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By P Gunasegaram
We need to remove political and personal blinkers when we do business
In the personal realm, we have friends who are friends, and often bosom buddies, with people we don’t talk to, don’t respect, strongly distrust and sometimes who are even our sworn enemies.
But can we insist that they be not friends with our enemies before they are our friends? Surely not. It would lead to an ever-shrinking social circle and isolation from others. We have no right to decide who our friends’ friends are.
For historical, political, strategic, ethnic and other even less palatable reasons, the US maintains close ties with Israel and is its main weapons provider, a situation understandable when Israel is its closest and most trusted ally in the Middle East.
First, political alignments. Should Malaysia break ties with the US, expel US diplomats, stop doing business with it and prohibit its foreign investments in the country because of its close friendship and alliance with Israel? No.
Each country has its own priorities and if we unfriend them each time they act according to their interests we won’t have enough countries to befriend.
But we can disagree with them vehemently, we can raise our voices, we can ask our other friends who have more influence to talk to them, we can cross words but not swords with them.
We can take Israel to the international court the way South Africa did (but we can’t because for some reason I can’t understand we are not party to the International Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Racial Discrimination or ICERD) and do 1,001 other things without hurting existing friendships.
It's no different from our own relationships - we can differ as much as possible with our friends but if we threaten that they change their friends or lose our friendship, then the latter is the most likely outcome. We must agree to differ.
Now, let’s talk business. The US is a friend of Israel, so we don’t do business with any company from the US? Or the UK or Germany, or France or even Singapore? Where does that leave us? Surely that is the path to ruin in trade and business.
Look at the move to boycott Kentucky Fried Chicken and McDonald’s in this country. Who does it hurt? Only Malaysians because of jobs lost and outlets closed. The owner of the KFC brand is Malaysian while McDonald’s claims 100% Muslim ownership in Malaysia. Another boycott target in Malaysia is Starbucks, whose franchise for Malaysia is owned by the Berjaya group.
None of the principal franchise holders will be significantly affected because of franchise arrangements where they get a small percentage of turnover only and Malaysia is a small market.
But Malaysia will be much more affected by job losses and declines in business volumes. Over 85% of employees affected are reported to be Muslims. KFC alone closed 100 outlets.
Too many companies have businesses with Israel. Do we boycott aeroplane manufacturers such as Boeing because they sell to Israel as well? Do we boycott airlines because they fly to Israel? Do we boycott weapons manufacturers because they sell to Israel?
The latest is the hooha over fund BlackRock and its subsidiary, Global Infrastructure Partners’ or GIP which will take part of 30% stake in Malaysia Airports Holdings Bhd (MAHB) - the government controlled company which operates 33 airports.
Why? Because BlackRock has investments in defence equipment providers who sell to Israel such as Boeing. Probably every country in the world uses Boeing aircraft. Does that mean we stop using the aircraft? Will Malaysia return or sell its Boeing aircraft?
Nevermind that BlackRock is the largest fund manager in the world with over US$10 trillion under management and has investments in almost everything, including some of the largest stakes in companies like Apple, Google’s parent Alphabet and Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway. So we are supposed to boycott BlackRock now?
That does not necessarily mean that MAHB shareholders should agree to the deal - they should look at what the deal brings in and whether it can actually benefit MAHB and also take care of national airport priorities which may not always sync with profitability.
Manufacturers, service providers, businessmen and shareholders buy and sell to anyone who wants to - if you don’t want to that’s your choice but you will soon run out of people to do business with. That’s really bad for you. You can’t dictate who your suppliers can do business with - you are not that big.
The wise person looks at such things and how it will affect him and his people, what is the impact he can hope to achieve, and whether there is anything to be gained by this action. If the effect on ourselves is negative and the impact on the enemy nothing, why do it in the first place?
Do something meaningful or do nothing at all. For instance, take care of your own backyard where you are in a position to do a lot more but you don’t. And become a part of international efforts to help guarantee human rights and sign ICERD.
When South Africa took Israel to the international court, they systematically argued and provided evidence of genocide by Israel, focusing world attention on what Israel was doing to the Palestinians in clear violation of all international and human norms.
Yes, Hamas did bad things too but by using that as the excuse Israel reduced itself to the level of Hamas. (I don’t know what PM Anwar Ibrahim hoped to achieve by publicly embracing a Hamas leader. Morality requires we condemn all violence and their originators.)
Make no mistake, I do not condone Israel’s way over the top reprisals as I explained in this article titled Israel’s Nazi-like genocide in Gaza must stop. That does not mean we do things that will damage our interests when it will make no difference at all to Israel and its genocide against Palestinians and will potentially harm us considerably.
South Africa did something meaningful - not bluster, not just mere talk and not just-for-show measures for publicity. They took Israel to court for violations under an accord they signed and agreed to abide by, an accord which we refused to sign after agreeing to do so.
Let’s not be blinkered by politics, religion and emotion. On the world stage for whatever reason, right or wrong, there will be disagreements and very serious ones at that. We, a nation which has been very pragmatic at the worst of times, must not cut our nose to spite our face, defined appropriately “as a needlessly self destructive overreaction to a problem.”
(P Gunasegaram understands it is difficult to be reasonable in trying times but we just keep trying.)
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