Let wisdom prevail
Posted on 10 August 2014 - 07:37pm
R. Nadeswaran
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IT was a crisis, many, many moons ago. Some chicken breeders had formed a cartel and increased the price citing the escalating cost of feed. The government had embarked and spent millions in a campaign infamously called "Inflasi Sifar" or Zero Inflation. It was a flop but not for the ad agency that conceived and developed the theme. It walked away with a few million ringgit.
The only success was that the Asian Strategy & Leadership Institute (ASLI) jumped on the bandwagon, organised a "Zero Inflation" seminar and charged participants over RM1,200 each. It was in 1993 that I wrote this and ASLI's Tan Sri Michael Yeoh will certainly remember this episode.
In one of my postings at that time, I suggested that there should be collective action and called government leaders to declare one day in a week as "No Chicken Day". This meant Malaysians would avoid chicken for one day a week, resorting to fish or other meat or go completely vegetarian.
This kind of action, I reasoned, would have brought the breeders to their knees and restored some semblance of "acceptable pricing and business practices". My plea (as usual) fell on deaf ears.
Last week, there was a plethora of calls to boycott American products following Israel's bombardment of Palestine. While every right-minded person deplores, condemns and criticises the Israeli action which has taken more than 2,000 lives, there must be some form of objectivity and purpose in doing so. It was reported that people demonstrated outside a McDonald's outlet in Terengganu while groups have called for boycott of products such as Coca-Cola and Starbucks. There were even reports that staff of the fast-food chain were threatened.
But for God's sake, what is the link between McDonald's and Israel or any other American company or product? What purpose did the so-called demonstration serve? What was running in the minds of the organisers? Were they suffering from multiple bouts of delusion? Did the protesters join because of a cause or because of their mob mentality?
I am a believer that every individual has a right to express himself and take part in protest marches. That is a given. Boycotting is an economic choice which you can exercise or campaign. But it does not give you a carte blanche to throw caution to the wind and threaten people or attempt to vandalise property.
The people behind this shameful act should get real – be practical. There are hundreds if not thousands of products that we are compelled to use in our daily lives.
We do not manufacture everything we need and we import many goods. They come from various parts of the world except Israel as there is a total ban on goods from that country.
On a practical point, we use Google and Facebook – both products of the US. The bulk of the movies in our theatres are from Hollywood which is home to Warner Brothers, MGM, Universal Studios and Columbia. Would you prevent your children from watching Disney movies? Would you stop watching football matches on television? Some of the matches are telecast live by Fox, an American company?
Would you burn your Levis jeans, the DNKY cosmetics or products from the Kelvin Klein range? What about credit cards? They are issued by either Visa or Mastercard – both American companies.
Lastly, I have this question: "If a loved one is seriously ill and dying, and only a drug manufactured by Pfizer can save his or her life, would you allow the doctor to administer the drug?" By the way, Pfizer is an American company. I rest my case.
Dear readers, we all share the agony and pain suffered by the Palestinians. Let us ease their suffering by using our talents and ability resourcefully. Let us collect clothes, food and medicine instead of spending time, effort and money on this kind of nonsensical activities.
R. Nadeswaran is all for freedom of expression but not the use of violence verbally or physically. Comments:
citizen-nades@thesundaily.com
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