RESPONSIBLE CONSUMPTION AND PRODUCTION: INFLUENCE OF SEJAHTERA CONSUMERISM IN POST PANDEMIC COVID-19

RESPONSIBLE CONSUMPTION AND
PRODUCTION: INFLUENCE OF SEJAHTERA

CONSUMERISM IN POST PANDEMIC
COVID-19

Dolhadi Zainudin
Noor Hazilah Abdul Manaf

Suhaimi Mhd Sarif
Yusof Ismail

Amirah Ahmad Suki
Nik Hziman Nik Mat
Zaireena Wan Nasir

Ahasanul Haque
Rafikul Islam

Sejahtera Consumerism
International Islamic University Malaysia 1

RESPONSIBLE CONSUMPTION AND
PRODUCTION: INFLUENCE OF

SEJAHTERA CONSUMERISM IN POST
PANDEMIC COVID-19

Dolhadi Zainudin
Noor Hazilah Abdul Manaf

Suhaimi Mhd Sarif
Yusof Ismail

Amirah Ahmad Suki
Nik Hziman Nik Mat
Zaireena Wan Nasir

Ahasanul Haque
Rafikul Islam

2

First Print 2021

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a
retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic,
mechanical photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written
permission of the publisher.

Perpustakaan Negara Malaysia Cataloguing-in Publication Data

Dolhadi Zainudin
RESPONSIBLE CONSUMPTION AND PRODUCTION : INFLUENCE OF SEJAHTERA
CONSUMERISM IN POST PANDEMIC COVID-19 /
Dolhadi Zainudin, Noor Hazilah Abdul Manaf, Suhaimi Mhd Sarif, Yusof Ismail, Amirah
Ahmad Suki, Nik Hziman Nik Mat, Zaireena Wan Nasir, Ahasanul Haque, Rafikul Islam.
ISBN 978-967-26351-0-9
1. Consumption (Economics).
2. Production (Economic theory).
3. Consumer protection.
4. COVID-19 Pandemic, 2020-.
5. Government publications--Malaysia.
I. Noor Hazilah Abdul Manaf. II. Suhaimi Mhd. Sarif, 1975-.
III. Yusof Ismail, 1955-. IV. Amirah Ahmad Suki.
V. Nik Hziman Nik Mat. VI. Zaireena Wan Nasir.
VII. Ahasanul Haque. VIII. Rafikul Islam.
IX. Title.
339.47

Published by SEJAHTERA CONSUMERISM
Department of Business Administration (DEBA), Kulliyyah of Economics and
Management Sciences, International Islamic University Malaysia, Jalan
Gombak, 53100 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Email: [email protected]

3

SYNOPSIS

Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 12 is to achieve prosperity,
peace, and unity in the world through responsible consumption and
production. In the context of Falsafah Pendidikan Kebangsaan (PFK)
or National Education Philosophy Malaysia, a peaceful, unity and
prosperous world is known as sejahtera world. Sejahtera has a strong
influence in Malaysia, particularly, consumerism in Malaysia.
Responsible consumption and production with sejahtera will go
beyond prosperity, peace and unity. Sejahtera consumerism and
production in post covid-19 requires awareness, education, and
reinforcement. Every consumer and producer should be naturally
sejahtera consumers as well producers to practice responsible and
sustainable consumerism. The lack of awareness about consumerism
has been accelerating with industrial oriented education. Indeed, the
reality of life encourages material possession. Ethical values have
been forgotten in a trade-off of advancement in materialistic
achievement. The old era of consumerism has been very challenging
with social and economic instability. The covid-19 era posed more
challenges due to new norms and restriction measures to curb covid-
19. The community has no choice but to help among them through
various social efforts and finance. In the meantime, the old norms of
corruption and struggle for power have been dominated regardless of
covid-19 situation. Every part of the society needs to participate
actively in the consumerism movement. The feedback from students
manifests the need to provide education, training and practice of
consumerism.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS 7
8-23
Project Information 24-36
37-44
CHAPTER 1 45-56

Responsible Consumption and Production: Sejahtera 57-65
in Sustainable Consumerism 66-71
Dzulkifli Abdul Razak
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CHAPTER 2

Responsible Consumption and Production: The
Ethical Consumption and Business Ethics in Japan
Ayako Sendo

CHAPTER 3

Responsible Consumption and Production: The New
Consumerism Era - Challenges and Opportunities
Anwar Fazal

CHAPTER 4

Responsible Consumption and Production:
Mua‟malah Ecosystem Post Pandemic: Potentials for
Zakat, Waqf Innovative Management
Noor Inayah Yaakub

CHAPTER 5

Responsible Consumption and Production:
Corruption and Cyber Crime
Jais Abdul Karim

CHAPTER 6
Responsible Consumption and Production:
Consumerism and Youth
Jufitri Johar

CHAPTER 7 72-80
81-99
Responsible Consumption and Production: Insights 100-122
after the Roundtable 123-131
Dzulkifli Abdul Razak

CHAPTER 8

Responsible Consumption and Production with
Sejahtera: Feedback from Students

CHAPTER 9

Insights on Responsible Consumption and
Production with Sejahtera Paradigm from Students‟
Perspectives

CHAPTER 10

Way Forward on Responsible Consumption and
Production with Sejahtera Paradigm from Students‟
Perspectives

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PROJECT OVERVIEW

ROUNDTABLE DISCUSSION ON CONSUMERISM IN POST-PANDEMIC
ERA
8 December 2020
Organized by Department of Business Administration
Kulliyyah of Economics and Management Sciences
International Islamic University Malaysia

Patron:
Prof Dr Hassanuddeen Abdul Aziz,
Dean, Kulliyyah of Economics and Management Sciences

Advisor:
Prof Dr Noor Hazilah Abdul Manaf,
Head, Department of Business Administration
Kulliyyah of Economics and Management Sciences

Programme Director:
Asst. Prof. Dr. Dolhadi Zainudin
Department of Business Administration
Kulliyyah of Economics and Management Sciences

Members:
Prof Dr A.K.M. Ahasanul Haque
Prof Dr Rafikul Islam
Assoc. Prof. Dr. Suhaimi Mhd Sarif
Asst Prof Dr Amirah Ahmad Suki
Asst Prof Dr Nik Hziman Nik Mat
Asst Prof Dr Zaireena Wan Nasir
Tuan Haji Yusof Ismail

Administration team
Tuan Haji Ridzuan Zakaria
Madam Nolin @ Norlin Abd Ghaffar
Madam Noraiza Mohamed

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CHAPTER 1

RESPONSIBLE CONSUMPTION AND PRODUCTION:
SEJAHTERA IN SUSTAINABLE CONSUMERISM

Y.Bhg. Prof Emeritus Tan Sri Dato’ Dzulkifli Abdul Razak

Rector
International Islamic University Malaysia (IIUM), Malaysia

Assalamualaikum and greeting of peace. Let me welcome all of you to this
Roundtable of Sejahtera consumerism and I would like particularly to welcome
Professor Sendo Ayoko, Vice president, Takoshoku University Japan. Indeed,
we are glad for honored us to be with us today to talk about your experience in
consumerism as far as Japan in concerned.

