By SIRAJ WAHAB | ARAB NEWS

Kashmiri representatives from India and Pakistan take part in the deliberations at the meeting of OIC foreign ministers in Astana, Kazakhstan. From left: Abdul Majid Tramboo, Agha Syed Hassan Mousavi, Nazir Ahmad Shawl, Ghulam Nabi Fai and Ghulam Muhammad Safi. (AN photo)

ASTANA, Kazakhstan: The three-day annual Council of Foreign Ministers meeting of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation ended with a sense of optimism and new direction among the delegations.

The deliberations in the Kazakh capital were frank and honest and sometimes critical. Minister after minister called for a more action-oriented OIC as opposed to it being an issuer of nonbinding resolutions, and there were subtle hints that the common folk of Egypt, Tunisia, Yemen and Libya had been far more effective than the combined might of the OIC member states.

Malaysian Foreign Minister Anifah Aman said the OIC needed to go beyond rhetoric and redefine, reinvent and transform itself in the context of the realities and challenges facing the Ummah.

“Are we so helpless that others are able to influence and dictate our decision-making? We need to build on our strengths and abundant resources to raise OIC to be the voice it should be for the Muslim world,” Anifah said.

He said the OIC needed to transform itself into a vibrant action-oriented organization by implementing more practical, workable and doable projects and initiatives toward achieving tangible results.

“The recent turn of events in the Muslim region and other parts of the world had also served as a wake-up call for all countries and leaders to be mindful of the current geopolitical changes and on the need to re-evaluate, reassess and reinvent while exercising change.”