward thinking/actions).

e) speed (immediate [with very minimal/negligible, acceptable delays] and fast dissemination and sharing of information – eg. distribution of minutes of meeting well ahead of time, continuous progress/status updates of activities/programs, etc.).

f) opportunities for parents (or anyone, for that matter) to offer their contribution (both formal & informal, and both direct & indirect), assistance, or help in any form (knowledge, advisories, time, effort, etc) to the PTA, the school, students, or other parents.

And there’s no easier way than to fully-leverage a well-managed PTA website. I just can’t over-emphasize enough - the need to make full use of a website with the above aims in mind.


2) Truly understand the basic needs for having an online presence

Everyone concerned, especially the PTA CM, must truly understand the real but basic needs of having and formally using a website, i.e. this PTA website, as the primary communication tool. With a well-designed website (of course, in time we’ll get there), the online/web presence established can provide real & immediate benefits, while helping/supporting to achieve many goals of any community, especially the PTA’s. Among these basic needs of an online/web presence include the need (in no order of priority);

a) for continuous updates on the status/progress/budget-utilization of on-going PTA activities/programs (plus with website’s tracking capability, the PTA can also consolidate all currently-deployed programs). This can serve as record-keeping purposes, too.

b) for sharing of the school’s achievements (reminding of the glorious past, and sharing of the new/present/current achievements). Everyone can use a bit of motivation every now and then.

c) to immediately address critical (and the not-so-critical) issues that are current (immediate/new), out-standing (previously unfinished/unaddressed), long-standing (recurring). And definitely, THESE ARE A LOT TO CONTEND WITH! Timely resolution of issues can only come about with the timely address of those issues (i.e. in capturing the issues and relaying them to the right person(s)).

d) for continuous awareness of, and thus, participation by parents in all programs/activities of the PTA, and school (that requires parents’ participation/contribution). There must be a consolidated approach to attract every parent to truly and continuously participate in all activities planned and deployed by the PTA. An online web presence can provide continuous awareness (with regular updates) for parents on all activities logged on the web. And with other supporting information elsewhere on the site, parents can be easily motivated to chip in more with their own contribution, at their own pace, and within their own time constraints.

e) for cost-effectiveness in the running and managing of all PTA activities and programs (minimizing the administration costs; eg. the use of paper, reducing costs of printing flyers/letters/invitations, etc.).

f) for parents’/students’ early anticipation of the activities/programs planned, and hence, allow for their early preparation to participate in these activities/programs. In addition, early anticipation of issues will also likely lead to more time to mitigate those issues (more time to provide ideas/ways to resolve the issues) for everyone concerned.

g) for continuous knowledge discovery, development, management and dissemination. Knowledge-sharing is a two-way journey for everyone – there is the giving part, and the receiving part. And the use of existing technology definitely helps. All parties can participate in continuous knowledge-sharing using this PTA website – TODAY (and not some inconceivable time in future). Everyone has his/her own knowledge base – he/she just needs a platform to share it on. What better way than to use the always-available, easily-accessible, zero-cost, own-time-permitting, PTA website’s forum and bulletin board. Guided properly, a lot of new knowledge can be uploaded and downloaded at any time, by anyone, for anyone, and for any purpose. Of course, with this great ability comes even greater responsibility. But everyone (parents, PTA, teachers) is mature enough to guide everyone else (especially the students) on the ethical (and legal) use of the website for knowledge- and information-sharing. One must have positive attitude towards knowledge-deploying technology before reaping the benefits of having such. Positivity is key.

h) for nurturing a continuous and seamless (borderless) “learning environment” for students, teachers, and parents, alike. A long-term nurturing environment for students calls for the need to have a balanced-life (“study-play”, “religious-emphasis”, and “value-based”), learning improvement (and not just learning for exams), and academic progress. Achieving this, definitely, requires committed effort (the sacrifice of all parties, not the least, the students), and time. While parents, teachers, PTA and students are, generally, committed in their efforts, there remains the time-constraints faced by everyone. Using time-efficient technology (as only, a well-run website can achieve) to back this commitment, definitely, helps.


3) Adopt a forward-focused, values-based approach to developing our students

Admitting to our weakness (with respect to communication), and hence, establishing a web presence to eliminate this weakness, are just the first steps towards providing a nurturing learning environment for students. But such efforts may lose their long-term sustainability and momentum if the higher goal (in student development) is just to achieve 95% straight-As SPM students, for example. The real goal should be to develop our students to be forward-focus (hence, being resourceful and resilient are key) by adopting values-based approach to life (hence, leadership, creativity/innovativeness, ethical, and positivity as qualities, become predominantly critical). An online technology can definitely assist us in accelerating the achievement of this goal.

In this day and age of highly-paced technological advancement, economic uncertainties, moral degradation, and faith-challenging issues, students need to be equipped with values that can help them endure such pressures of their upcoming life as contributing adults in an aggressively more-competitive world. While performance (and hence, achievement) can be one of the many individual goals for success in this 21st-century world, it should not be the ultimate one. Success, in real terms, should be measured on how one carried oneself in the face of adversity (when everything is going against them) – and students definitely need more than just performance (or “achievement”) as their ultimate motivating factor. They also need these values (at the very least), so that they can sustain their momentum in striving to achieve their other goals in life (other than performance/achievement goals), especially when they are facing difficulties in trying to fit in with their “work-life” and the industry norms and behaviors required of them. And exposure to such values early and with a higher frequency while these students are still in our cradles (the school), is key, if not critical, in developing students to be resilient and resourceful in their more challenging world.

The PTA, definitely, can help here (notwithstanding the already numerous activities burdened on the PTA and the school). These needs call for the PTA/school to more frequently expose students to programs that bring out and promote these values, among others. While the school’s budget will always remain tightly-constraint, teachers/PTAs/parents need to find innovative ways to implant these values through other means. One such means is through the use of the website, either to conduct online values-based programs, or to make available the intellectual literatures or resources that deal with these programs or subject. Either way, it’s the students who should be benefitting most, and with little effort, time or money expensed towards acquiring such knowledge from everyone concerned.

The school, the PTA and all its programs for the students must also be “forward-focus”. While performance-orientation and discipline are the school’s/PTA’s continuous endeavors, the softer side of management must also be addressed – that is, the emotional development of students; the ethics of teaching, school-PTA management and student interactions; the human capital development of teachers/PTA/parents; the adoption of a more balanced, values-based strategies and plans; and a balanced work-life and home-life for everyone, to name a few. And some (if not, all) of these endeavors can be channeled through the existing PTA website for awareness, feedback, contribution, participation, and much more, so that everyone can participate, especially, the “out-of-touch” parents.


4) The next steps

What’s needed next is to just get a team going in developing and managing the website. We can request parents to contribute their expertise in this area. Personally, I certainly would like to be a part of this effort. Maybe then, what’s next is the participation of parents, the PTA, and the teachers to contribute the contents, and more important, to start formally using this technology to efficiently resolve all issues, and to effectively implement all planned programs, with the continuous and committed participation of all concerned.

I can’t over-emphasize enough the benefits that can be derived from using a website to assist communities to run programs effectively and expediently. As time progresses, feature upgrades of this site can lead to more seamless communication and knowledge-sharing between every individual in this community – a “one-stop center of knowledge” for the this school’s community. And definitely, the students - our children, will be the ultimate beneficiaries.