I would like to welcome my dear colleague Dato‟ Seri Anwar Fazal who is a
giant in consumerism. He used to be everywhere. He's used to be the president
of the Consumer International. And also now, I think we'll take on a new role in
the right Library group College, which is another setup that Anwar built on his
own linking people around the world on issues of consumerism, and issues of
public awareness, and also issues of that relate to many things that all of us have
concerns with. So, I'd like to thank Anwar, I know you're busy and I hope that
everything well in Penang. Thank you very much

With these two giants, I think we can already begin this Roundtable but
somehow or other because I'm the Rector, I‟m always being punished by
having to give speech. It is my pleasure and to thank Kulliyyah of Economics
and Management Sciences for taking this initiative to talk about consumerism
which has which is an issue. There has not been well talked about in this
University.

I would like to go back to the days of the late Uncle SM Idris address who is
another giant as far as consumerism concern, he passed away very recently. But
before he passed away, I think we're able to talk to him how to bring
consumerism back into the university and I think after a long while there is one
of the initiatives that we are taking on hoping that this link between CAP
Consumer Association of Penang, Consumer International and the University
can be formalized. So that consumerism can be a course that will taught to our

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students and especially so now with this COVID pandemic that all of us are
experiencing which I personally feel that it's important for us now to learn and
look at what consumerism is all about in the future.

So, this is a tribute in a way to late SM Idris and also another person, a friend of
mine who also passed away here recently, Mr. Martin Khor. These two persons,
I think we owed much to them in bringing consumerism to the level that all of
us can be proud of not only in Malaysia, but globally. So, without further ado
and given about 20 minutes to talk about what we are trying to reconceptualize
here and the word Sejahtera in sustainable consumerism. The word sejahtera for
the benefit of Professor Sendo is almost similar to the Japanese word, like
kizuna and ikigai, but kizuna and ikigai is very well used in Japan and
everybody knows about it.

Sejahtera is a word that has not been explored to the fullest but it has the same
potential like the word kizuna and ikigai a kind of a value that the university
would want to bring up to the community because it is part and parcel of our
value our norms and also our state understanding of what the is all about except
it has not been used. It says to be not been taught in school, but I thought it is
the way to introduce this word Sejahtera in the context of consumerism. so that
we can have also our indigenous understanding of what these values are, and it
becomes in naturally as part and parcel of the education system of our lifestyle
and also our standing of what the worldview is all about, as far as consumerism
is concerned.

So, if you permit me, I will run through just a couple of slides so that we can
understand what this word means was. I hope you can see this slides and Anwar
and Professor Sendo that able to see this out. When I talk about consumerism as
I mentioned, we are trying to put this in the context of lifestyle in other word, a
kind of way of life that is natural to us, indigenously and traditionally we have “
consumer society” in a very responsible and sustainable way.

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Because of this word is no longer featured in our life. We stand to lose our way
as we go on and understand what consumerism is all about. Figure 1.1 shows
the framework of sejahtera in sustainable consumerism.

Figure 1.1:Framework of Sejahtera in Sustainable Consumerism
Source: Abdul Razak (2020)
So, consumerism, I think has many connotations. One of the connotations is
about an ideology of increasing consumption of goods economically speaking.
So all of us, I think in our education system is trained to be an income earner
and more importantly is said to how to spend this money. In a way we spend
this money sometimes do not have resemblance of what we mean as far as
sustainability or the way we understand what traditionally expenditures all
about. To a certain extent, sometimes it can be an addiction. So shopping is one
of the past times that all of us do. The moment we have time we'll go to the
mall. There are many more malls coming up despite all the economic downturn
that people talk about there are still more coming up.
Despite the many things that we talk about economic not doing well, people are
spending their money left right and center. The COVID said that people stay
home, but people still shop. They go online shopping and they online shopping I
think is worse than in-person shopping because you just need to click a button
and then you get whatever you want. And sometimes you click this button
without realizing it and these are issues that I think we need to start to grapple
with particularly when we look at what's going to happen after the COVID

10

pandemic and what's going to happen to the younger generation now who have
been taught to do many things online without realizing what are the downsides
of this online thing. So, I am asking a question can they be able to be able to
sustainable sort of consumerism or the word Sejahtera is it fit into this whole
concept of consumerism? Figure 1.2 depicts the concept of “consumerism.”

Figure 1.2: Concept of Consumerism

Source: Abdul Razak (2020)
When we look at the sustainable development goals, sustainable development
goal talks about sustainable consumption and production, right? And these
perhaps one of the links that we can go into and trying to understand what
consumerism is all about from the basic understanding of it. And under that
goal, there are many sub goals, and I want to focus on the last one, which is
education.
This is what the university is all about. How do educate people to understand
what consumerism is all about? How can it be sustainable? How can we be
responsible? These are issues that has high time that we bring it forward and I
hope the Kulliyyah will take it as part and parcel of developing the new
consciousness as far as consumerism is all about.

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Whatever it is, I think we understand at least from my point of view, the world
is no longer equitable. You can talk about economy; we can talk about ecology.
You can talk about social environment. You can even talk about a geopolitical
understanding. The world today is in chaotic state right given the pandemic, it
makes it even worse and we do not know how to behave in a condition of this
nature. The younger nation is grappling apart of how to understand this.
How do you do to correct this balance? I think that will be one of the roles of
people like us who try to correct this balance and make sure that life becomes
meaningful again as we move on into the future, right? But it has been from my
point of view since I was a student when I started to learn about this from the
late Uncle Idris and also from Anwar himself that the world has never been
sustainable. Figure 1.3 illustrates a global imbalance.

Figure 1.3: A Global Imbalance

Source: Abdul Razak (2020)
The question of consumption and over consumption and sometimes added to
greed makes somehow rather of the world or the life becomes sustainable. This
picture just tells us exactly. If we talk about evolution, perhaps. We are evolving
into another sort of creature that is not able to sustain ourselves anymore. It is a
very symbolic thing that some of you have perhaps do not believe in evolution.
That's fine. But at the end of the day, we are going to create a situation where

12

we are not sustainable anymore. If consumption is not checked it is not
sustainable and if it's not done responsible.
That is a kind of future sort of view that I have if we go on living in this so
called unsustainable here. So, we need to make something out of it and the only
way I thought we can do this it perhaps understands how this comes about. I'm
going to briefly run through I think about this whole idea of consumerism is
where we are now. Figure 1.4 depicts the evolution of an unsustainable era.

Figure 1.4: The Evolution of an Unsustainable Era

Source: Abdul Razak (2020)

When you talk about contemporary world, it's all about consumption buying
things shopping and all those things that I've mentioned to you before. But little
do we understand that these have some historical context.
The historical context perhaps I can start off with when we start to understand
what the world is all about from a totally materialistic point of view taking, we
had perhaps those days of the renaissance on the 15th centuries.
Where we have got under an enlightenment scientific revolution, and finally led
to what we call now the industrial revolution. Figure 1.5 shows the evolution of
consumerism in different phases of economic orientations.

