Dian Tri Wahyuni

A Great Solution of the Global Financial Crisis

The global financial crisis started to show its effects in the mid 2007 to the mid 2008. The stock markets fell, large financial industries collapsed, and the economy condition was very bad around the world. Capitalism, the most successful wealth-creating economic system that the world has ever known, was also accompanied by a periodic recession. By the beginning of the twenty-first century, America, a leader of the world economy, had been significantly weakened. It was caused by failure of mayor capitalist power in managing some efforts to deal with international financial markets which were unstable. Then, many leaders started doubting the future of global capitalism. In that condition, sharia economy has blown some promising ways to overcome those global economy problems better than capitalist economy.
First of all, the essence of capitalism’s policy is free trade which is free international exchange and competition in the market. Capitalist economy’s market uses monopolistic and imperfect competitive market where anyone who has capital could dominate the market. In contrast to capitalist economy’s market, sharia economy’s market accepts market as the basic coordinating mechanism of the economic system through perfect competitive market. For the result, sharia economy’s market is more competitive because it not only allows consumers to obtain their desired-goods but also allows producers to sell their goods at an acceptable price based on their agreement.
Secondly, financial transaction of sharia economy differs from the capitalist ones. The main purpose of the financial transaction in capitalist economy is to get as much as money encouraged by interest on loans and most of the transactions in this system are speculative. On the other hand, sharia economy discourages the speculative system. There is no interest-bearing in sharia economy in order to create social welfare in the society. In that case, the financial transaction in sharia economy is more suitable to be used in recovering the economic crisis.
Third, compared to the capitalist economy, sharia economy is free from the interference of price fixing and hoarding. Sharia economy promotes a market free from interference such us price fixing and hoarding by government or the dominant power like in capitalist economy. It makes the condition of the market more stable because the producers and consumers are free to carry on with their activities and benefits mutually without other forces. There is no doubt to apply the sharia economy anymore.
Finally, the property system in sharia economy is dissimilar to the property system in capitalist economy. The property system in capitalist economy is considered as private right in which all property is privately owned. Conversely, the property system in sharia economy is divided into three categories; public property, state property, and private property. Public property is a common property of the community that refers to natural resources such as forest, air, and water. It can be used by citizens who have equal right, as long as the use of public property does not undermine the right of other citizens over it. Then, state property includes certain natural resources which have high value for humans especially mine resources. The last property category is private property that can privately be owned in some rules except public and state property. Actually, sharia economy is very appropriate in human property rights.
In summary, sharia economy is a better economic system than capitalist economy. Besides of having competitive market and no interest-bearing, sharia economy is also free from interference of price fixing and hoarding. Then, sharia economy has three categories of property (public, state, and private property). Indeed, because of those above mentioned reasons sharia economy could become a great solution for the global financial crisis.