Invented Words

READERS ARE ADVISED TO EXERCISE HIS/HER OWN DISCRETION IN VIEWING THESE NOTES. THE AUTHOR, HEREBY, FORE-WARNS, THAT SOME OF THE CONTENTS IN THESE NOTES MAY BE A BIT ADULTERATED AND UNSETTLING TO SOME READERS, AND MAY BE UNSUITABLE FOR MINORS OR ANYONE BELOW THE AGE OF 70. THESE NOTES, HOWEVER, ARE NOT INTENTIONALLY MEANT TO DISCRIMINATE, MAKE REFERENCES TO, OR MAKE A MOCKERY OF ANY PERSON OR GROUP OF PERSONS, PARTY, RACE OR RELIGION. THE AUTHOR, WHILE RESERVING HIS RIGHTS TO FREEDOM OF HUMOROUS EXPRESSION, STRIVES TO MAINTAIN AN UNBIASED VIEW OF THE NOTES BEING SHARED. THE AUTHOR ALSO HOPES THAT COMMENTS MADE ON THESE NOTES ARE FAIR AND NON-DISCRIMINATORY, AND THAT CAN TICKLE, AT LEAST, ONE CELL FROM THE 5 BILLION OR SO CELLS IN THE BRAIN. SO, PLEASE EXERCISE YOUR DISCRETION IN VIEWING AND COMMENTING ON THESE NOTES.

What new words can you invent today - words that should make it to your local dictionaries?

Here’s a collection of invented words from http://www.urbandictionary.com/ I stumbled upon, recently, and some words that have crossed my mind:

1. Bool - Boring, but cool.

2. Cakeacola - Cake with coke in it, or coke with cake in it.

3. Chesstick - A person who loves chess.

4. Mummarola - Mum turning the TV off on your favourite part.

5. Skuzzbombs - The act of expressing anger in a humourous way without swearing.

6. Zwig - An orange ostrich, wearing a pink tutu and eating a frozen mash potato TV dinner.

7. Fugiggling - The act of laughing for no reason.

8. Lifequake - An event that suddenly changes your life, like, being hit by a falling building, injured in a car accident, seeing your stock portfolio collapse, seeing your life-savings disappearing right before your eyes in a get-rich-quick-scheme, getting diagnosed with a terrible illness, or losing your job.

9. w00t (that's, w-zero-zero-t) - The common expression of joy (at least, for those under 25).

10. Canniversary - A year from the date on which you were fired from a job. Example : "Next week is my canniversary from Proton!"

11. Carcolepsy - A condition affecting buddies on a trip who fall asleep as soon as the car starts moving, providing no company or driving help. Example : “Joe slept the whole way here, I think he suffers from carcolepsy”.

12. Hello List - The list of people you have to or want to say "hello" to on a daily basis. Especially, relevant for students in university buildings, co-workers in a workplace, or “friends” in a P2P network friend’s list (like in FaceBook, MySpace, yahoo, etc., etc.). Some people might decide to put you on their hello lists, even if they aren't on yours! Typically, reciprocity is expected. Dropping someone from your hello list to just a nod when you pass him or her might be considered a snub by the other person.

13. Chick Flick - A film that indulges in the hopes and dreams of women and/or girls. A film that has a happy, fuzzy, ridiculously unrealistic ending. Examples are : “My Best Friend's Wedding, Mona Lisa Smile, Runaway Bride, The Wedding Planner, Maid in Manhattan, Josie and the Pussycats, Mean girls, A Cinderella Story, Freaky Friday....” I could go on forever!

14. lol Theory - The theory that the internet phrase “lol”, meaning "laugh out loud", can be placed at any part in any sentence and make said sentence lose all credibilty and seriousness. Examples of lol theory in action : “Doc: We need to operate on your colon lol, you have cancer.”; “Me: Will you marry me? Lol.”

15. June Year’s Resolution - A New Year's Resolution that starts June 1st instead of January 1st. This is assuming the original act of self improvement has failed from January to June and it is time to start over with something else. Example: Tim: "I thought you quit smoking as your New Year's Resolution?"; Eric: "Yeah, I tried but... I'm going to work out instead. It's my June Year's Resolution."

16. Poopular (Adjective) - Popular on the outside, poopy on the inside. Example: “Everyone likes Ben but he's a real asshole. I guess he's just poopular.”

17. Boss Sandwich - An unfortunate cubicle configuration in which you find yourself sandwiched in between two of your bosses. Examples : “I can't even check my GMail account at work because I'm in a total boss sandwich”; “I'm such a sad panda at work these days. I'm totally the lunch meat in a major boss sandwich.”

18. Bedgasm - A feeling of complete and utter euphoria which peaks when climbing into bed at the end of an 18-hour workday, a long road trip or hours of extremely strenuous physical activity. Under perfect conditions, the physical release has been likened to that of an intense sexual experience. Examples are: “It was a three hour drive in the middle of the night, I could barely stay awake. When I got home, I climbed under the covers and had a ten-minute bedgasm”.

19. kthxbi - I understand. Your help in this matter has been greatly appreciated. However, with much regret and much haste, I must be departing from our conversation. Example: “newb2342: da partiez @ 4, b there!!1. lolz3r: kthxbi!!!!11”

20. Mall Feet - The condition of having unusually intense aches and pains in the feet due to exposure to shopping malls. Most commonly presented in males, presumably due to two factors. First, there is an inherent inability to withstand the excess gravity resulting from the densely packed merchandise. Second, females often burden males with the charge of carrying gratuitous quantities of purchases far greater than the typical wallet loading. There is no cure, though treatments may include reclining chairs and bottled beverages. Example: "Honey, you don't need any more bags. Let's go. I'm really tired, and I've had mall feet since the food court."

21. Trusticles - Having the balls to trust someone in a difficult situation, when the failure of that trust would result in injury or financial loss. Example: “I know I got my law degree online (don’t all lawyers do), but we're family. Show me you've got some big trusticles and let me defend you in court!”

22. Mouse Potato - Someone who spends all their time on the computer surfing the net or playing games. Similar to couch potato. Example: “You spent seven hours on the internet creating meanings for new invented words? Wow, You're such a mouse potato”.

23. Critical Ass adj. The stage in fat accumulation when fabric can no longer contain the enormity of one's buttocks. Example: “Gosh, I can't zip up these jeans anymore - I've reached critical ass!”

24. Textpectation The anticipation one feels when waiting for a response to a text message. Example: “I just texted her for a date, but now the textpectation is killing me.”

25. Slcunk - Something that smells.

26. Ex-Hole - Your asshole ex-wife, ex-husband, ex-girlfriend, ex-boyfriend, or just plain ex. A phrase used to refer to that person you used to be with or used to date that you can't stand. Example: "Yeah, my ex-hole wants to get back together, but there is no possible way."

27. Faceboink - Hooking up with someone through a tentative relationship in an online community. Example: “So are they seeing each other now, or was it just a faceboink?”

28. Textually Fustrated - When texting with someone over IM or SMS that takes too long to reply leaving you waiting and frustrated. Example: "She takes forever; texting with Sara leaves me textually frustrated."

29. nom nom nom - Represents the sound made when someone is eating or chewing something and really enjoying it. Example: “"Hey, are you eating my brownies?”. "Nom nom nom."”

30. Foot in mouth disease - A description about one who has a habit of putting their foot in their mouth. From Foot and Mouth Disease. Example: "Oh, Geez, I'm sorry!" Bob said. "You've got foot in mouth disease today, don't you?"

31. Flavorgasm - When eating food so good that you let out an involuntary moan, usually the first bite; also as an adjective – flavorgasmic. Example: “I ate this unbelievable steak yesterday. I swear when I ate the first bite I had a total flavorgasm.”

32. Vegetarian - A bad hunter. Someone who survives by consuming not food, but the stuff that food eats. Example: “The vegetarian was forced to subsist on slower prey, such as the broccoli and carrot.”

33. Economic Vegetarian - Only eating Vegetables because you can't afford to buy meat. Example: “He used to be an Economic Vegetarian but then he got a better job and can afford to buy steak.”

34. Crop Dusting - Farting while walking; walking while farting. Example: “I crop dusted my way down the aisle at the grocery store.”

35. Boo - 1. Boyfriend or girlfriend. 2. Word used to scare people. Example 1: “Can you handle me? If you can't, you ain't gonna be my boo.”. Example 2: “Guy 1: BOO! Guy 2: Holy sh*t!”