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Figure 1.5: Evolution of Consumerism in Different Phases of Economic
Orientation

Source: Abdul Razak (2020)
In Malaysia, I am not too sure, in Japan. I think Japan talked about society 5.0
in this nature, we are still talking about Industrial Revolution 4.0 where the
industrialisation using computerization and all sorts of things becomes part and
parcel of the issue that we're going to face as far as the nation is concerned.
Now with this industrial revolution, we begin to have ideas like over
consumption, mass production and all those things that we have seen around
today, which is not new. You just need to go around and see what's happening,
perhaps and there's a way of looking at it. Go around us, sorry, and you will see
that kind of. You can see all those. All those products around us and all of us
are quite familiar with them, because they are all around the no matter wherever
we are, whatever we do. And this has something to do with the industrial
revolution as it were that people are just turning things out for sale one way
another whether we realize it or not. And to me, university is also part of this by
changing our people for whatever reasons just to support the market and to
make sure consumption is aligned as far as this group of people. So, these are
the paradigm that I think we need to revisit whether it be something is desirable
for us.

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As Industrial Revolution goes, production up in produced. We also pollute the
Earth at the same time. It is a picture before the EPA was it was implemented in
the US the kind of smoke the kind of pollution you see in cities like, New York.
Figure 1.6 depicts the 1966 New York City Smog Emergency.

Figure 1.6: The 1966 New York City Smog Emergency

Source: Abdul Razak (2020)
Now you may not see this, but certainly the world is also experiencing a kind of
a toxic environment when you talk about climate change, global warming and
so on.
So, these are all interrelated effect that many of us are not quite aware of it
because of the habit of consumption or in the over consumption and such.
Figure 1.7 shows the measures of the anthropocene 1750-2000.

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Figure 1.7: The measures of the anthropocene 1750-2000.

Sources: New Scientist (October 2008); Global Change and the Earth System
(2004), Abdul Razak (2020)
It‟s a nice graph to depict what happened on the first international revision of
1700 right now, maybe to 2020 the fourth industrial revision.
All the graphs are going up right. And we are going into what they call the
Anthropocene and the anthropocene is created by us human being because of
our unchecked activities. Figure 1.8 shows the effect of human activity on the
earth.

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Figure 1.8:The effect of human activity on the earth

Source: Abdul Razak (2020)
So, we can try and plot this. We can try and plot this, how our economy is
killing the earth. You can see all those bars coming up. CO2 consumption, the
use of paper, the use of what we call fossil fuel and so on so forth. Of course,
the GDP goes up at same time, and most of us just look at the GP good numbers
as a DP goes up, but we do not understand or will not realize they also pollute
the earth and kill the earth at same time.
I think these are issues that we need to talk about, how to stop this if at all is
possible to stop others on how to educate and try to minimize it from the
education point of view. And these I think have something to do with
economics and therefore, I hope the Kulliyah of Economics will look at this
seriously, and these were the rise of consumerism becomes important for us to
first to understand.
And yet when we go into this, you'll see all these big products I actually been
pocketed by some companies, Coca-Cola, Pepsi Cola all those things they are
just being “monetized” by this group of people that will then eventually create a
kind of a brand structure of us. To the younger generation, within my

17

generation, will buy things that are branded. Figure 1.9 shows the control of
corporation on human life.

Figure 1.9: The Control of Corporation on Human Life

Source: Abdul Razak (2020)
And they think there is a best thing that they could afford. And it's also a status
quo for them and the kind of “ recognized”, recognition of success. So, if you
talk about apparels and you know, and clothing and so on so far, I just talk
about the men folk, the woman for probably three slides on this. But the man
folk is enough, right.
We need to have something which is brand that it is not rendered. Then it is not
you know it and therefore people do not want to buy it. So, we will then be
trained to buy certain brands the ABCD and nothing that's not branded or not
then be important for us. We become better directly or indirectly a moving
billboard. On your shirt that is a brand. And you walk with that brand, a very
proud that you are actually advertising for somebody free of charge. Figure 1.10
shows the branding effect on human life.

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Figure 1.10: The branding effect on human life.

Source: Abdul Razak (2020)
Imagine you are carrying something as big as whatever brand name and walking
around town. And you are not paying for it. You already paid for the things that
you buy a cutthroat price. Now you are advertising it free of charge for other
people.
And there is a kind of mindset that doesn't come to us. Everybody wants to
show their coach bag or their whatever watch, you know, even the topi haji now
is a brand. They must be a kind of a brand. Your Hijab is a brand. Hijab is
supposed to be modest and unnoticed. Now, it‟s becomes a brand that starts on
your head. And this is Hijab cost 70,000 ringgit to some people. So, this whole
idea of consumerism, at least from Islamic point of view again has got
something that we need to say but something to do as far as it is concerned.
If you go back to this diagram, we will talk about this industrial revolution.
Industrial revolution has brought two things to us. One is what called
exploitation that will lead finally to colonization, right, and imperialism might
just selling quote unquote is so called brand names. You may not be a product
now. It could be an ideology; it could be a way of life. It could be an idea that is

19

manufactured somewhere else. And that imposed you. Education is one of them.
Figure 1.11 shows the impact of branding.

Figure 1.11: Impact of Branding

The bit education to us without understanding that traditionally we've got our
own way of educating things. Understanding things but no, it has to been done
in a certain way particularly from the colonial sort of idea of westernization or
whatever you have so much. So, if you don't have a brand, then you are not
“considered advance” of considered sort of successful because there is no brand
attach to it. Essentially, it says there is no economic value to something we just
unbranded.
I think these are issues that I think we need to we need to talk about. So then we
talk about this idea of exploitation colonization and imperialism in a way that is
a kind of importance on you what we call it the hard power. Figure 1.12
illustrates the hard power in exploiting human civilisation.

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Figure 1.12: Hard Power in Human Civilisation

Because sometimes use this using military might and all other things to impose
things on you and here's what I think most of the third world countries are
experiencing at the moment in time. If people do not accept it and we create
another concept what we call the soft power. Figure 1.13 illustrates the soft
power in exploiting human civilisation.

Figure 1.13: Soft Power in Human Civilisation

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Soft power do not use a military mind set anymore. But what they use is they
change things around. Instead of armies or military coming in. They use another
force called enterprise and this is where your supermarkets are. And they say all
these goods that have produced so that you become quote-unquote the consumer
in a very indirectly.

What does it do to you? It creates another culture. A culture of shopping, a
culture of buying what they produce whether you need it or not, that‟s not a
problem. But the whole idea of trying to colonize the mind still stays, right?
And then it goes into education. Education now, particularly when online
education that everybody is now hooked in from wherever and whatever and
you have no control over that, and what kind of values we supported in
education becomes an issue that all of us need to grapple with.

The government comes in, they talk about engagement especially in Malaysia,
the government will tell you what to teach and what to learn. And you lose
control over education and then education becomes another product that we will
talk about in terms of employment and employability and all those things. And
then the digital world comes in.

The digital world tells us that everything needs to be hooked up. Internet is one
of those things and I like this particular poster here. It says that on the internet,
if anything is free, then you are actually the product. So, people you use Twitter,
use Facebook.

