The Konrad Adenauer Foundation (KAF), named after the first German Chancellor, was founded more than 50 years ago. Deriving its values from Catholic Christian Social Teachings and Protestant Christian Ethics, and against the historical backdrop of Nazism, it strives for peace, freedom and justice by promoting universal values shared by the different cultures and religions on earth. The political foundation of the German Christian Democratic Party, which has been in Malaysia for more than 30 years, has its share of detractors among some Muslim groups, and was recently attacked by an Umno delegate at the party general assembly for undermining Islam. KAF's representative in Malaysia, Peter Schier, responds to these criticisms, and talks to JACQUELINE ANN SURIN about the organisation's work here to promote greater understanding and harmony in a pluralistic society.

Peter Schier: First of all, the main goals of the foundation worldwide, and naturally also in Germany, is to promote democracy, the rule of law, human rights, and the very unique German concept of 'social market economy', that is a market economy with social, ecological and ethical responsibilities.

In addition to that, especially in developing countries, we are also trying to contribute to the eradication of poverty. But that only concerns quite poor countries, and the focus of our work there is more on structural political changes and on good governance and to promote political reforms which might finally lead to a political leadership which is committed to fight poverty.

In Malaysia, we have been here for about 30 years. The foundation is 50 years old this year. So, Malaysia is one of our oldest partner countries ... (pauses) Because of the political situation, especially before the new prime minister came into power, we (pauses) could not work very intensively to promote democracy, the rule of law and human rights. Because, as you know, the former prime minister did not put an emphasis on developing these aspects of the political system.

Ever since the new prime minister took office, we have been much more active in the field of promoting democracy, the rule of law and human rights. We have been particularly active in supporting the prime minister to fight corruption.

We have organised a number of seminars with regards to that subject and we have published a book by (former Transparency International Malaysia president) Tunku Abdul Aziz, Fighting Corruption: My Mission (gestures to the book on his table) for which the prime minister wrote a very beautiful preface. That is one aspect that we have been quite active since he (Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi) took office.

Before, we were very active in promoting this very unique German concept of 'social market economy'. We did this and we are still doing it with the Malaysian Institute of Management (MIM) where we support three leadership courses (for managers in the public and business sectors in three age groups). All the three programmes, in fact, are designed to instill social, ecological and ethical responsibility in the participant. Make them more aware, you know, about the results of their decisions in business life.

Profit, yes, but not to the detriment of the workers' health. Profit, yes, but not to the extent that you exploit your workers or your staff. Profit, yes, but not to the detriment of nature. In order to make profit, you should not pollute the environment, you should not destroy the environment. And 'ethical responsible', the third constraint of what we call a 'social market economy', is that, in order to make profit, we should not cross certain ethical norms, for example, the trading in women and minors. Profit may not justify everything. The dignity of humankind has to be respected and safeguarded.

Then, in Sabah and Sarawak, we have two partners. Azam (Angkatan Zaman Mansang or Movement for Progress) in Sarawak and IDS, the Institute of Development Studies in Sabah. With Azam, we are now doing a women's programme, capacity building for rural women so that they become more knowledgeable and are able to solve the problems they face in daily life. To enable them to increase their income, but also to enable them to defend their rights, to set up organisations, to deal with bureaucracy, etc etc. And then we have a youth leadership programme with the Sarawak group.

Then, another important partner is IKD, the Institute of Policy Research. This is the think-tank for Anwar Ibrahim, and I would like to stress that we started the cooperation with IKD when Anwar was deputy prime minister. But, when he fell out of favour and was put in jail, we did not decide to cut our relations with IKD because we believe, that if the government or the leader of the government has a problem with a politician, we do not necessarily also have to have a problem with that politician.

Also, and this is the crucial point, we were of the opinion that the treatment of Anwar was unjust and definitely not according to the principles of the rule of law for which we stand. For us, that was a matter of principle and of solidarity with a long-time partner who had been treated unjustly.

But, I want to say, we are not supporting (Parti) Keadilan (Rakyat) as a party. Ya. We stand for principles. We are, in fact, working with every political party which is interested to work with us. We stand for principles, for political principles, not for political parties.

Now, recently, I would say since I arrived in 2002, they are more and more promoting a concept of a more open-minded Islam. Khalid Jaafar, the director of IKD, calls it 'enlightened Islam', Islam Tanwiri. And I think it's a very interesting concept because it favours pluralism. So, we are supporting that.

And also publications, mainly translations of reform-oriented Islamic literature so that the Malays will be able to have access to these kinds of books, for example, like this book (picks up a translated book Islam & Dasar Pemerintahan) by Ali (Abdul) Raziq which is about the relationship between religion and politics, state and religion.