36. Presponse - To respond to a question before it is finished, often confusing the asker. Example: “Wendy: So are you avail-. Jimmy: No. (Presponse) Wendy: -ible Monday? (silence) Wendy: Are you?

37. Grandoghter - When your children decide to have dogs instead of real kids.

38. Stoptional - When the braking of a car is left to one's choice due to an unnecessary stop sign. Example: “Passenger: Did you just blow through that stop sign? Driver: Oh, no worries. It was stoptional.”

39. Slackitude - The act of, or state of being a slacker. Describes the attitude typically associated with being a slacker. Most appropriately applies to one with no responsibilities, one that gets by pretending to be hard at work, or the co-worker that is found hanging out near the coffee machine for most of the day. Example: “I just can't tolerate that guy's slackitude! If I were his manager, I'd sack him, no doubt.”

40. Designated Texter - A passenger who reads and replies to any and all text messages received on the drivers phone, thus allowing the driver to focus on the road and not hit anything or get pulled over for reckless driving. Example: “Guy 1: "Woah, I almost hit that telephone pole back there, Dude you should be my designated texter ". Guy 2: "Yeah no problem bro".

41. Requestion - Requesting something indirectly by way of a question. Note: this is distinguished from a regular question because the answer is usually obvious. Example: "Are those peanut m&m's?" (requestion); "Yes, would you like some?"; "yeah".

42. Imaginary Bluetooth - An imaginary telephone device popular with riders of public transport, those having manic episodes, paranoid schizophrenics, and just common talk to yourself out loud types. Example: “Dude A: Whoa, dude on the escalator is yakking away to no one and there's no bluetooth in his ear.” Dude B: “Imaginary bluetooth in action. Probably on his way to the bus.”

43. Gigabucks - Abbr. GB. One billion dollars. An insane amount of money. Example: “Starbucks earned 77 Gigabucks last year.”

44. Politiclone - A political pundit or commentator who is unable to think for her/himself. Example: “ABC News uses the opinions of politiclones to bolster support for the last Administration.”

45. OPM - Other People's Money. Example: “Man, this cellphone bill is killin’ me, I gotta get some OPM.”

46. Liptease - The act of putting on lipstick suggestively. The oral equivalent of a striptease. Example: “Diane was giving me a liptease from across the room, so I went over and asked her out.”

47. Fexpensive - (adj.) F**king expensive. Example: “A: Oh man, look at the price! 200 bucks for a shirt! B: Wow, it does look fexpensive.”

48. Mis-Wave - To return a wave to someone you think is waving at you, but is actually waving to the person behind you. Usually results in embarrassment and introversion. Example: “Damn...I thought that girl was waving at me L. HHAHAHAHA MIS-WAVE!!!!!!”

49. Deface - To remove a 'friendship' from Facebook due to having either accidentally adding him/her as a friend or actually adding them and reconsidering later. Example 1: "Yeah, there was this guy in my network who added me. I thought he looked ok, but his updates were really cramping my news feed, so I had to deface him." Example 2: "I went on a date with a girl I met a week before and like the day after our date she changed her status to 'in a relationship.' I defaced her."

50. Driving Finger - Your middle finger. Usually refers to the one on the right hand so it can be displayed out the driver's side window to comment on another driver's behavior. Your driving finger is the longest finger.

51. Destinesia - When you get to where you were intending to go, you forget why you were going there in the first place. Not to be confused with being stoned, destinesia often occurs during working hours, and is the cause of much frustration. Example: “John ran down the stairs to the dry storage and walk-in, but when he got there he couldn't remember what he needed. Consequently, he had to run back upstairs to the kitchen, and look at his prep list again. Damn you, destinesia!”

52. I’m just sayin’ - A phrase that is used when someone is offended by something you said. This phrase then removes all the offensiveness of the previous statement, making it all good. Example: “Ryan: “That chick has nice uppers!” Rob: “Damn, that's my sister!” Ryan: “I'm just sayin'” Rob: “Oh, okay, it's cool.”

53. Antibabeoons (pronounced as, en-tai-beb-yuns) – Acts of rivalry, usually, between political parties (but, sometimes, can also apply to workers’ unions). Can also apply to rivalries between members of the same political party, or the same union. Negative behaviours exhibited by political/union rivals, or members within a party/union are usually in the forms of hatred speeches, back-stabbing moves, and other nonsensical attitudes during political/union rallies, and lately, in online political spams.

54. Babeoons (pronounced as, beb-yuns) – The political rivals or those persons these rivals are so against (don’t worry if you don’t know who they are – they know each other well!). Babeoons are close relations to the real “baboons”, which are tree-dwelling mammals that make their habitat in equatorial and tropical rainforests, and political jungles. Studies have shown that it’s becoming increasingly difficult to differentiate between the two species as frequent interactions have mutually brought the two species close together, physiologically and psychologically.

55. Emportan – a sub-specie of the Orang Utan trying too hard to be an MP, usually ends up spending lavishly at emporiums (discount stores).

56. Polpotus (plural) – Politicians politicking endlessly in time (singular – polpotme).

57. Malyaluni (pronounced as, mal-yah-loo-nae) – The act of “a race hitting on its own race” at political rallies (taken from contexts as spoken in ancient south-east asian history books – translated into Malay as “malunya orang kita ni”, which when translated into Engrish sounds like, “what a shame our race has become”).

58. Kitsiang – A “Day-Kit” of multi-purpose tools and equipment (like, a foreign-ordered, double-ended hammer-screwdriver tool) that politicians carry around to “tonyoh” their political rivals all DAY, using their now-acceptable “hammer-away-and-screw-you” technique.

59. Tonyoh – The act of smashing political rivals all DAY with a “kitsiang”.

60. Kerpala Samsingh – An acute syndrome that ravishes the brain when too much law gets into the head. Incidentally, this slang in a south-east asian local dialect may also refer to “a hot-headed nincompoop”, or “indicating a person’s head is bigger than his whole body – thereby creating instability in the brain and thus, resulting in slurring of his/her speeches. What comes out of the mouth (in the advanced stage of the syndrome) are, usually, shitted cows and bulls”.

61. Asstrollnot – A millionaire-not troll spending taxpayers’ $100 million on a single orbital space-flight that does no benefit to society other than put his name (and others’) on some guinness book of unimaginable local records (if one can call it a benefit!), only to be totally-forgotten 365 days later.

62. Polasstrollnot – Those who eagerly send him up there.

63. Armarud-u (pronounced as, argh-mah-ghrood-you”) – A name given to an ignorantly-rude bunch of Armani-crazy P2P networking friends on steroids who can’t tell the difference between very-funny jokes and distastefully-not-funny political rants. According to a new study, body language reveals wealth. A flashy handbag or Armani suit can signal a person's wealth and political inclinations, but so can their body language. People of higher socio-economic status are happily, selfishly, and frequently more rude when conversing with others, especially during live parliamentary debates.

64. Snacklewit – A snake which can outwit any lawyer any day on earth.

65. Copomalidostrich - A couch-potato ostrich (that big bird with the smallest brain in the world) watching “national” Idols, AF, and those other “lackabrainsical” musical and reality TV shows.

66. Malidostrich – Those ostriches that participate in “national” Idols, AF, etc., etc..

67. Adujostrich – Those annoyingly-dumb ostrich judges on such shows!

68. Lackabrainsicals – Lack-of-a-brain TV shows (most appropriate for musical, reality and political entertainment shows).