All the media are free of charge because you are the product now. You become
the moving people I was talking to you about. They tell you to collect all these
likes and whatever it is, which is meaningless but that becomes a rule of the
game actually. Another saying here, something that is not great for when you
actually are consuming it, you become the product. You will become the things
that actually publicizing, advertising. So, at the point of juncture now, sorry if I
run out of time, how do you untangle this?

A pretty easy issue that we need to talk about. How do we move ourselves from
this network that have been conflict as far as consumerism is concerned?
Indirectly sometimes we do not even realize. So, when you talk about online
education, this university is very mindful. What is online education is all about.
Do we have control over online? How do you make sure that the quality, how to
make sure that the values the online education stays fit at the same time?

So, I will stop there with putting this question to you. And these where the word
Sejahtera comes in, the words Sejahtera that talks about how to balance life

22

again. How do you bring this notion of kizuna and ikigai into our life? Using
our own notion and of what the Malaysian society is all about indeed about
Islamic understanding of perspective of consumerism is all about? How you put
this in place so that we can begin to reconstruct our life particularly post
pandemic that everything now seems to be you know caught in its own web?
How do we disentangle or unentangle ourselves in this particular notion?

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CHAPTER 2
RESPONSIBLE CONSUMPTION AND PRODUCTION:
THE ETHICAL CONSUMPTION AND BUSINESS ETHICS IN JAPAN

Prof Ayako Sendo
Vice President

Takushoku University, Japan

Thank you very much, and it's very honoured to participate in this roundtable.
Thank you very much. I‟m Ayako Sendo from Takushoku University. Firstly, I
want to introduce Takoshuko University a little bit. Actually, university begins
life at the Taiwan Association School founded by its first Chancellor Duke
Katsuria in 1900. At present we have 5 undergraduate faculties and 6 graduates‟
schools. In Faculty of Engineering and Graduate School of Engineering, we
have the students from Malaysia of the Malaysia Japan higher education
program and this year we have nine students and fourth year students. There are
57 students in total from first to seventh year of their program. This year in total
25 students from Malaysia, including the students of MJHEP. Figure 2.1
illustrates the history of Takushoku University in Japan.

Figure 2.1: The history of Takushoku University in Japan.

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And also, we have 13 research institutes, Sharia Research Institute studies
aspects of the Islamic world through essential of sharia. The name of director is
Professor Nubuo Mori. And also we have Junior College in Hokkaido in the
northern part of Japan High School and Japanese Language School.
About the relationship between International Islamic University, Malaysia and
Tokoshuko University, in 1988, we signed an academic exchange agreement.
And then in 2005 the president of IIUM and his wife, visited the Tokoshuko
University. And then in 2017 delegation of dominatory association
Representatives of the International Islamic University Malaysia visited the
University. This year the faculty and students of IIUM visited Tokoshuko
University and have interactive session between the faculty and the students.
Figure 2.2 summarises activities between IIUM and Takushoku University.

Figure 2.2: Activities between IIUM and Takushoku University in Japan.

Now I like to move to the presentation about ethical consumption in Japan.
Actually, this sustainability is a very popular one in Japan right now. Especially
in business world, many efforts and activities have done for sustainable
development goals (SDG). Then, how can we increase the sustainability of the
society. Figure 2.3 illustrates sustainability practices between companies,
consumers and investors.

25

Figure 2.3: sustainability practices between companies, consumers and
investors.

How can we increase the sustainability of the society? To increase social
sustainability, the conservation to environment and society throughout
companies supply chain essential. If company can change, maybe society will
change.
So, what is the driving power for changing company. Maybe we can say
consumers and investors are have the power through ethical consumption and
investment and so on. I would like to talk about ethical consumption in Japan.
Since 2015, SDG has been promoted in Japan by the government, companies,
NGOs and individuals it rapidly committed Japanese Society. According to
sustainable development report 2020, Japan is ranked 17th out of 166 countries.
But about the role, so it's responsible consumption and the production. this is
“orange” means “orange” means facilitates and significant challenges remain.
Figure 2.4 illustrates ethical consumption in Japan.

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Figure 2.4: Ethical Consumption in Japan.

So maybe we need more effort for this part, but it's considered to be effective in
achieving this goal with its ethical consumption, I think. According to
Consumer Affairs Agency with some survey about consumption in Japan.
According to that, ethical consumption in Japan is not yet widespread, but it has
been receiving attention recently. In addition, more than 80 % of consumers
agreed with environmental and socially conscious. Even though they do not
know the term ethical consumption. Why is ethical consumption in addition in
Japan? think the reason is these three? Figure 2.5 shows the results of Japanese
consumer awareness on ethical consumption.

Figure 2.5: Japanese Consumer Awareness on Ethical Consumption

27

First one is ethical Olympics, in 2012 Olympics and planning against the
organization organizing committee obtained the international standard for
sustainable events ISO20121. As an environmentally advanced country, Japan
wants to adopt ethical procurement practice in preparation for the 2020 Tokyo
Olympic and Paralympics. So, Japan wants to contribute to their promotion of
the ethical products and services in Japan. Figure 2.6 shows reasons for ethical
consumption in Japan.

Figure 2.6: Reasons for Ethical Consumption in Japan

The reason number two, supportive consumption after the outbreak in 2011
after the great east Japan earthquake supported consumption such as practicing
and good and service in the affected area and the traveling to the affected area.
Also spread across the country as part of this ethical consumption.
Number three, I think the people‟s value and ethics has changed especially
young people through social networking sites are becoming more and more
interested in ethical consumption. About the law in Japan, in 1968 the consumer
basically and then in 2004, consumer basic law Act was amended to help
consumers become more independent. This law defines consumer rights,
business owners‟ responsibilities and the responsibilities of government
agencies. Figure 2.7 highlights the development of consumer laws in Japan.

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Figure 2.7: Development of Consumer Laws in Japan

And then in 2012, “Act on Promotion of Consumer Education” was enacted to
encourage to create a society where consumers activities actively engage ethical
consumption, which is called “Consumer Civil Society”. By stage, from infancy
to old age, consumers are presented with the powers they should acquire.
In the summary, it is important not only for individuals‟ consumers to be self-
reliant but also for them to be aware of their social responsibility to act as
members of society and to be able to participate in the formation of the
consumer society and to conduct consumer education that enables them to do
so. About the education, if there is education, they teach shopping is a bought
with money. That means that consumer must learn that social meaning of
shopping. Consumer needs to know whatever has a right to choose and
guarantees the right to really choose goods services. Shopping is important for
businesses involved in the production and the sales of their goods since
consumer spending the amount of for about 60 percent of GDP. Figure 2.8
highlights the education for consumers.

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Figure 2.8: Education for Consumers in Japan

What costs are consumer choose to do have that significantly impact on society.
That is consumer behaviour will change society, means consumer have a
responsibility. Individual consumption chooses have a choice, have a public
nature and may also lead to external disabilities. In addition, a consumer‟s
choice not to buy can lead to corporate bankruptcy and improvement efforts.
The practice and study conditions for ethical consumption. That isn't practicing
behaviour is based on the ethics of the individual consumer. Figure 2.9a
highlights the conditions for ethical consumption in Japan.

