ISLAMIC POVERTY MANAGEMENT: CASE STUDY ON KOPERASI BELA RAKYAT (KOBERA)
Taha Mohd Omar
ISLAMIC DEVELOPMENT MANAGEMENT (ISDEV)
SCHOOL OF SOCIAL SCIENCES
MASTER CANDIDATE
Introduction
Poverty management is a worldwide problem, many kinds of efforts and methods has been applied to overcome poverty problems, even though there has been many cases whereas poverty has been reduce but poverty will never be eradicate totally (M. Syukri Salleh: 2000). Poverty has been defined through kinds of aspects. Sometimes poverty depends on periods of time, situation, and place. According to M. Syukri Salleh (2000: 103) In developing countries, poverty usually refers to starvation, hunger, and unemployment. While in a developed countries, poverty refers to people with low income, unable to fulfill their daily needs like other normal households that has stable income. According to Shihabuddin Al-Masri (115: 1948) there are two kinds of classification of the poor according to Islamic jurisprudence (fiqh). First, are those who do not have the strength to earn money that can even be enough for half of their requirements in a day, at the same time they don’t have any sort of qualification to get a well paid job to fulfill their needs. At the less extreme level is the second group, this group has sufficient sum of money to fulfill their daily needs, but not every day, sometimes when they need more, the money is not enough, the first party is called faqeer and the second is miskin.
What is Islam’s reflection and impression on poverty and how does Islam manages poverty? Most Islamic scholars expressed that poverty needs to be eradicated, but on the other hand there are many Hadith and incidents in Islamic history that tends to supports poverty and even looks at poverty as a positive matter (M. Syukri Salleh: 1999). M. Syukri Salleh (1999) describes poverty in Islam has some positive elements. First the Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) use to pray and ask from Allah s.w.t to be put in a poor condition. Second, poverty is the symbol of the righteous. Third, poverty can be the cause and reason to Allah’s mercy. Fourth, the poor will be granted special rewards from Allah s.w.t in the hereafter. For example the Hadith that has been reported by Abu Hurairah, the Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) saying: The poor will enter paradise half a day before the rich, and half a day in the hereafter is equal to five hundred years (Tirmizi Hadith No. 2353). The way Islam manages with poverty differs from the West, if we take a close look through Islamic history it is proven that the Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) reacted differently with separate individuals among his companions. Some of them would be left to be poor even though they had the capability to be rich, like the ahlus-suffah from both the Muhajirin and Ansar tribes. So how did the Prophet (pbuh) use to manage against this type of poor people? Among the methods that has been practiced by the Prophet (pbuh) is the approach to help each other and acting fairly and just among the poor, this way even though the ahlus-suffah were poor, they did not trouble the Muslim community in Madinah (M. Syukri Salleh, 54-56: 2004). This research is carried out to identify how the poor people in Malaysia are being managed. As a Muslim country, Malaysia should adopt Islamic values in managing poverty, like the Prophet (pbuh) used to practice during his time.
Research Background
Malaysia has taken some steps to overcome poverty amongst the poor. The Malaysian Government started a scheme in 2008 under the Suruhanjaya Koperasi Malaysia (SKM) Cooperative Commission of Malaysia to introduce a program called Koperasi Bela Rakyat (KOBERA), which has been officially presented by the previous Prime Minister Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi. The purpose of this program was especially to manage poverty all over the country in 576 state assemblies (Dewan Undangan Negeri (DUN). The KOBERA program targets the poor who are categorize by their conditions, they are divided into 3-4 categories. The first category is the ‘household heads’ where their monthly salary is below the poverty-line income (Pendapatan Garis Kemiskinan (PGK) for a basic household. 440RM per month is the poverty-line level for meals in a hardcore-poor (miskin tegar) household and 750RM per month is the poverty-line level for meals and non-meal items in a normal poor household (KPWKM: 2009). This is also called income poverty, it is usually revealed by means of a ratio of declared poor to the total population and households whose income or consumption is found to be below that of a set poverty line are defined as poor (Destremau, 2001: 130). The second category is individuals aged 18 years old with a monthly salary below poverty-line income per capita. The last category is the Community leaders, who are involved with the poverty program in the assembly as a catalyst to the society (SKM: 2011).