69. Fronsepah – A French-speaking asian local trying too hard, period. Bersepah cakap!

70. Fronsepahnot – An asian dialect-speaking French trying hard to impress his counterparts, the Fronsepahs.

71. Siggenting – It's close to 'sickening' but used in a more intense situation, like when you are at Genting Theme Park, you keep on jumping from one ride to another, though you throw up in between. Example: “Those politicians are siggenting!” [Word invented by Maria Marzuki on February 17 at 6:40 am]

72. BN - Bullshitful Neanderthals (synonym: Bullshitting Nincompoops). Who’d imagine that the Neanderthals can get involved in “cavemen” politics, much less, bullshit their way out of extinction. Studies have confirmed the only reason they were almost erased from the face of the Earth was because of their stubborn ignorance, insisting that they were the better species, and hence, no change (in mind and body) was ever needed. Against all odds (and proving that Darwinism is a FAKE), their roots did make it out of Europe (and escaped seemingly inevitable extinction). Surprisingly, they are rather concentrated in this south-east-asian peninsular, of all places on Earth. Example: “Wow, did you see that? A modern day BN, spamming “very primitive ideologies” on the net!” [This word was appropriately invented because of the excessive online spamming of political ideologies by cavemen, making it hard to ignore such a phenomenon.]

73. NF - Neanderthal Freaks. English-speaking BN. Example: “Wow, I never thought I’d see a real-life NF, in ‘person’. I thought these guys were done for, 10,000 years ago!” [Stop all forms of online political spamming.]

Send in your new invented words today, or those you reinvented from the list above. They will definitely get published here!

HRM in the 21st Century - What's Ahead

Summary

Several initiatives that can be initiated to further advance Human Resources Management for this new century, and that require the attention and focus of management across the organization, especially those responsible for the HR function, include;
- implementing a comprehensive Strategic Planning for Human Resources (SPHR) process,
- closing the leadership gap – a risk in future organizational growth if this issue is not tackled and prioritized,
- fostering an environment for workforce engagement,
- developing an adaptable workforce as a strategic capability,
- undertaking amore competitive talent management program,
- driving organizational growth through analytics, and
- incorporating positive organizational scholarship (POS), as part of the organization’s shared values, in improving performance and competitiveness.

However, the journey towards implementing these initiatives will be difficult and littered with obstacles. Understanding key workforce performance challenges and identifying the leading practices organizations are using to overcome them are central in deploying these initiatives.

The global economy is transforming into an integrated market, full of opportunity, competition and fast-moving change. Such change comes with its share of challenge causing organizations to make the best use of their most important assets - their workforce. As first steps, there needs to be a comprehensive SPHR process in place to anticipate long-range HR and talent needs, instead of just reacting to short-term needs. While implementing this process alone can be a challenge on its own, HR practitioners need to garner full organizational support, especially from top management, to get this initiative going.

New leadership skills will be required, such as, external collaboration skills, serving as role models and mentors across organizational boundaries, and ability to provide guidance to the workforce from various generations and cultures. However, shortage of such leaders, individuals, and organizations inability to develop future leaders will remain deep concerns for organizations, as in the past. Future growths will be at risk if these concerns are not well addressed and given the appropriate focus.

Fostering an environment for workforce engagement is another key initiative that is becoming a critical strategic imperative for HR practitioners. Employee satisfaction has been identified as a key factor in influencing employee engagement, with both attitudes having direct effects on customer response, and both indirectly influencing an organization’s financial performance through their impact on the customer. Understanding the drivers that govern workforce satisfaction and engagement will be fundamental towards achieving optimal results, and sustaining competitiveness, as organizations step into a more uncertain global economy.

Developing workforce adaptability to adapt to change is another initiative key to winning in competitive markets. Factors influencing adaptability include capability to predict future skill sets, ability to identify experts within the organization, and the availability of an easily-accessible IT-enabled knowledge platform to promote collaboration across the organization, from individual tasks to group knowledge discovery and sharing.

The issue of talent management will have to be tackled in a number of ways, including upgrading current the skill sets, resolving issues related on employee engagement, and attracting external talents. Changing business needs which require diverse talents, among some of the reasons for this need, will make talent management a major challenge for organizations to rapidly develop employee skills and align those skills to future business needs.

Another key initiative is the availability of strategic information with supporting analytics for management to prioritize issues, clarify business direction, and reward employees for their performance. However, there remains a concern for the apparent lack of supporting analytics required to develop insights and consolidate information. One solution is to conduct regular strategic discussions between management and the workforce to strengthen this strategic information database. Resolving this concern will elevate HR’s traditional role to being a driving force behind the organization’s growth.

Using positive organizational scholarship (POS) as the organization’s shared values can foster an environment of empowerment for the workforce. Through POS, positive emotions, high-quality social networks and connections, virtuousness, meaningfulness at work, and personal improvement among employees, can lead to organizational effectiveness, subsequently leading to organization-wide improvements in individual and corporate performances, and organizational competitiveness in the market place.

These initiatives, when appropriately well-prioritized within top management’s agenda, and carefully planned for their implementation, can provide a returnable future for both the organization and employees. More strategically, those responsible for the advancement of human resources can truly position themselves to be the drivers of organization-wide growths.

1) Strategic Planning for Human Resources (SPHR)

Strategic Planning for Human Resources (SPHR) has increasingly become a necessity. SPHR is needed now, more than ever, especially during these times when management is putting more resources in implementing strategic HRM processes in their organizations. Concerns and uncertainties in economic, technological, demographic, and social conditions have led to the expansion of the strategic business planning process to include a comprehensive SPHR process. Organizations have accepted the fact that they need to anticipate long-range HR and talent needs, instead of merely reacting to short-term needs to replace workers.

There will always be difficulty and challenges in implementing SPHR in organizations. But they need to elevate HR roles to be more future-oriented, giving HR personnel a major role in formulating organizational strategy. After all, organizations are composed of people! To be truly effective, plans must take into account the present abilities and future capabilities of people. Leadership, a critical human factor, is of key importance in strategy formulation and implementation. At the same time, business plans also mean new human skills need to be developed in present employees, or sought outside the company, necessitating the need for SPHR.

It is, however, not going to be easy to convince SPHR to others. Management do not necessarily perceive a need for it. An SPHR effort is unlikely to get off the ground until it receives full organizational support, right from the very top. Getting around this problem means that HR practitioners need to;

a) champion the idea of SPHR, educating management on what SPHR is and how it will help them meet their needs and deal with their problems,

b) maximize talent management using SPHR, ensuring there is replacement whenever key personnel leaves,

c) communicate information about SPHR in training programs by incorporating SPHR in in-house training programs, at the same time, creating support for SPHR from people outside the HR department, and

d) analyze the reasons why some may oppose SPHR, whether their fears can be laid to rest, or whether the issues at hand can be negotiated.

A simplified SPHR process may include;
a) linking the purpose, goals, and objectives of the HR department to the purpose, goals, and objectives of the organization,

b) assessing the present status of HR in the organization by analyzing work done in jobs, positions, or job categories; the people in jobs, positions, or job categories; and the HR department,

c) scanning the environment to assess how jobs, positions, or job categories will probably change over time; how people in those jobs, positions, or job categories will probably have to change over time to keep up with job changes, and how the HR department will probably be affected by changes inside and outside the organization over time,

d) comparing the present work being done in jobs/positions to the expected future work that will probably be done in the future, and then present people doing the work and those who will be needed in the future (the result is a planning gap in the workforce),

e) considering a long-term HR strategy that will help close planning gaps in the work and workforce, making it the HR Grand Strategy.

f) implementing this HR Grand Strategy through coordination of HR roles, such as, career management programs, training, recruitment, job design, organization development, labor relations, employee assistance programs, and compensation/benefits,

g) managing the HR function so that it is an effective vehicle for helping implement HR Grand Strategy by changing people and jobs,

h) evaluating the HR Grand Strategy before, during, and after implementation,

i) feeding back the results of this evaluation into Step a).

These steps represent a step-by-step, contingent SPHR process, one which is highly flexible and adaptable to current business needs. It is a process of planned change on a large scale. This SPHR process can overlap and occur simultaneously, even in real time. Organizational politics may also affect goals, objectives, strategies, and outcomes of this process. At the end of the day, successful implementation of the SPHR process can jump-start a comprehensive strategic HRM implementation program in organizations.