Figure 2.9a: Conditions for Ethical Consumption in Japan

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So, these following four conditions are very important. First one is, consumers
have read enough information and have the ability to analyse. Number two,
consumers have a sense of ethics on which to base their decisions. Number
three, the market is supply with the goods and services that consumer demand.
Number four, consumers have the important power to buy the goods and the
service they want to buy.
In relation with number one condition, we can say there is a lot of high
misrepresentation by companies and desire consumers to be influenced by them
and that means supply create demand. Figure 2.9b highlights the conditions for
ethical consumption in Japan.

Figure 2.9b: Conditions for Ethical Consumption in Japan (Condition 1)

So, we need business ethics here. Also, if you want to buy a product that are
environmentally and human rights conscious which ethical consumption needs
to be, you need to pay attention to the process of producing the goods, but it is
different for the consumer. Figure 2.9c highlights the conditions for ethical
consumption in Japan.

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Figure 2.9c: Conditions for Ethical Consumption in Japan (Condition 2)

In relation with condition two, consumer have to had virtue. Number one virtue
is the private aspect of the budget. This is being recognized. For example,
making the leverage as small as possible. But number two, the public aspect of
budget is overlooked. People don't realize that consumer behaviour has a public
character that affects their well-being of other human beings. For example,
consumption behaviour suggests masks and this effect in demand in the covid-
19 crisis. Some people bought them up or resold them at the high price.
There is a need to force that social and ethical awareness. Some people say ESD
is very important. This is education for sustainable development. In this
knowledge, the people need imagination and empathy for others. For example,
concerned for the people who produce the goods we consume on the other side
of the world and also needed to pick about the meat we eat. There is still a little
interest in animals‟ welfare but we can find the restriction about need of animals
here in consumer in affairs agency final report of the ethical consumption.
Figure 2.9d highlights the conditions for ethical consumption in Japan.

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Figure 2.9d: Conditions for Ethical Consumption in Japan (Condition 3)

In relation with number three and four, we can say a consumer can only achieve
ethical consumption by choosing from the goods and services supply by
companies. So here we need a business ethics, but without consumer demands,
there can be no production of ethical goods, also environmental and human
rights etc. Goods are more costly. Price is greatly increases consumer buying
behaviour. Then what are the values and ethics of Japanese companies? Figure
2.10 summarises corporate values and business ethics of Sanpo-Yoshi.

Figure 2.10: Corporate Values and Business Ethics of Sanpo-Yoshi

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This is the traditional Japanese corporate value and business ethics, Sanpo-
Yoshi. Sanpo-Yoshi is a kind of a very traditional Japanese corporate
philosophy. Actually, only merchant created this philosophy. In Japanese, Yoshi
means good and Sampo means three sides. And these three sides consist of the
seller, and the buyer and society. Sanpo-Yoshi therefore is a good for the seller,
good for the buyer and also good for society. This is Omi merchants. Omi is
here, next to Kyoto. Now, at present we got here Shigato picture in Edo era they
call this Omi. The Omi merchant‟s business is full selling business, trading
across the country. Carrying the balance bar like this. Figure 2.11 depicts
Sanpo-Yoshi by Omi Merchants throughout Japan.

Figure 2.11: Sanpo-Yoshi by Omi Merchants throughout Japan.

Now this business developed to the big trading company such as Goto
Corporation, but main corporation in Japan. Omi merchant many of you
imagine believing Jodo Shinsu told that devoting oneself to the business in the
right thing to do. Therefore, religious and economic ethics can be much there.
Figure 2.12 summarises Sanpo-Yoshi values.

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Figure 2.12: Sanpo-Yoshi values

This Omi merchant was active from late Muromachi period to the major period
and very successful in Edo period. The motto of Omi merchant to what some
policy, the business provides very honest business to a customer. So, customer
can satisfy with shopping. Then customer trust business and also the business
company. A merchant gives social contribution activities to the society
community. So, the society and the communities really trust to business. This is
some example Japanese multidimensional stakeholder-oriented management.
It's a one of the origins of CSR in Japan. Figure 2.13 shows the long and short
terms perspectives of Omi Merchants.

Figure 2.13: Long and short terms perspectives of Omi Merchants

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The Omi merchant believed that giving back profits to society through a
charitable donation, but their responsibility and necessary for their long-term
business development. They recognize that profits are generated by trust based
on the relationship spirit for a long time. Traditional Japanese management by
the Omi merchants and the others was based on some policy business ethics and
maintained balance between economic rationality and social rationality. After
the collapse of the economy in the early 1990s, Japanese industry began to
emphasize western style corporate management network based on the short-
term perspective.

Nevertheless, the trend of CSR, and SDGs, as well as the change in value, due
to the COVID-19 disaster has changed the value of Japanese companies and
stakeholders. Some people propose this new type of Japanese style SampoYoshi
policy and this is management based on multi-dimensional stakeholders, but it's
not three, eight. Figure 2.14 summarises key elements in management-based on
“Happo-Yoshi.”

Figure 2.14: Management-based on “Happo-Yoshi”

So, we call this “Happo-yoshi”, Happo is eight sides. One is meant to grow in
the long term while creating shared value “CSV” by market holder with multi-
national stakeholders. This characteristic of this model is first one is trust-based
management and focus on long-term relationship and then creating benefits for
most parties instead of competing for projects.

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CHAPTER 3

RESPONSIBLE CONSUMPTION AND PRODUCTION:
THE NEW CONSUMERISM ERA - CHALLENGES &

OPPORTUNITIES

Dato’ Seri (Dr) Anwar Fazal
Consumer Association of Penang (CAP), Malaysia

Thank you so much prof, for the very kind introduction.
Assalamualaikum to every one of you, very good morning.

Thank you so much Tan Sri Dzul for inviting me to join this particular program.
I have a great admiration for IIUM and what you are doing there at the moment.
I work very closely with you and USM and you transformed it into a university
in a garden, you transformed it into a university where the values of Sejahtera
became very central to people's consciousness and mind and it has inspired a lot
of people and one of the very important principles I like to share always is what
I call the power of success.

Because the world is full sometimes of depression, is full of people who are
feeling that nothing can be done, full of people who just give up and allow then
the monsters you can say, to continue exploiting us. And what that Tan Sri Dzul
showed us in his slides. We had a situation where you had the things like the
military industrial financial complex that is running where war is a big business.
Industrialization was just for making money and actually destroyed the culture
of life. And that, the financial complexes where banking became totally a new
different thing where money itself became a commodity to buy and sell and you
have this whole culture of stock exchanges and money laundering and Treasure
Islands where people avoid paying taxes where they should be paying and
hiding them in these what are called Treasure Islands which were exposed with
the panama papers and all lists of countries and people and corporations were
shown how they hide wealth should that should actually have been shared with
the people but use it again then to make more money through manipulation of
financial system of the world.

So, you know, a term called not just gangsters but bankers was even coined at
one time because the mind set of people who are involved in the financial
businesses became of that kind where it is making money over money in that
which might be moved away even from the simple cycle of producing and
sharing.

