This is an unusual crisis that we are undergoing. The discussions in our country so far have shown that most of us have little inkling of what is happening. Some critics started by blaming the country’s national leadership, especially the Prime Minister, for being critical to foreign forces and for allegedly mismanaging the economy. But then soon the plight of South Korean economy, the 11th largest in the world, of Hongkong’s which has very large foreign reserves, and also the troubles facing major banks and corporations in Japan, the second largest economy in the world, silenced these critics and caused many conventional economists to think again. However, our Prime Minister who has been, of late, an indefatigable critic of the "free market" and who has advocated the prohibition of currency trading, at a time when the people expect him to announce the formation of the action-orientated National Economic Action Council, warily stated that the Government would not regulate foreign exchange to stabilize the ringgit. "Now the market disciplines governments and not vice-versa," he remarked with bitter sarcasm.

There are basically two schools of thought. The one with presently more following is what we may call the IMF school, i.e. that propagates that the world "free market" system is sound and must be preserved, and that the current turmoil is temporary and due to weaknesses in the national economies that need "reforms" in accordance to IMF’s prescriptions of liberalization, de-regulation and privatization -- the whole gamut of what is now known as "globalization".

The other possibly still minority school is the anti-IMF school that, in our country, is being voiced by economists and intellectuals like Third World Network’s Director Mr. Martin Khor and JUST’s President Dr. Chandra Muzaffar. This school holds that the present international financial and economic system, in other words, the infamous Adam Smith’s "free-trade" system, is headed for collapse, just as the centrally-planned communist economic system collapsed earlier, and must be replaced by a new just world economic order. Internationally, this movement is being spearheaded by the American political economist, Mr. Lyndon H. LaRouche, who has correctly forecast of the collapse of both systems, whose news service published the report on Soros that was widely circulated in our country and whose classic books, The Science of Christian Economy (1991) and So, You Wish to Learn All About Economics? (1984), are quite well-known in many countries

Now Adam Smith’s "free trade" theory was used in the days of European colonialism to force open Asian societies for its colonial exploitation. The native empires and kingdoms in India, China and South East Asia had to accept European rule in whole or in part and their territories were used to produce cheap products for European industries and to buy their goods at monopolistic prices. This colonization process covered almost the whole non-European world, including the thirteen American colonies. It should not be forgotten that the American Republic, risen and built on the foundations of revolt against British colonialism, has replaced Britain and other European colonial powers and become, alongside with Russia, one of the two leading colonial superpowers after World War II.

What is propagated as "globalization" and as a "borderless world" is nothing but this old colonialism in the new guise. It has to assume this guise because its true nature is extremely cruel. So many have been taken unawares until the whole structure now crumbles before our very eyes. It is a repeat of the sad story of the so-called unsinkable British ship, Titanic, that sank on its maiden voyage on 15 April, 1912, killing most of its more than 2,000 passengers and crew.

We have to face the fact that we have been part of this so-called "unsinkable" "free market" system of the European philosophical liberalism of the eighteenth century. Our decade of "economic prosperity" has been built on sand. According to LaRouche, the world as a whole has been embarked on a policy of reverse economic development for the last thirty years, the insane policy of post-industrial neo-Malthusian utopianism. As a result, today only 2 % of world economy is based on actual physical production, the remaining 98% being pure speculation and constitutes what is called the bubble economy, waiting to burst. It has started bursting with the collapse of the Mexico peso in December, 1994, and now striking Asia, will most probably hit Russia, Brazil and Argentina next, and finally Europe and America, the citadel of this evil "free market" empire will go down, as all oppressive empires had gone down in the past. It is an inexorable historical law that Man flouts at his peril.

It is not that this writer is a pessimist. As the poet said, hope springs eternal in human breast. But we have to act as the blessed of God that we are. We must obey Him Who has created us. Let me quote from the Quran a few relevant thoughts that will certainly lead us out of this darkness. It is on usury, the bane of the "free market" system. Thus:-

Herein, in a nutshell, lies the answer to our economic problem. I am at a loss to understand why none of our professional economists have raised and discussed the question of usury and its bearing on the current crisis. I can only answer that so many of us, though very highly educated, knowledgeable and experienced as some of us undoubtedly are, have simply been duped or brainwashed by the "free-market" paradigm, that we cannot think outside it. I think a revolutionary breakthrough in our thinking is now a dire necessity and in order.

We cannot understand what is happening now unless we see it in the context of the 500-year-old European colonialism that our ancestors worldwide deeply suffered from. Although they fought for independence with blood, toil and tears, our independence struggle is not yet over. Not only the Iraqi people are suffering when we thought that we would never suffer like them. Western colonialism is global and its victims are everywhere. Former U.S. Secretary of State, Henry Kissinger, was quick to warn Americans of a new "anti-American" wave spreading across Asia as a backlash to IMF economic squeeze on these countries. Kissinger is right. But do we not have the right and duty to stand up against our oppressors?