2) Leadership Gap – Risking Future Growth

With globalization, innovation, and intensifying competition, new leadership skills are required. Current and future leaders will need to;
a) work more effectively with outside partners,
b) serve as role models and mentors to individuals who are increasingly dispersed across countries, regions and geographies, and
c) provide guidance and structure to employees who come from a variety of generations, experience levels and cultures.

The main concerns of organizations now, as in the past, are the current and projected shortage of such leaders, individuals, and their inability to develop future leaders. Future growths will be jeopardized if organizations are not able, with some degree of comfort, to identify, develop and empower the next generation of leaders. Explosive growth in emerging markets, and the retirement of experienced personnel in more-mature economies add to that risk.

Some of the approaches used to identify future leaders include;
a) providing individuals with job opportunities across their organizations,
b) matching potential leaders with mentors who can share valuable knowledge and provide access to networks,
c) embarking on leadership development programs that reach far down into the organization
d) tapping high-potential individuals early in their careers and provide them with the core skills they need to identify new opportunities, and
e) developing innovative solutions that deliver results.

The foundation for successfully developing future leaders is top management’s willingness to take responsibility for selecting individuals and providing them with the appropriate guidance and experiences. Management need to commit the resources. More important, they also need to provide the supportive culture needed to make leadership development programs truly successful.

3) Environment for Workforce Engagement

Creating a satisfied and engaged workforce will be fundamental to organizations if they dream of successfully competing in fast-changing global markets, achieving optimal results, and sustaining that competitiveness longer than their rivals. Managers need to identify several approaches to influence employee satisfaction and engagement (in that strict order) - criteria that have strong impacts on customers and financial performance. Regardless of job description or level, employees want to feel that what they do is relevant to the customer.

The key drivers impacting employee satisfaction include
a) an employee’s intention to remain in the organization,
- intention to stay reflects employees’ satisfaction with the organization and their status as an employee.
b) the skill variety employees are able to exhibit in their job,
- they tend to feel more satisfied if given the opportunity to stretch their wings a bit.
c) the level of customer-service orientation achieved, and
- when employees are more satisfied, they will focus on making sure the customer is too.
d) the degree of coordination between units of the organization.
- employees feel more satisfied being a part of a well-structured and coordinated organization.

The key drivers of employee engagement include
a) reduced role conflict,
- engagement will not occur if employees feel that instruction given are counter to what they feel is appropriate.
b) proper training,
- engagement will occur if there is sufficient and proper training for the development of skills that improve the contribution of each individual employee.
c) personal autonomy, and
- engagement will occur if the job provides freedom to the employee in terms of, scheduling and work procedures.
d) the effective utilization of expert, referent, and exchange power by managers.
- employees are influenced by
 their supervisors’ technical expertise or managerial competence (expert power),
 the respect that they have for their supervisors (referent power), and
 their supervisors’ willingness to be influenced by them (exchange power).
- engagement is largely driven by the employee’s feeling (regarding personal value, respect, and freedom) that the organization values his or her contribution, and that the organization will do its best to remove barriers from getting the job done.

Creating the environment for workforce engagement will continue to gain emphasis as organizations step into a more challenging and turbulent global economy. Understanding the drivers that govern workforce satisfaction will be fundamental to fostering that environment.


4) Adaptable Workforce as a Strategic Capability

Organizations need to be ever more responsive to changing market needs, be it global or local. Developing workforce adaptability is key to addressing this need, and subsequently, winning in competitive markets. However, organizations believe that achieving workforce adaptability can be very challenging, if not elusive.

Adaptability is capability to adapt to change. Three key capabilities influence the workforce’s ability to adapt to change;
a) organizations must be capable of predicting their future skill requirements,
b) organizations need to effectively identify and locate experts, and
c) these experts must be able to collaborate across their organizations, that is to say,
- being able to bring individuals and groups separated by organizational boundaries, time zones and cultures, and connecting them to share and expand their knowledge base and experiences.

There are ongoing initiatives in many organizations to develop these capabilities, but these are rather independent efforts across the organizations which do not really amount to an organization-wide comprehensive undertaking in managing its workforce. As an example, identifying future skill sets are undertaken by the Training & Development function, whereas, collaboration projects are handled by the Product Innovation Team or the IT Team. Yet these two initiatives/capabilities actually require all vested parties to jointly-cooperate (collaborate) to achieve shared goals.

Using IT (such as, Web 2.0 social networking tools), as enabler to automatically identify, locate and connect experts within the company, can be an effective solution, though rather slow in its adoption. A lasting solution could be the integration of such tool in the day-to-day activities of the workforce, from individual task management to group-wide knowledge discovery and expansion.

5) Competitive Talent Management

Managing talents have been very competitive lately, partly due to rapidly changing business needs which require diverse talents from a limited pool of workforce, and partly due to workforce mobility which makes talent retention a nightmare, at best. Organizations have begun tackling the issue of talent management in a number of approaches which include;
a) upgrading the skills of current employees,
b) understanding and tackling issues related to employee engagement, and
c) attracting talent from outside the organization.

The key challenge is overcoming the organization’s inability to rapidly develop employee skills and align those skills to future business needs. While this effort may be a strong focus in organizations, attracting individuals from the outside and retaining existing employees can be both under-emphasized and under-prioritized, as many researches suggest. On the contrary, organizations almost unequivocally believe that they have done a better job of attracting and retaining talent than their competitors.

Performance results and industry trends in talent management suggest otherwise. Factors that need to be critically-considered are changes in employee demographics, the ease and speed of switching employers, and the differing expectations of the Generation Y workforce (those born after 1980).

Hence, organizations need to be more innovative in attracting, motivating and developing employees. Organizations will need to seek out new and innovative approaches to managing talent, which would have to include the entire employee lifecycle. Organizations will need to emphasize more on;
a) segmenting and targeting talent,
b) reaching out to alternative labor pools such as older workers and corporate alumni, and
c) developing a presence in virtual worlds and social networking sites to cater to a more tech-savvy population.

Managing this kind of talent market requires a structured, analytic approach to attracting, developing and retaining key personnel, a whole new approach to competitive talent management.

6) Driving Growth through Analytics

In any organization, improving operational excellence and increasing revenue/profit growths have become a standard set of strategic imperatives to remain competitive and relevant. Key to sustaining organizational competitiveness is the availability of strategic information and analytics to help executives at every level in prioritizing issues, providing input into the broader organization’s business direction, and rewarding the organization’s performing workforce. The worrying fact is the lack of supporting analytics needed to develop insights, formulate business cases, and consolidate information.

What organizations need are regular strategic two-way discussions (between management and the workforce) to strengthen this strategic information database. What has been lacking from these strategic conversations are the analytics. Without consolidated information, executives find themselves unable to identify their rising stars, reward solid performers for their contributions and retain desired employees.

Reasons for the lack of analytics include;
a) a lack of systems integration and data quality,
b) an inability to extract data,
c) a need for clearly defined metrics,
d) the difficulty to link human capital information with data from Sales, Finance and other related departments, and
e) the inability to share information across applications used within HR itself, and
f) a lack of analytic capabilities of HR personnel.

Organizations need to do more than just focus on developing data standards and connecting systems. They need to successfully leverage human capital information. Not only does it provide key metrics that can improve workforce productivity and performance, it also enables the HR personnel to translate human capital data into executable strategy. HR in this 21st century will move far beyond its traditional role to being a driving force for business growth and workforce transformation.

7) Positive Organizational Scholarship for Performance and Competitiveness

Organizations need to find a more creative approach of creating an environment of workforce readiness and extra-ordinary performance to meet the challenges of the 21st century. One way is to foster positive organizational scholarship (POS), as an organizational shared-value, throughout the organization.