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We have also seen what we 30 years, 40 years ago used to called coca-
colonialism. Coca-colonialism of how a product, just a mindset took over the
world and in it together with fast foods. People are talking now of fast food
nations. The whole world transformed into eating habits that were actually
destructive and we had seen amazing examples of what these destructive foods
actually doing to people. One of the big indicators is obesity. It's an amazing
indicator, Tan Sri Dzul, showed it in one of his beautiful slides itself. The world
is already 30% obese. Malaysia is 45% obese. You can see, you know, there‟re
some things that we are doing that are really shocking and you know what,
obesity leads to a whole range of health problems.

But very often, who cares because un-healthiness and illness is a big business
too and it creates you know, money for lots of people, you know, hospitals and
you know pharmaceuticals and medicines. So whole ill healthy business, you
know, begins to operate in the world, and it's so shocking that industries are
developing on things that we create; that are truly against our humanity and our
lives. There was a very wonderful person who nearly a century ago, studied
obesity and he studied obesity and he found what was it that was causing this
particular problem, and he found it was in fact, Industrial Revolution.

The Industrial Revolution changed the face of the west what led to, it led to
structured employment where you worked for certain hours so you rushed to
work, you ate quickly and then you sat still and just did your routines and in
there the machine; the introduction of machine, then you rush to have a quick
lunch. And then you come back after also doing that. So this whole accidentally
life was going and at the same time entirely because of the industrialist, the kind
of food that was being developed was again industrialized and you began to lose
all the natural strength of this.

And because of these two habits, we lost some cultures of the right kind of food
and also, munching; that is to chew your food until it disappears in your mouth.
We became as a world the swallowing society. We just grabbed and of course
when we swallow, the food doesn't get to the body; benefiting the body. It takes
a long time and then it accumulates in your stomach, for a long time. And then,
it doesn't impact on the removal of hunger because it doesn't impact on the
improvement of hunger. You eat more! Because the things that you ate are just
stuck in your stomach, they‟re not giving you but if you chew and you munch
the food until it disappears in your mouth, it‟s transformational because the food
just goes straight enriches the rest of your body and you don't have to eat more
and at all.

Fracturism is the name given to this whole movement that was nearly a hundred
years ago. Can you imagine that hundred years ago? And Charlie Chaplin and

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Rockefeller followed these diets because they found. My God, I mean, you
know, we're destroying ourselves at that time. But along the way, we lost it.
Fletcher himself, he wrote a wonderful book that was published in 2013 and the
term Fletcherism, you can Google it, it's actually a very interesting history of
such a simple thing that we begin our own lives which is eating properly.

So we had this huge problem that I think is one of the very simple indicators of
what is wrong with society and it's because it‟s impacting hugely the world, is
impacted hugely to Malaysia also particularly. The second, very simple
indicator that over the years that we found and also it is very simple how we are
managing. And then there is a group has developed an indicator called the old
shrewd indicator. How much is humanity eating from, eating away from the
earth and based on various criteria they measure. The world has overshot and is
overshot 1.6 times already now, this last day, 1.6 times. We are eating and using
the resources and all the capacities that we have 1.6 times more than actually we
need to in order to keep the balance and harmony. And interestingly Malaysia,
you know the study that was done, we are 2.2 that means we are overshot by 2.2
of the planet elements. That means we are eating 2.2 times more using and the
way we are structured. And that's also shocking!

So you can see, for us, we are in a situation that we not only face the sort of
emergency crisis. Globally, we have financial crisis globally. We have things
that are impacting us and also impacting on our survival. Very clearly. And I
think these shocking elements should be a wake-up call and a wake-up call and
needs us to transform how we are teaching, how we are behaving and how our
own societies should be organized. And so the consumer movement, we moved
away from the value of money. Value for money became value for society,
value for humanity, value for mother earth. And these became a kind of triangle
which also very interestingly was shown in how a number of the Japanese
traditions. They began to take this triangle together and make it in a balanced
and harmonious way.

So what do we do? What do we do? And I for many of us who; we decide to
throw away pessimism and optimism as words. We talk about possibilism, that
is: what can we do. What can we do, what are the things that we need to do and
we are finding that actually all over the world there great success stories and
great success stories they need to be shared. Of goodness, of you know, projects
or behaviors that unfortunately because these are not shared. These are not
shared, these are not celebrated, these are not becoming items in the curriculum
of institutions that are trapped in the teaching of the past of theories and you
know and very often completely irrelevant things in relation to where we are
going. And the institutions also become themselves; problems for the future that

39

they themselves need to be rethinking how they are managed and organized. So
what to become a possibilist?

That is you know, you have people who are PhDs, we need also people who are
what I call BSTs. And people who are GTDs. After a name. A PhD, BST and
GTD. BST is blood, sweat and tears. That means going to the ground
understanding exactly what is happening. Making up the decision also, that I‟m
just not only a scholar, I want to make a difference. I want to be part of the
action. That is necessary. That mindset will again have to be built into all our
teaching. The GTD is because sometimes you have all the best knowledge then
you have all the best passion but you don't know how to get things done. GTD:
Get Things Done. You need to also understand that systems of management and
organization where you can actually transform and be what I would call change
makers.

I love the term that Tan Sri used, “Sejahtera” because I think if there are some
very special words that we have globally for Malaysia, that would be a fantastic
world to use that I think encapsulates and captures all this very special things
that we are concerned about. For us in our work in the consumer movement in
the right livelihood award system. We have also taken up a word called right
livelihood and we had a logo also that it has the yin and yang which is the
scientific symbol. People always think it's a nice decoration saying, you know,
black and white, men and women. Actually, it‟s a scientific symbol of a shadow
made by a pole, by the sun on the earth and over 12 months the shadow that is
made makes that “S”. And the idea for this symbol, then they put a circle
around it, is to show the links between the heavens and the earth. To show that
the synchronization importance the importance between balance and harmony,
checks, you know and balances that we need in life. So very powerful symbol
and then we use another symbol which is the lotus flower. The lotus flower
grows up in the dirtiest water you can think and yet it comes out so beautiful,
you know, its colors and its perfume despite all that.

It shows you how in life, we need this concept of understanding the links
between the heavens and the earth and also how the worst places that we go to,
we can actually make the change and we can make a difference. And there are
people who are doing it, sprouting out great ideas and action. There was
somebody, a scientist who even studied how the lotus keeps itself clean and is
now known as “The Lotus Effect” and he created a chemical that you can paste
on the on the wall and it will take all the dirt out, you know, very fascinating
and this is the whole movement of biomimicry, you know, of trying to learn the
rich resources that are in nature itself and how nature itself does amazing things
that we all forget and very often the last thing that we used to study. To actually
learn from nature, we have become specialists in destroying nature which is you

40

know, amazing tragedy. And the Biomimicry Institute is a very fascinating place
that regularly gets the mindset to be thought of. And to begin to learn about our,
you can say, fellow occupants of mother earth in a way that they do become our
scholars. So for us then to begin to do things is becoming very necessary. And I
would like to share, for example, a source book that we have done. And it is
called “The Right Livelihood Way”. And it contains we can say, basic ideas and
people who are doing these kinds of successes.

