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07 January 2005
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Friday
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25 Ziqa'ad 1425
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Oil-rich OIC states urged to come up with more aid
KUALA LUMPUR/ DUBAI, Jan 6: The opposition has urged Malaysia, current chairman of the OIC, to call an emergency meeting to push members to contribute to $2 billion dollars from its oil-rich members
to help in the post-tsunami rescue, recovery and reconstruction efforts.
"It has not escaped notice of the world ... that oil-rich Gulf Arab states, home to millions of Asian workers, have so far pledged less than $93 million to victims of the Asian tsunami disaster despite reaping six times as much in crude revenues daily," said opposition leader Lim Kit Siang.
"This is not even two per cent of the global pledges of tsunami aid which is now nearly $4 billion," Mr Lim, who heads the Democratic Action Party, said in a statement. Kuwait has so far offered $10 million, Qatar $25 million, the UAE's $20 million, $2 million each from Algeria, Bahrain and Libya, with Turkey committing $1.25 million.
Other commentators reminded the oil-rich Gulf Arab states of the help of millions of Asian workers provided in regional development and criticized their governments for not giving more to victims of the Asian tsunami disaster.
Officials dismissed the accusations from the region and further afield as unfair on Thursday, saying Gulf aid was generous in relation to its populations and economies. But Kuwaiti writer Shamlan Al Issa told Reuters: "We have money and surplus from high oil prices. Our contribution to the Asian countries is not enough. If it was not for the Asian workforce we would be still be living in a desert.
"All the Gulf states need to do is donate one day's equivalent of their oil income," said Mr Issa, a columnist for Kuwait's As Seyassah. Mohamed Ali Al Harfy, a columnist for Saudi newspaper Al Watan, said: "Gulf countries should have donated more.
They should have had more sympathy for the huge Asian expatriate community they have ... and because they have vast oil revenues." "If you take it in terms of GDP and population numbers, our contribution far outclasses ... the British contribution," said the Saudi ambassador to Britain, Turki Al Faisal. -Agencies
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