In fostering positive organizational scholarship (POS) as a shared-value, organizations emphasize a positively-reinforced environment typified by appreciation, collaboration, virtuousness, vitality, and meaningfulness in organizations. Creating abundance and human well-being are key indicators of success. Other organizational shared-values are characterized by trustworthiness, resilience, wisdom, humility, and high levels of positive energy. Social relationships and interactions are characterized by compassion, loyalty, honesty, respect, and forgiveness. Significant attention is given to what makes life worth living. Management put a strong emphasis on organizational and individual excellence, and extraordinary performance.

Contrary to this is a negatively-reinforced environment where greed, selfishness, manipulation, secrecy, single-minded focus on winning, and wealth creation are the key indicators of success. Such organizations are characterized by distrust, anxiety, self-absorption, fear, burnout, and feelings of abuse. Conflict, lawsuits, contract breaking, retribution, and disrespect characterize many interactions and social relationships. Management, in this negatively-reinforced environment, put a strong emphasis on values like problem solving, reciprocity and justice, managing uncertainty, overcoming resistance, achieving profitability, and competing successfully against others.

In fostering POS value, organizations do not reject the value and significance of the negatively-reinforced environment, rather, they emphasize the value and significance of the positively-reinforced environment. While a focus on competition and profitability is crucial for organizational survival and success, an environment of ‘positiveness’ (as depicted in the first environment) can propel organizations to heights never before imagined. Organizations can truly achieve performance excellence in this is ‘blue ocean’ environment, and expect high levels of competitiveness at both individual and corporate levels.

Organizations need to be concerned positive outcomes, processes, and attributes of their organizations and their members. They also need to focus on excellence, thriving, flourishing, abundance, resilience, or virtuousness, putting an increased emphasis on ideas of “goodness” and positive human potential. Attention must be given to the enablers (processes, capabilities, structures, methods), the motivations (unselfishness, selfless contribution), and the outcomes (meaningfulness, high-quality relationships).

Organizations also need to identify behavior factors that enable positive consequences for individuals, groups, and organizations, those that emphasize excellence, exceptional, virtuous, and life-giving. Emphasizing positive organizational processes can also produce extraordinarily positive outcomes. Some of the approaches may include;
a) highlighting the virtuousness of organizations in downsizing exercises during financial crisis, instead of focusing on mitigating the harmful effects of downsizing,
b) fostering individual needs to enable individuals to create meaningful work, instead of focusing on employee productivity or morale,
c) fostering empowerment for stakeholders, instead of focusing on stakeholder demands, and
d) building on strengths to produce more positive outcomes, such as classroom learning, employee commitment, leadership development, and firm profitability, instead of focusing on managing or overcoming weaknesses.


Conclusion

For HR practitioners entrusted with implementing strategic HRM for their organizations in this 21st century, various initiatives need to be skillfully-deployed. As a first steps towards that implementation, there needs to be a comprehensive SPHR process in place. With its necessity unquestionable, organizations need to quickly establish SPHR in order to preempt HR and talent needs for the longer term, more than just short-term. That process may require aligning HR goals and objectives to the organizational goals and objectives, scanning the environment to assess jobs and positions inside and outside the organization over time, and considering a long-term HR strategy to close planning gaps in the work and workforce, such as, career management programs, job design, and organization development.

The next steps could be creating an adaptable workforce - a precursor for future organizational success. The key to building that kind of workforce lies with the leadership of the organization, facilitated in large part by HR. If there was ever a time for the HR function to prove its strategic value and contribute to organizational performance and growth, it has arrived.

Creating an adaptable workforce, however, requires more than a series of HR programs. It starts with leadership – having the right people who have the skills and capabilities to develop and communicate a vision, provide structure and guidance and ultimately deliver business results. It necessitates the creation of an environment for workforce engagement by understanding the key drivers impacting employee satisfaction (employee’s intention, skill variety, customer orientation, and degree of coordination), and employee engagement (reduced role conflict, proper training, personal autonomy, and manager’s utilization of power). It requires the ability to identify experts and foster an environment where knowledge and experience travel beyond traditional organizational boundaries. It calls for a talent model that can help companies recruit, develop and retain valued segments of the employee population. It depends on an underlying backbone of data and information (analytics) about the current and projected state of workforce performance, and the ability to apply that information to develop strategic insights and recommendations. However, the entire management team needs to play a role in improving workforce performance. This may involve providing functional expertise, taking joint responsibility for executing human capital programs or simply setting a positive example for employees within their organizations.

In the area of POS, organizations can foster an environment that empowers the workforce to perform at their best. Through POS, negatively-reinforced behaviors such as, contradictions, skepticism, and complexity, can actually help organizations and employees to maintain a positive outlook in the face of crisis and tragedy. Positive emotions, high-quality social networks and connections, virtuousness, meaningfulness at work, and personal improvement among employees, can create positive energy in the organization, thereby, increasing the likelihood of organizational effectiveness.

Positive emotions create positive, self-reinforcing outcomes where individuals and organizations develop more human, intellectual, social and psychological resources, foster new knowledge creation, and enable positive feedback processes. Virtuousness creates positive behaviors, such as character strengths, gratitude, courage, forgiveness, and compassion. Meaningfulness may occur by connecting goals, purpose, and values to the core values of employees, such as recognizing employee family and personal life, exemplifying integrity in organizational policies, routines, and culture.

Organizations can make resources available that are motivating and enabling, providing empowerment and freedom for individuals to perform at their best. They can provide examples of good leadership. So focusing on achievements, potentials, strengths and values, leads to increased individual and organizational strengths which, in turn, lead to positive organizational performance.

Rise of Islamic Banking and Finance as an Alternative to Conventional System

The way I see it, “Islamic Banking and Finance” is becoming just another name for conventional banking and finance. The products have become so similar, at least in terms of the financial quantifications, that it’s really quite difficult and confusing for a layman to distinguish between what is “Islamic” and what is conventional. And, the irresponsible conventional institutions will use the “Islamic” brand on their products, just to capitalize on the public’s confusion. While statistics do show a real increase in the number of establishments and products in this industry, there is still a long way to go before Islamic banking and finance can truly be a necessary alternative to conventional banking. Reinforcing the capacity of this infant industry to absorb untapped demands from Muslim communities, and strict enforcement of syariah compliances to prop up the distinctiveness, hence, attractiveness of “Islamic banking products” amongst public perception, can go a long way.


Overview

The phrase “Islamic Banking” is fast becoming a cliché, just like the word “halal”. While a true Muslim strives to stay clear of what is prohibited by Syariah, participating in an economic system that brandishes the name “Islam” may not necessarily mean participating in a Syariah-compliant system, which is keeping to true Islamic practices in the transaction of goods and services. It is truly misleading when one refers “Islamic Banking” the same as “Banking in Islam”. The ability to differentiate clearly between the two concepts is key, before any increase or decrease in activities of the system can be objectively quantified and its performance measured. However, judging the rise or decline in use and participation of a system requires more than just analytical quantification. The guiding principles for Muslims are, thus, the understanding of fundamental tenets of Islam as applied to economic activities, and its syariah-compliant economic practices.

Generally speaking, there has been a marked increase in the establishment of new Islamic Financial Institutions (IFIs), over the last 25 years. However, the acceptance of Islamic banking and finance amongst public perception is still considered low, hence, the low reception IFIs are receiving for its “Halal” banking products and services. On the one hand, the challenges faced by IFIs are daunting considering the low capacity of IFIs in this new industry, in terms of, funds availability, capital outlay, and human capital knowledge on syariah-compliant products and services, to name a few. On the other hand, these challenges should not, in any way, reduce the competitiveness of IFIs against conventional banks, instead, they should drive IFIs to further differentiate their products to such an extent that will render conventional banking products non-competitive, and hence, provide a true syariah-compliant alternative to conventional banking and finance.