One of my suggestions is that we might collaborate in doing a sourcebook at
IIUM called, “The Sejahtera Way” which takes up the whole concept and again
make it into a document that can be actually a source for learning about getting
things done that makes a better world. So this source where you celebrate the
power of success, you celebrate people who are making the changes, you
celebrate the inventions and ideas that are actually so beautifully natural and not
destructive as we have seen happening at the current world today.

One of the saddest things for example at the current moment is when we see
that inequity between the rich and the poor. I mean it's just unbelievable. And
the most shocking things very often is also the way in which if you want the
indicator is housing. We have large amounts of expensive housing awakened
which are built with materials using so much energy which continue to be
awakened and lights and electricity and roads and everything else constructed
for them and then we find the bottom 50 and their public housing is inadequate,
it‟s actually like concentration camps, so poorly maintained. And if you just
look at these two things in society again, just like obesity, we see a shocking
way in which we are actually dealing with issues in terms of even living. And
even if people grow up in these kinds of environment, they grow up also with
mental issues, they grow up with anger, they grow up with resentment, you
know, they grow up with all kinds of ways in which we create problems for the
future.

There are quite but one of the things that I also would like to suggest and to me
this is becoming more and more important and I think our colleague from Japan
shared this with us and that is beginning with yourself. And I have been talking
a little bit of seven chakras of good living. That in a way we want to make
ourselves better and at least seven chakras, a very simple.

We must go back to learning about breathing, you know. The world is
forgetting about breathing. We are no longer deep doing deep breathing and you
know exercises and clean air and really, sending the oxygen to our body and to
our brains. We now are breathing only very little; our lungs are used so little
instead we are poisoning the lungs. If you look at all the studies that have done,
you know all the rubbish that is accumulating because we allow the pollution.

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So breathing can be used as a very important model for you to actually
rejuvenating yourself and many traditional cultures, whether it's a yoga, tai chi
and many things in different cultures. Talk to us about breathing and we miss,
we miss that. We have sort of destroyed the simplicity that is so powerful to our
health

The second I talked about already, munching. It‟s simple. I mean, to become
that culture of munching and eating will be taught.

The third is simple walking. We were a walking world, you know, and then
we're slowly losing that and the whole culture of making that and designing our
buildings and so on for that. Like Putrajaya for example, was a magnificent
example of totally unfriendly a place. It‟s a place where even if you want to go
for one building to another building you actually have to begin to use the car to
move around when actually a design of a building could have been such that it
could have been designed in a way in which you have multiple like places that
you can walk to each other, you have gardens built in, you know in different
places and walking from one ministry to another and you can have the whole
beautiful urban designs that have been done for cities. Instead we make you
know, kinds of designs that looked pretty, got tress growing but the way it was
engulfed with highways and separateness and stuff, we didn't create a city of the
future, we created a city that's actually part of the model of how we are
destroying with the place. So even now designs of new kinds of buildings are
being rethought of all over the world how green buildings, green spaces are
being bought.

The fourth thing is smiling and laughter. We forget about the simple things, you
know. So much so now there is the whole global movement of laughter clubs.
And they really do, you know, the way it you know moves up your body and the
way you smile when you look at someone who's smiling, it makes you also
want to smile you know. And a whole culture of now is being transformed into
the happiness movement. Where begin, now to even develop all kinds of
indexes and indicators where the value of life becomes happiness. And some
days even coined the word that we must move away from capitalism and go into
happitalism. And there's World‟s Happiness day, World‟s Happiness index, we
have countries that have adopted happiness as their main philosophy also. So
simple things like smiling.

The fifth one is the culture of listening because very often even listening is just
like, you know, hearing. But actually, you take the word, the Chinese word for
listen is ting ting and it consists of three characters. The ear, the eye and the
heart, so listening is three dimensional. It's not like hearing. You see, look and

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feel them with your heart about this you know, so the whole listening culture.
Must also become something that becomes right from the beginning, national.

The sixth thing is the whole culture of lifelong learning. Lifelong learning and
that is people think only of those structured systems when you are learning and
then after that you just go on and do something else. How to make the idea that
you are constantly learning and people do that? And people do that where
hobbies and other things that used to be quite common also become learning
systems and you can have a whole range of things by which you actually grow
and learn and what I like to take from the Suffis saying you want to learn you
make the whole world your university. You want to grow; you make the whole
world your garden. And then you grow up in a different kind of mindset.

And the seventh. The last thing in terms of the seven chakras of good living is
empathy. How we build a culture of, where we are always caring about the
other person. You know, the principle about feeling, about other people, about
humanity and about mother earth also whom you also create you know, I can
think of as a human being. As a human living organism. And treating other
people like you like to be treated. And I think these sort of seven chakras a kind
of values on which we can build up a whole new behavioral that will create new
consumer, the consumer with a conscience, the consumer with a heart and you
can call the consumer that is ethical, the consumer which is ecological.

There are huge models for this kind of thing. I have you know, some what I
called, “21 Projects of Hope for the 21st Century” and that I've shared some of
them with you, just now, the simplicity institute, the slow food movement, the
happiness movement, the magazine called yes! The journal for positive futures,
you know the story of stuff where beautiful animated things are designed to
show how water, rubbish and all the things are treated and series of beautiful
animations should become a standard thing that every single student should be
watching to learn about this. “Buy Nothing Day”, you know, the earth charter,
the biomimicry institute I mentioned, an ombudsman for future generation‟s
distance thinking.

I'm so glad IIUM has actually a UNESCO Chair for Future Studies. I mean, it‟s
really a remarkable thing because distance thinking it's so essential and our
plans for making sure the younger generations are involved and they want to get
an ombudsman for this. Making ecocide which is what's happening to the
global, a crime movement, the Schumacher College which is a very interesting
capacity building of the kind that we want to see. There are UNESCO culture of
movement, they have 99 ways to make peace with six different categories,
which make a wonderful background. The Global Ethics where we learn from
world religions about universal values and peace. The United Nations days of

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action. And one of the things that I would also like to suggest is to make all
those United Nations days, world happiness day, world mother earth day, world
human rights day, solidarity with migrants day, tomorrow is anti-corruption
day, you know, then we have human rights day coming after that and migrants
one coming on the 18th, incidentally both human rights day and migrants day
were actually out of Malaysia as part of the movement of campaigning that we
did because we were forgetting that we the whole world is a nation of
immigrants, you know, when we move when we look at look at history. And
looking at the Quran also, the wonderful saying, “tread lightly on earth”. It is a
surah in the Quran. And a wonderful title of a book, that is amazing book,
which I have to send to Tan Sri for quite some time already with taking
religions and nature and looking at the future of how we can take inspiration
from our spiritual virtues.

So these are some of the things and I think for getting things done. Having a
program where every student at IIUM will have to go through a program, an
orientation program that takes things like the sustainable development goals, get
them oriented to it and make every one of them during that period agree to
become a champion of one of the goals and to do a project that is linked up to
one of the goals and that becomes part of their mindset at the University itself.
During the period that they have to become a champion one of the goals and do
this particular project you can have them taking on like I said, you know project
related to days of action you know, many activities there are huge activities and
I think if this particular book which I will send a copy and a link to everyone.
We can look and examine this. That‟s one of the possibilities that every student
will be given a new version and updated and the way in which it can be related
to many of the discussions that we have here. Then we can have a tool that can
help us to make a better world that is more sustainable, that is fair, that is just.

