Industrialisation can be defined as when an economy is geared around manufacturing and this then acts as a stimulus to other sectors of the economy. An example of this was the British Empire, which made manufacturing central to its economy, the manufacturing of ships, ammunitions and mining propelled Britain into a global superpower with the ability to rapidly mobilise for war and colonialism. In times of peace such industries were used for civilian purposes.
This is the fundamental reason for any nation wanting to industrialise, having a manufacturing base makes a nation self-sufficient and independent from other states. By not industrialising a nation will be politically and economically reliant on other nations for its vital interests such as defence, industry and economic productivity. This last scenario aptly describes the state of the Islamic world today.
For a neutral observer it is shocking that the Muslim world, which has an abundance of diverse minerals and resources, is so poor and has failed to industrialise. For example, Iraq singularly possesses 10% of the world’s oil reserves. A more unfamiliar fact is that Kuwait also sits on 10% of the world’s oil reserves. By studying the reality of all the nations, which comprise the Muslim world, that is North Africa, the Middle East, South Asia, Indonesia and Malaysia it is very clear to see a catalogue of errors and examples of widespread economic mismanagement.
The lack of a political vision and clear direction in the Muslim lands and the insistence of the Muslim rulers who prefer pursuing short term pragmatic policies is a historical problem since the destruction of the Khilafah in 1924 C.E.
Turkey has been unable to reach its potential due to mostly questionable and politically motivated policies imposed by the IMF and World Bank. Pakistan under the behest of the World Bank concentrates on the export of textiles ensuring the manufacturing base never develops.
The Arab countries have never developed manufacturing industries, even in the oil sector due mainly on the part of the desire by western oil companies who want to control the refining of crude and through it their hold on oil production and oil producing countries. In 2006 the Middle East produced 31.2% of the world’s crude oil. A mere 3.2% was actually refined within the region. Indonesia throughout the 1980’s and 1990’s liberalised its economy leaving it open for foreign investment, which eventually resulted in the Asian Crisis in 1997, which it still hasn’t recovered from. Today it remains straddled with debts of over $140 billion.
The Muslim world implements a whole host of contradictory policies which ensure their economies are unable to provide for the needs of the people. The result is that people have to devout all their time and effort in working to sustain themselves rather than to contribute to the necessary work needed for the nation to become a major world power. Hence in order to industrialise the Muslims need to be convinced of why this is necessary and why it should sacrifice for such a vision.
An example of this is what the US achieved when it abandoned the consumer economy and went through industrialisation on the eve of World War 2. The U.S. government began expanding the national defence system, spending large amounts of money to produce ships, aircrafts, weapons, and other war material. This stimulated industrial growth and unemployment declined rapidly. After the United States entered the war in December 1941, all sectors of the economy were mobilised to support the war effort. Industry greatly expanded, and unemployment was replaced by a shortage of workers.
The nation rapidly geared itself for mobilisation of its people and its entire industrial capacity. Throughout the late 1930’s the war industry achieved staggering production goals of 300,000 aircraft, 5,000 cargo ships, 60,000 landing craft, 86,000 tanks. Women workers played a bigger part in industrial production than ever before. Businessmen ignored the effects of the great depression and began to take advantage of generous government contracts. Jobs began to crop up everywhere and people began working for the war effort. The public accepted rationing and price controls for the first time as a way of expressing their support for the war effort. The demand was for a vast quantity of war supplies as soon as possible, regardless of cost. Businesses hired every person in sight, even driving sound trucks up and down city streets begging people to apply for jobs. New workers were needed to replace the 11-million working-age men serving in the military. All the nation's activities such as farming, manufacturing, mining, trade, labour, investment, communications, even education and cultural undertakings were in some way geared towards industrialisation in order to prepare for the war effort.
Alongside this the US brought together their best scientific and engineering minds. The US government identified that there was a possibility to build a fission weapon that would be a useful tool and have huge destructive capabilities. The Manhattan project was born. This project was a result of a race to be the first nation with an atomic bomb due to the strategic power it would give.
The failure of the Muslim world highlights the level of mismanagement of the resources present today. The real cause of the current economic woes boils down to some very basic factors; a non-ideological viewpoint from the rulers and consequently a lack of political vision for these lands. These two factors mean that despite the abundance of resources these countries will remain subservient both economically and politically to the West since they do not have a consistent basis to build their economy on. This makes the economy disjointed and thus fails to move in a unified direction.
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