Introduction

The Islamic banking and finance industry in Malaysia has seen quite a promising growth over the last two decades. However, inadequacies of Islamic banks and financial institutions have resulted in lost opportunities in capitalizing on a growing market where an alternative to conventional banking system was highly-sought after. These shortcomings have hampered future growths in this relatively-new industry, an industry where the hopes of all Muslims rest – to be able to participate and prosper in a riba’-free, syariah-compliant economic system. But all too often, Islamic banks and financial institutions are seen as offering complementary services and products, akin to conventional banking.

Records show a significant rise in Islamic banking and financing in the last 25 years, at least in market share of deposits held by Islamic Financial Institutions (IFIs). Measured in terms of total deposits and assets, this rise constitutes more than one-tenths of the total amount in the whole banking industry in Malaysia today, quite an increase considering its humble beginnings in 1983 when Malaysia introduced its first Islamic bank to the world. Due to fundamental challenges of operating a syariah-compliant banking and finance system and capacity inadequacies, IFIs failed to exploit the huge market potential, which will further shrink during these challenging global economic and financial meltdown. With economies in Muslim nations also being hit badly, it would be some time before Islamic banking and financing can truly takes its place as a riba’-free alternative to current conventional banking system.

The fundamentally-significant challenges faced by IFIs in implementing an Islamic banking system are two-fold;

1) whether these Islamic banks are truly able to practice prudent, syariah-compliant banking in Islam; and

2) whether the goals of Islamic banking and finance, to create a just and equitable system for the transaction of goods and services in society, and the socio-economic development of the Ummah, have been achieved.

If these two contentions were not satisfactorily addressed (hence, not benefitting Muslims as a society), then the rise in the numbers of new IFIs, or the increase in Islamic banking and financial products in the market, or increases in market shares of total deposits, all would not have counted for anything. That Islamic banking and finance is just another name for conventional banking and finance.


1) Syariah-Compliant Banking and Financial System

The first fundamentally-significant challenge faced by IFIs in implementing an Islamic banking system is whether Islamic banks, or IFIs, are truly able to practice prudent, syariah-compliant banking in Islam. Can banks really be Islamic in its transactions (both consumer and commercial), activities (investment and financing), operational processes (product offerings, customer management, marketing and branding, profit endeavors, and risk-aversions), and business practices (jurisprudence, governance, transparency and ethical values)? A “yes” answer means implementing and monitoring of syariah-compliant transactions, activities, processes and practices across the full spectrum of an IFI’s operation - a daunting task indeed, especially if left under the responsibility of a handful few Syariah Advisors. Considering the environment in the banking industry and the relatively-low scale of the Islamic banking market itself, an IFI almost certainly could not avoid dealing with conventional banks and financial institutions in order to sustain its operations, which makes implementing and monitoring rigid syariah-compliant processes and practices all the more difficult. Still, it should not be an impossible task. Positively viewed, these shortcomings are but challenges that will be a guiding force behind further growths of IFIs. Only a real departure from conventional banking will result in a true rise in Islamic banking and finance.


The challenges, at the operational levels, in implementing a syariah-compliant banking and financial system include the following;

a) Capacity inadequacies of IFIs

IFIs are faced with shortage of resources and support, in terms of; knowledge capital on syariah-compliance (trained human capital), and support from society (market base and stakeholders awareness and acceptance). Internally, IFIs have not put a strong focus on developing their own human capital in creating awareness on syariah-compliance, and hence in creating new syariah compliant products and services, and monitoring those compliances.

Some bank managers don’t even know the syariah requirements to banking in Islam, much less be able to distinguish between Islamic and conventional products. The outcome is an indifferent attitude by the market, and hence, a general ignorance of IFI products and services. In terms of support from society, IFIs are often attacked and ridiculed by Muslims and non-Muslims alike, on the attractiveness, relevance and syariah-compliance of specific IFI products, or IFIs in general, as a rewarding or profitable alternative to conventional banking.

Continued ignorance can only mean a rise in disagreements among ordinary customers, intellectuals and economists, and religious scholars about the true purpose of Islamic banking and finance. IFIs must allocate enough resources to develop their employees, across all levels, in understanding the requirements of banking and finance in Islam, in order to effectively bring down this unnecessary barrier to creating awareness and acceptance amongst the general public before they can successfully market their syariah-compliant banking products and services.

b) Distinct and Differentiated Products and Services (departure from conventional banking products

Being able to make very clear distinction between an Islamic and a conventional banking product is a necessary first step towards creating acceptance of Islamic banking amongst Muslims, for a start. But there have been questions raised by scholars of whether banking is against the basic principles in Islam, that there is no concept of banking in Islam. The point often raised is that while there can never be “Halal Pork” or “Halal Prostitution”, so too there cannot be “Halal Banking”. In some sense, this argument reflect that there are connotations of some processes of banking being “Haram”, which we all cannot deny – that, which include the use of interests on borrowings/finance, and in speculative investments, to name a few.

This argument usually arise because whatever is offered by an IFI in the name of Islamic banking is actually quite similar to what other conventional banks are offering, hence, creating a lot of confusion and doubts in the minds of fellow Muslims. On what grounds, then, can one call “Islamic”? Is it just a change of “labels”? – so goes the debate.

The only way that an IFI can totally avoid this argument is to create products and services that completely do not resemble, in any way, those products carried by conventional banks. A simple example, at least for consumer banking, is the execution of contracts (akad) in consumer borrowings, where there should not be any indication of fixed “returns”/“profits” over a fixed timeline (which many so-called “Islamic” banking products require) – because, for instant, banking in Islam requires risks to be borne equally by all interested parties without any constraints attached to either party. And, of course, abiding by the fundamental requirement of not incurring any form of interests (or, “Riba’), at any stage of the contract, whatsoever.

The point being raised above, is to stress the need for IFIs to significantly depart from conventional methods of banking, to earnestly distinguish their products from other conventional products – thereby, creating a strong public perception that there really is a new way of banking other than the normal/usual conventional banking way – that is, the true way of banking in Islam. The rise in numbers of IFIs and the increase in availability of Islamic banking options do not equate to the rise in public acceptance and positive perception towards Islamic banking and finance.

c) Use of interests in financing, and interest rates as benchmark

The concept of 'interest', have long been a divisive issue within the Muslim world. The calculation and presentation of interests and interest rates are cleverly embedded deep within the fundamental principles of Finance, hence within the fundamentals of banking – for all kinds of banking purposes - consumer, commercial, and others. Ignorance in the technical terminologies and complex mathematical formulae that mask the underlying concept of interests and interest rates may render many “Islamic” products as “Haram”. A deep understanding of the fundamentals of Finance is necessary, in order to, distinguish and eliminate riba’-inducing components of any Financial concept and theory, which unfortunately, most are.

In addition, the profit-sharing rates of IFIs providing “Halal” financing to consumers, and corporations alike, are also benchmarked against prevailing interest rates. In other words, these “Islamic” products are no different from the conventional banking products because the basis of calculation is the same – benchmarking against the current market’s interest rate. As a consequence, these Islamic-branded products become doubtful from syariah’s point of view. For Islamic banking to be widely accepted, the products offered by IFIs must be clear from any doubt, as to the mechanics of the transaction (such as, not fixing profit-sharing rates which can render the products riskless), and also, as to the basis of calculations (i.e. not incorporating any form of interests in any formula). Benchmarking against any indices of a capitalistic economy makes any “Islamic” product conventional. An “Islamic” index of some sort needs to be established, but that it should be far removed from emulating current conventional economic or market indices.

d) Dealings with conventional banks

The use of inter-bank services in facilitating transfer of assets, liquidity, and such, is a necessity for the banking industry – for a very simple reason, that is, to provide a seamless integration of the services provided to the customer. For IFIs, dealing with other conventional banks may prove challenging because of the incorporation of charges, not deemed as “Islamic”, in the inter-bank transaction. While minimal service charges are allowed by syariah, these “Islamic-Conventional” inter-bank transactions should be avoided wherever IFIs are available. The challenge is the availability of IFIs within the local market, at best, regional. There are just not enough IFIs to handle customer’s needs for these kinds of services.