So, thank you so much Tan Sri for having me here. Thank you so much for
giving me a chance to share my feelings, my thoughts and my enthusiasm.
Although I'm going to be celebrating my 80 years. I said, “well, I'm thinking of
the next 80 years and I have lots of more work to do which I‟m going to enjoy.

Thank you.

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CHAPTER 4

RESPONSIBLE CONSUMPTION AND PRODUCTION:
MUA’MALAH ECOSYSTEM POST PANDEMIC: POTENTIALS FOR

ZAKAT, WAQF INNOVATIVE MANAGEMENT
Prof Dato’ Dr Noor Inayah Yaakub

My topic for today‟s presentation is Muamalah Ecosystem Post Pandemic:
potentials for zakat and wakaf innovative management. If you see from my
second slide, it sounds like my presentation is very into the shariah paper, or
rather Islamic laws.

But bear in mind that my paper is going to identify the potentials for the zakat
and wakaf instruments in ecosystem of transactions; muamalah. If I may
translate into English, it is a transaction, daily transactions by people.
So today I‟m going to share what are the possible potentials for zakat and waqaf
Innovative management post-pandemic. So, if we see my second slide, why do
we have to comply with Sharia? It is because of regulator or Creator? In this
context, perhaps I may share to comply with Shariah in all the transactions daily
is because of the Creator. Then, as Islamic worldview for purpose of life. Let
me also share the two connotations which are very materials like vicegerents
and worship.

45

So when we talk about principles like contract of tabarru‟at in Arabic means a
contract without any consideration, like love we don‟t love in order to get back
love. We give love without any consideration because we give with full
attention of what we want to do with our own heart from bottom of our heart. In
this context, we deliver anything because for the sake of the Creator. So with
that as a background.

My next slide is to show how these philanthropies of wakaf, zakat and I also
include other tabarru‟at, disposed of ownership like hibah (gift), or wasiat or
faraid and also element of halal. And I‟m very glad to know that the Takoshuko
University also have Shariah Wing‟s over there and look forward to have a
collaboration in shariah perspective in the context of consumerism. So if you

46

look at all the five blue boxes now we have to identify in order to look at this
new, I considered new because zakat punctually stated as instruments to take
care of the consumerism so far. It is very infant.
It‟s very in fact, so now we see how people consuming goods and services in
the era of covid-19 and also after covid-19 and these new habit forcing retailers
to think out of box. And we as buyers also will think out of box in order to get
what we want. Then, do we have a decision-making being a consumer and also
retailer in this special condition of life? And we can also divert these contexts
into the dynamicity of the ecosystem of buying and purchase. And now we see
that everything has been changed, especially in the conduct. So, I‟m also happy
to hear that we come up with the trust base management, Value Based
Management.
These are all very much similar to the concept of tabarru‟at transactions. So
because of these circumstances I think, then as Muslims ecosystem, Muslim has
to bear in mind the principles and objectives of shariah, objective of life. So
may I reiterate, first, to protect the religion, to protect the life, to protect our
intellectual, to protect dignity and descendants, and also to protect property and
wealth. So these should be the main basis for every Muslims when dealt with
transactions as a way of life. So all the light blues small boxes as navigators on
these lines like improve social welfare, okay.

How to promote economic growth? This is to link the potentials of wakaf and
zakat other tabarru‟at instruments in order to be together as a platform in the

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context of era COVID and post COVID. Third one, to help community
survives. And the current incident, the current event happened in Malaysia now
is the by housing the ministry where they have a so-called project of houses for
B40 proposed buyer or tenant on a wakaf land. So these are a new project
developed by the Ministry itself. We have identified wakaf land around
Malaysia. So Ministry of Housing and Development will build house for a poor
and the poor will become a tenant that house. And because the land is the
subject matter of State Religious Council and it is still under the custody of the
State Religious Council, and zakat and wakaf support program.
Maisir is the gambling. Of course, we want; we will not want our people to
involve heavily, and we want to eliminate completely habit of doing gambling
in this context of new normal. Then how to produce and how to guarantee the
debt-free ecosystem, so zakat and wakaf is seen to help maximum potentials for
debt free ecosystem and also riba-free ecosystem, and this eventually will
reduce inequality.
Now my sixth slides is to show the main target, perhaps the immediate target by
having the two Innovative instruments like zakat and wakaf, is to minimize
distress surroundings and because we always know “wa ma qalaktul jinna wal
insan illa liyakbudun”, and we know that there are two specific of ibadah,
general ibadah goes to all types of ibadah with intention to attain the pleasure
of God.

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And another specific ibadah such as praying, fasting, pilgrimage and zakat. So
when we talk about zakat, it is very clear. It is a specific ibadah and the pillars
of Islam. But when we talk about wakaf, it is actually only qat‟iyyah mentioned
in one hadith, (hadith). So the word sadaqah jariah is actually wakaf and wakaf
has been tremendously debated by ulama to include as investment as well as the
saving as well as the sukuk, many other instruments for financial development
in context of sharia.
So may I just share the current WHO report regarding the major destruction to
critical Mental Health Services.

As you can see in the red circle I summarizing over 60% reported deceptions to
Mental Health Services for vulnerable people including Children and
adolescents 72%, older adult 70% and woman requiring antenatal or post-natal
Services 60% and so on. This is to show that the statistic of people; vulnerable
people especially perhaps we may also say that in the context of talking about
covid-19, the vulnerable not only goes to the actual vulnerable perhaps normal
people will also be included in that vulnerable because vulnerable now has to be
Revisited in terms of the terminology.
So my next slide is on a bit for the say of those who are not familiar with
Malaysia, the commercial transaction with regards to the Islamic commercial
transaction.

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Is provided in our main constitution of Malaysia, but the only difference is, as
compared to other personal Muslim laws, personal Muslim law is governed by
the state law, but for commercial matters including Islamic financial matters, it
is the jurisdiction of the federal; except zakat and wakaf, always goes to the
state.

Things like financial instruments, the product of financial instruments belongs
to Islamic Banks will go to civil and federal legislations.

This is to show that perhaps to me. I see this is the strength of Malaysian setup
governance because the zakat is in State Authority and wakaf is in State
Authority and being a State Authority, it will go back to what Professor Sendo
said trust base management. Wakaf and zakat 100% related to trust and value
based. And I am suggesting and proposing here that in order to safeguard all
people from hardship of life. Perhaps we may initiate all these instruments into
the so-called governance of Foundation. Like the Foundation of Wakaf,
Foundation of Zakat. All states in Malaysia Under one roof as foundation.

The objective of these instruments of zakat and wakaf to be part and parcel of
the ecosystem when dealing with the hardship of people during the post-
COVID-19 and COVID-19 is because we want to have a kind of ummah with
taqwa environment. This is to show that when people always being trained to

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