The above categories are the target groups for the poverty management scheme. According to an Assistant Officer[1] at the Cooperative Commission of Malaysia in Penang, these groups are being help by the Malaysian Government since 2008 by receiving 30,000RM to start off any kind of business that is relevant to the community, but it has been rather disappointing results throughout the years. None of any poor groups in KOBERA came to satisfy the SKM regarding their businesses, most of them could not even came out with a proposal on any good business. Yet the opportunities, support and assist have been given to these poor people, but very few number of the KOBERA groups turn out to be successful. The research wants to identify the possible issues and problems from an Islamic perspective, what could be the cause of failure in the KOBERA groups all over Penang.
Problem Statement
The KOBERA is a program established by the Cooperate Commission of Malaysia to manage poverty and help the poor to start small businesses. Among the steps of management taken to achieve the above goals are to provide capital to fund businesses and employment opportunities (SKM: 2011). However, the KOBERA groups are facing enormous issues and problems that are holding back the growth and development of the KOBERA groups, despite being established almost three years ago. Therefore this research would like to endorse a research to identify the failure faced by KOBERA and suggesting an appropriate module to manage poverty. The KOBERA groups attains an amount of capital from the Cooperation to start any type of business, and if the proposed business succeeds, the particular KOBERA group will receive continuous capital assistance from the Cooperation to make the current business persistent[2]. This research will focus on the first category of poor that has been mention in the research background, which is household-heads. What is causing them to fail in managing poverty although positive opportunities been given. This research will try to analyze the scheme’s management in KOBERA through the Islamic perspective of poverty management.
Research Objectives and Questions
The mentioned problems will be elaborate according to the numbers of objectives that wants to be achieved by the researcher and in his view is important. The research’s general objective is to come up with a certain Islamic poverty management module for KOBERA, that later can also be used by other cooperative bodies. The general objectives are then brake down into specific objectives as listed below.
| Research Objectives | Research Questions |
| 1. To identify the range of the current management of the poor in KOBERA | 1. What kind of poverty management is currently being used in KOBERA? 2. Does the current poverty management at KOBERA needs to be improve? |
| 2. To analyze the KOBERA poverty management in the light of Muhammad Syukri Salleh’s thought on poverty management | 3. What is Muhammad Syukri Salleh’s thought on poverty management? 4. Does the existing poverty management at KOBERA differs from Muhammad Syukri Salleh’s thought on poverty management or agree? |
| 3. To suggest the findings and make recommendations of poverty management for KOBERA | 5.Will the Islamic poverty management approach give an impact and sustainability to KOBERA? |
Bibliography
Blandine Destremau, Francis Wilson (2001). Poverty Reduction: What Role for the State in Today’s Globalized Economy, New York: CROP International Studies in Poverty Research.
http://www.kpwkm.gov.my/new_index.php?page=kpwkm/menu_nkra&menu=kpwkm/miskin_tegar_nkra&lang=malay. Access date: 24.01.2011
http://www.skm.gov.my/kobera. Access date: 25.12.2010
Muhammad Bin Isa At-Tirmizi (1990). Jami-Tirmizi, Lahore: Maktaba Rehmania. Vol. 1.
Muhammad Syukri Salleh (1999). Islam dan Kemiskinan, Majalah Pemikir: Membangun Minda Berwawasan. Vol. 18, Pg. 153-173.
Muhammad Syukri Salleh (2000). Pengurusan Pembangunan Islam: Prosiding Seminar, Pulau Pinang: Islamic Development Management Project. Pg. 96-172.
Muhammad Syukri Salleh (2004). Pembasmian Kemiskinan: Bandar dan Luar Bandar, Petaling Jaya: Institut Perkembangan Minda (INMIND). Pg. 51-103.
Shihabuddin Al-Masri (1948). Anwar-ul-Masalik, Surabaya: Dar-ul Ihya-ul-Kutub Arabiyah.
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