Another challenge is IFIs’ borrowing/financing/investment activities (such as, treasury) with other conventional banks to satisfy their liquidity needs. Most IFIs would be investing in the conventional banks’ “Islamic” or “Halal” assets, which can be doubtful, in the first place. IFIs should consider strongly against interacting with conventional banks in its borrowing and investment activities, as the terms are more likely to be dictated by the conventional banks, and as such, the sanctity of compliance with syariah requirements will be in doubt. These types of transactions are usually allowed if they meet certain syariah requirements, however, IFIs should stay clear from such interactions and reduce their dependencies on conventional bank’s capital for their expansion and operational requirements.

The real challenge is the availability of funds (total capacity) from IFIs within a certain locality or region to meet the requirements of every IFI within that locality or region. Because of this inadequate supply of funds for IFIs to expand and improve their operations, the “Islamic” banking products and services become more expensive compared to conventional banks, hence, the unattractiveness of IFIs in the eyes of the customers. In this instance, the respective State must provide some form of assistance for these IFIs to get through their ‘expansion’ years, with packages meant to inject liquidity and capital for the IFIs to utilize, hence, reducing the cost of operations and products of the IFIs.

e) Syariah-compliant operational processes

One of the goals of IFIs is to create public awareness so they could strongly push their products to the market, through their marketing campaign. However, there are plenty of skepticisms and objections from the public at the way some IFIs conduct their promotional campaign. These include objections to using women in an un-Islamic way in attracting public attention (such as, women not wearing the hijab). Some other objections include IFIs even daring to use traditional marketing ploy (such as deception, misrepresentation of products, etc.) to deceive the public into believing they are getting a better deal with these “Islamic” banking products they are pushing. Some IFIs even claim to be able to monitor syariah-compliance of its products on a day-to-day basis, although they only employ the services of just a handful staff to oversee a wide range of products transacted in high volumes, which is just an impossible task.

These misrepresentations will only further deteriorate the image and credibility of IFIs. The ethical conduct of IFIs will then be highly-scrutinized, as a result. IFIs would be better off not making such claims and risk damaging their image and brand, and along the way, hurt the industry during this ‘critical’ infancy stage of Islamic banking and finance.

f) Role of Syariah Advisories

Another challenge faced by IFIs is the inadequacies of the Syariah Advisors appointed to the Boards of IFIs, both in terms of numbers and knowledge in syariah-compliance. The handful few Syariah Advisors on these Boards are fully-responsible in overseeing the whole syariah-compliancy of IFIs, which would include, approving all “Islamic” products and services, and reviewing and auditing transactions of IFIs, to name a few. To opponents of this industry, this can be seen as a conflict of interest in the business world (although their independence, credibility and integrity are not in doubt). To add to this concern, is the inter-directorship of these Syariah Advisors, that the same Advisors are practically on the Boards of many IFIs because of the limited pool of advisors, trained and available.

While experience counts, there is an urgency to expand this limited pool of resources, such that, each IFI has sufficient number of Syariah Advisors to perform a seemingly-daunting task of managing the whole portfolio of Islamic products and services of an IFI. A deep understanding of the concepts, principles and theories of Finance (and not just a simplistic, introductory view of these concepts), are also an urgent necessity for Syariah Advisors because they will be dealing with products and services governed by such concepts, principles and theories. All in all, the much-needed expansion in the pool of Syariah Advisors with a deep understanding of Finance and IFI banking products is crucial towards ensuring organization-wide syariah-compliance, such that, IFIs are able to offer distinctively different “Islamic” banking products that can competitively serve as alternatives to conventional banking products.

g) Use of Conventional Insurance

Yet another challenge for IFIs is the use of conventional insurance for owned assets and assets held under security due to the limited capacity of Takaful insurance companies to meet the total IFIs’ needs for insurance coverage. Because of legal requirements of the banking industry, there is no workaround for IFIs in this matter. There is always the choice of using the conventional bank’s doubtful “Takaful” schemes, although IFIs are usually advised against using such schemes. Again, this challenge is in urgent need of intervention by the State by providing assistance to Takaful insurance companies to be able to absorb the increasing demands from IFIs for coverage.

Both IFIs and the State must place a strong focus on overcoming these challenges before the Islamic banking and finance industry can truly expand its wings. The final assessment is the public acceptance towards IFIs, generally, and their syariah-compliant Islamic banking products and services, specifically, such that, Islamic banking and finance becomes a necessary alternative for Muslims.


2) Socio-Economic Goals of Islamic Banking and Financing

The second fundamentally-significant challenge faced by IFIs in implementing an Islamic banking system is whether the goals of Islamic banking and finance have been achieved, that is, to create a just and equitable system for the transaction of goods and services in society, as well as, the socio-economic development of the Ummah. At present, IFIs operate with a single-minded goal of making profits, as do all other types of financial institutions in the conventional banking system. Otherwise, they may cease to exist.

With strong profit motives, IFIs are inclined to base all of its transactions entirely on “fixed” returns (profits), thus significantly limiting the risks associated with such transactions. Such fixed-returns basis, while it may be syariah-compliant, is undoubtedly against the principles of banking in Islam – that is to create a just and equitable system for the transaction of goods and services. Although, some religious scholars have totally rejected fixed-returns, as not complying to syariah requirements. With profits as the ultimate goal, IFIs tend to focus more on consumer markets, especially in urban centers of the population, as opposed to other less-promising markets, such as, agricultural sector and SME market. The scenario increases in complexity when inter-bank transactions complicate matters - when conventional banks have a dictating influence on the total structure of the transactions. In this sense, there can never be just and equitable distribution of funds across society, especially in much-needed sectors of the economy in the rural and under-developed areas.

The generally-negative perception of society towards syariah laws, and their implementations in the economy are additional challenges IFIs must continuously face. In addition, Islamic banking and finance can never operate in isolation of the political and legal frameworks, all having different agendas which might impinge on one another. Taking account of all these constraints, Islamic banking and finance has quite a long way to go before truly achieving its main goal of creating a just and equitable monetary system that is completely riba’-free and syariah-compliant, and that can offer a necessary alternative to conventional banking for all Muslims.


Conclusion

In conclusion, there is a significant rise in Islamic banking and finance in terms of the establishment of new Islamic Financial Institutions (IFIs), and the increase in IFIs’ products, over the last two and a half decades. Acceptance level of Islamic banking as an alternative to conventional banking, however, remains low. IFIs and their “Islamic” banking products are generally viewed as offering the same products and services as those “Halal” products and services offered by conventional banks. Much of this indifference stems from the fact that there are laxed effort and shortage of capacity, on the part of the IFIs, in ensuring and monitoring syariah-compliance of their Islamic banking products, hence, the perception of similarity in products with conventional banking by the general public. Another contributing factor is the relatively low number of IFIs in relation to the total banking industry, necessitating a higher interaction with conventional banks to supplement the total capital needs of IFIs and their customers, with dictating influence almost always held by conventional banks.

These challenges faced by IFIs in offering Islamic banking and finance products still remained daunting obstacles that are limiting IFIs from exploiting the tremendous opportunities that exist in this new industry. However, there have been marked improvements within IFIs operational processes, as syariah-compliance gains emphasis in their efforts to differentiate from conventional banking products. On the other hand, the higher goal of creating a just and equitable system in banking and finance can only be achieved when society, in general, are more receptive to IFIs and their Islamic products. Socio-economic development of society will drive a much-needed change in its behavior and attitudes, shaking off the negative perceptions towards IFIs, specifically, and Islamic banking, in general. Only then, can Islamic banking and finance truly be a necessary alternative to conventional banking, instead of being “just another name for conventional banking and finance”.