We have funded this translation of the life and sayings of Confucius into Malay so that the Malays will be able to read about Confucius.

They (IKD) also have a website, which we are also supporting. The main gist is, you know, to publish books in the Malay language so that the Malays will be able to broaden their understanding of different cultures, ya. And alternative trends in cultural and even religious matters.

Because our world is plural, we have to accept pluralism in politics and also in religion. And we are supporting this pluralist approach.

This is mainly the work of our office itself. We have Malaysian partners with whom we have a contract. I mentioned MIM, IKD, Azam, IDS, with them we enter into an agreement and they get a fixed sum each year so they know how much they have, and then they make a proposal, how many seminars, what kind of publications they are going to do.

Apart from that, my office has its own funds and we are again working with Malaysian partner organisations but on a case-to-case basis to undertake a number of programmes. For example, one of the most important partners is the Malaysian Strategic Research Centre of (Abdul) Razak Baginda. And this is, er, an organisation which is perceived as being the think-tank of the Deputy Prime Minister (Datuk Seri) Najib (Razak).

Our relationship is already several years old, and with him, with this centre, I have started an MSRC-KAF inter-cultural discourse series, ya. (Takes out three books) These are the three books which have been published so far: the first on the Islamic state issue, the second on the causes of terrorism and the third on education across ethnic and religious boundaries.

We are a bit late on another book on the Malaysian and international experiences in fighting terrorism. And, we might have another book on education because my friend Razak and I believe that only through education can we change our societies for the better.

The whole range, it's exactly as you said, but also actually to promote a better understanding between the different cultures and religion. Since I took over the office in the summer of 2002, I have been very active in focusing on promoting a better understanding between the different religions and cultures, especially after 9/11.

And regarding this dangerous tendency of thinking, that a clash of civilisations is inevitable, I thought it was of utmost importance to start a programme which tries to prevent this clash of civilisations. Because I think there is, and there should be, an alternative to such a nightmare for humankind. A clash of civilisations would be a horrible scenario for all of us. It would mean that we would again use cultural, or so-called cultural, so-called religious arguments, in fighting each other, in killing each other. And, I think, that is something which we definitely have to try to prevent.

We cannot allow this to happen as responsible citizens and political organisations. It is our moral and political obligation to prevent this from happening. The three main goals of the foundation are peace, freedom and justice. These three goals are very important and you have to understand these goals against the background of German history, especially in the first part of the 20th century.

Firstly, two world wars were started from German ground. So, the experience of war, of the complete destruction, not only of neighbouring countries but also of our own country, the division of Germany into two separate states, and most importantly, the killing of tens of millions of people on all sides has taught us the lesson from our own history that we have to do everything to prevent war. We have to use peaceful means in order to solve the problems which we are facing. So, this is why to promote peace is one of our main goals.

Secondly, to promote freedom means to promote democracy, to promote human rights and to promote the rule of law.

Against the background of the Hitler dictatorship and the killing of six million European Jews in German concentration camps, I think that it is a very obvious lesson from our history that democracy, the rule of law and the strict protection of human rights are the necessary elements of a political system that can best prevent an inhuman and criminal dictatorship from coming up again in Germany and in other countries.

But it is not enough to establish democratic structures, to establish institutions of the rule of law and to write the protection of human rights in the constitution and the laws of the land. We also have to educate the people, even the public servants and the politicians, to become and to stay good democrats, to respect the rule of law and to protect human rights.

It is not enough to just have the democratic structures and the institutions of the rule of law and a human rights commission but we need active democrats to make democratic institutions work, we need defenders of the rule of law so that it will prevail against those who want to establish the rule of one, or a few men, and we need human rights activists who constantly ring the bell when human rights are threatened.

This is why civic education is in fact in the centre of the work of the foundation. We try to instil democratic values into the participants of the seminars, the workshops and the conferences we organise. And many of our publications are written with that aim, too.

Thirdly, the notion of justice does not only mean equal rights and equal opportunities for everybody but also social justice. Without justice it is difficult, if not impossible, to have peace and freedom. Peace, freedom and justice are, in fact, interdependent.

Yes, for sure. We have been supporting the efforts to draft a bill to set up an Interfaith Commission since the end of 2003. I had been asked to support this initiative at an earlier stage but then some people told me that I should stay out because, according to them, the approach being used by the Steering Committee Towards the Formation of an Interfaith Commission of Malaysia was, or would be, an approach excluding so-called 'mainstream' Muslim groups, and therefore, I did not commit the foundation to support the initiative.

