THE ECONOMIC DILEMMA OF THE MUSLIM WORLD

298 ASMA RASHIDIT~~ Economic Dilemma of the Muslim World
of education, health care and employment on the axis of its birth, that is to say.
above 90 % .
(2) A new-born baby arrives on the Tangier-Djakarta axis. It will
also submit to the law of satistics. That is to say, its destiny would be realised
in proportion to less than 40% of education, health care and employment. In
other words, the child would realise itself on the level of its talents in
accordance with its biological equation but in proportion to the social equation
of those who had preceded it in society. For example, if it is born in India, it
would have, regardless of its talents, 25% chance of being an untouchable and
75 % chance of being unemployed.
These two suppositions make it clear that the conduct of an individual
is bound with social conditions preceding his birth. As a consequence, his
efficacy is conditioned by the social equation he finds in his cradle. It imposes
on his behaviour a sort of inevitability which he cannot get rid of except by an
action that would change his social equation, as happcned in Japan during what
is known as the Mciji period, and in China during the revolution, in particular
the cultural revolution.
The people living on the northern axis settled the problem of the social
equation spontaneously through successive experiments since the beginning of
the industrial era. This process led to the appearance of Taylor3 who formulated
his doctrine (Taylorism) as a completion of what time had wrought in the
substance of the social equation which has produced him and his ideas on the
organisation of production.
Dr Schacht himself was but another such product. He automatically
received the same social equation and proceeded to apply it automatically even
on alien soil, as in his project for Indonesia. He did so without reflecting that
the Indonesian society still stood in need of someone who would formulate its
social equation enabling it to implement successfully, on both individual and
collective level, any project requiring orderly and systematic action. Hence, we
can say that the Schacht project failed in Indonesia, despite abundently fulfilling
all the technical and material conditions, for lack of a tacit condition. Since it
did not lie within the field of his competence as an economic specialist, Dr.
Schacht did not think of it.
Certain studies being undertaken in the field of economic development
since the last decade, especially in Paris, scem to show concern for the aspect
we have designated as "social equation", whatever be the name chosen for
indicating it and whatever be the method adopted for its interpretation.
It is noteworthy that certain individuals in the Third World have also
started to contribute their efforts towards this new ijlihod and to enrich it with
the results of experiments gained through their failure or semi-success, as in the
case of the experiment described in detail by an Indian agricultural expert. He
recalls how he worked with U.N. technical advisers for a period of five years,
during which certain positive results were realised because of the technical
method applied under the supervision of the advisers. However, as related by