At a later stage, another demand was made for support. This time I talked to quite a large number of people in order to check these allegations that this initiative excluded Muslim groups. I participated also in a meeting of the Steering Committee where I asked many questions. And only after I had assured myself that this approach was not exclusive but inclusive, that everybody had been invited to participate and nobody was kicked out, I decided to support this initiative because I believed that the setting up of an Interfaith Commission in order to promote a better understanding among the different religions and also to address issues of concerns with regards to practical relations between the religions, is a good approach to further harmony and stability in society. Institutionalised peaceful dialogues and discussions are always better than conflict or even fighting with the sword and killing each other.

If I had perceived that this initiative would go against a certain religion, especially Islam, I would have never supported it. The problem is that those Muslim groups or individuals who portray themselves as being 'mainstream' or representing 'mainstream Islam' are using distortions and even lies with regards to the commission project.

The Interfaith Commission, as has been clearly stated in the draft bill, would just have an advisory function, and would not be able to decide on matters like apostasy, or other sensitive hot issues. (It would have) no adjudicative powers at all. These are the facts but the detractors of the IFC initiative continue to spread the lie that the IFC would have adjudicative powers.

In addition, what is also very important to know is that the composition of the commission would finally be decided by the prime minister and the cabinet, and the King would nominate the members of the commission. And the draft also makes it very clear that the majority of the members of the commission would be Muslims. So, what is there to fear? There is nothing to fear.

These people are extremists. There is no other word for it. And their interest is not the truth, but they have a personal and political agenda. So, they are using all kinds of allegations, distortions and lies in order to put me and the foundation in a bad light.

Quite a number of these people have a PAS background or are even more extremist than PAS. It seems that after having lost severely in the 2004 elections, PAS has decided to use extra-parliamentary means to score political points. Not surprisingly, they have resorted to religious issues to attack democracy, the rule of law, liberalism, pluralism and the government of the new PM by extra-parliamentary means which include demonstrations and various kinds of threats.

Well, first of all, when you are a citizen of a country, or a foreigner residing in a foreign country, what you have to respect is the Constitution which is the basic law, as well as the other laws of the land. I don't think that 'cultural sabotage' or 'interfering in the internal affairs' is included as a crime in the criminal code in Malaysia or any other civilised country.

'Interference' or 'sabotaging' are accusations mainly used by dictators or extremists who do not accept the freedom of expression, the freedom of opinion, the freedom of assembly, the freedom of the press, etc.

They only want to allow opinions raised which are in line with their thinking. This is why they are against the notion of pluralism and liberalism. Because they are extremists. These people, in fact, want to establish a dictatorship clad in the seemingly pious kaftan of theocracy.

Definitely, without any doubt. If you are against pluralism, you are in favour of a dictatorship. If you only allow one opinion to be voiced, what kind of system is that? It is a dictatorship. Full stop.

Definitely. Because of its diversity Malaysia is a very important country. It is a microcosm of the future globalised society with people of all religious and ethnic backgrounds. Therefore, we have a lot to learn from but also to give to Malaysia.

Peace is a universal value. Freedom and justice, too, are not only enshrined in the German Constitution but in many other Constitutions in the world. In fact, these values are part of quite a number of international conventions, a number of them ratified by Malaysia.

We are active in over 120 countries, and we have never experienced any big problem with our activities overseas... There is nothing wrong in promoting universal values. In fact, every country should be happy that a foundation like ours is working in the national and international arena to promote these values.

The basis of the Global Ethic project is the 'Declaration Toward a Global Ethic' which was passed by the Parliament of the World's Religions in September 1993. This declaration is the first document in the history of religions, in the history of humankind which was adopted by representatives of the different religions about the common moral values and ethical standards they share.

And herein lies the tremendous significance of the declaration for the future of humankind. And when you look at the signatories to this declaration, you can find also at least two names of prominent Malaysian Muslims: Tan Sri Ahmad Sarji (Abdul Hamid) who is the chairman of Ikim (Institute of Islamic Understanding, Malaysia) and Datuk Dr Ismail Ibrahim, presently ambassador to Saudi Arabia; before he was the chairman of the National Fatwa Council, and before that, he was CEO of Ikim. Also, the Dalai Lama has signed it on behalf of Tibetan Buddhists.

The source of spiritual and religious wisdom and the basis of support of the Global Ethic project is very broad. To date, no inter-religious document has found such a broad base and it is, therefore, of tremendous importance for peace-building among religions, cultures and civilisations.

Because Malaysia is a microcosm of the future global society, the Kuala Lumpur office of KAF together with the Malaysian Interfaith Network (MIN) and the Global Ethic Foundation have published the 'Declaration Toward a Global Ethic' in Malaysia in English, Bahasa Malaysia and Chinese.

After the Malaysian Interfaith Network was set up end of 2002, we entered into an intense but informal cooperation with them to promote the Global Ethic project in Malaysia.

• Faith in humanity