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U.S.
Boycott Gaining Momentum In Asia
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Malaysians
hold an anti-war protest near the U.S. embassy in Kuala Lumpur
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By
Kazi Mahmood, IOL Southeast Asia Correspondent
KUALA
LUMPUR, March 26 (IslamOnline.net) - The U.S.-led war of aggression on
Iraq is giving momentum to the already strong drive to boycott U.S.
products, including soft drinks and fast food chains like Kentucky Fried
Chicken (KFC) and MacDonald’s, in South East Asia.
The
scenes of bloodied bodies of children and women on television showing
the aftermath of the “shock and awe” bombing of Baghdad and Basra by
American and British forces has fanned anti-American sentiments in this
region.
In
Ampang city, Malaysia, the KFC was empty, which is rather an unusual a
scene considering the strategic location of the shop within the Ampang
Point shopping complex whereas its next door competitor the Tarbush
Restaurant of Lebanese origin was crammed with customers.
Further
down the corridor in the complex, MacDonald’s showed sign of life but
it was surely struggling to put up “full house” for lunch this time.
An
undeniable sign of a slow but sure boycott of these products was the
absence of Malay-Muslim ladies with their children in both KFC and
MacDonald’s on this 7th day the U.S. assault on Iraq.
None
of the operators of these fast food chains would want to comment on the
sales since the beginning of the aggression against Iraq, preferring to
say they are not worried of sales drops, being confident business will
be as usual soon.
Indeed,
Malay-Muslim workers at these outlets would not care about the outcome
of any boycott since they are paid to work and would rather find other
jobs in the industry if anything dramatic would happen to these outlets.
Boycotting
U.S. products has been a tough battle in Malaysia.
In
the past few years, there were major attempts to sideline Coca Cola in
particular with growing suspicions that the major world bottler of soft
drinks was supporting the Jewish state.
Since
politics has never gone down too well with “food and drinks” in
Malaysia, the boycott fizzled and coca cola’s reign as king of soft
drinks in the majority Muslim nation was barely touched.
The
U.S.-led aggression on Afghanistan was another great occasion for
activists to start another boycott of the cola’s, though Pepsi cola -
another major soft drink maker world wide - survived the criticism so
far.
This
also fizzled lamentably, with Muslims seen enjoying fried chicken,
burgers and the cola’s at U.S. based or U.S. owned brands.
Instead
of a successful boycott campaign to show the Americans that the purse of
the Muslims had some political weight, more U.S. or American brands
implanted themselves successfully in Malaysia.
“The
funny part is that Malaysians and Asians in general are fond of U.S.
brands, it is a hard thing for them to boycott U.S. products and it is
almost guaranteed that such boycott campaigns will fail and U.S. brands
will prevail at the end of the day,” said Fernandez, a former
advertiser who now runs a renovation company.
However,
the signs are creeping and the very fact that the Malaysian government
of Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad is leading the battle for an end of
the war against Iraq with strong criticism of the U.S. policies, is
giving the boycott drive more momentum.
Malays
who are 100 percent Muslims in Malaysia are saying they have to start
forgetting about MacDonald’s and KFC or Coffee Bean if they want to
show the U.S. that they really have some political weight in condemning
the U.S. aggression against Muslims around the world.
They
also have fears that the U.S. will someday attempt to undermine Malaysia
too since the country has showed it was deeply against the U.S.-led war
on Iraq.
Interestingly
enough, the tough resistance by the Iraqis, who are giving a tough time
to the almost “invincible” U.S. Marines and special forces, has
motivated the Malays to view the Arabs in a different light.
“September
11th was an act that brought the Chinese community in Malaysia to
respect the Arabs, the Iraqi resistance is now bringing a different idea
of Saddam Hussein now seen as a lone Arab hero who can damage the U.S.
and British troops in the long run,” says a psychologist working for a
publication firm in Kuala Lumpur.
“In
the event Saddam and his government holds the siege of Baghdad for a
week or two, sentiments will run high among Muslims world-wide and the
U.S. will suffer business casualties too in the Muslim world,” Mousa
Abdilah said.
Abdillah,
a PHD holder in Islamic studies and in psychology also studies and
analyses the behavior of Malays-Muslims in the region. He owns his own
publication firm that publishes Islamic related books.
He
believes the Iraqi regime will give a tough lesson to the ‘western’
forces though he knows that Saddam will not hold for long.
“Yet
the image of Saddam, cool as never before and planning well to trap the
western forces within Iraq, has given confidence in Muslims in this
region,” he said.
Abdillah
also believe if there were products that could replace U.S. based fast
food chains as well soft drinks in the region, the U.S. would lose the
economic battle altogether.
In
Singapore too the tendency is to boycott U.S. based products and brands
though the impact of the Muslims in the capitalist country, which has
given total support to the U.S. in its war against Iraq, will not be a
severe backlash to U.S. businesses.
“It
was hard, very hard indeed to get the Singapore authorities to grant the
“halal” status to U.S. based fast food chains such as KFC and Burger
King, and now with this Iraq war and its injustices the Muslims have the
tendency to shy away from U.S. based brands,” Abdillah added.
He
said there were confirmations that since the beginning of the war on
Iraq a fair percentage of Muslims in Thailand, Singapore and Brunei are
boycotting U.S. products.
The
impact of these will probably not be felt in the short run but if the
war drags on and if there is a major political impact in the Middle
East, the situation might be damaging to these U.S. based products.
In
South Thailand, however, a coca cola warehouse had to close down and
shift its operations further north, away from the Muslim populations due
to strong rejection of U.S. based products in Yala and Pattani.
Major
Muslims based restaurants, shops and even hotels have refused to place
orders of Coca Cola products and offering other soft drinks in its
place.
Attempts
to bring brands like Zam Zam cola and Arab Cola in the region has not
been successful either, sources said.
The
reason is that there is not enough political will from Muslims to
organize and bring down such replacement products to ‘kill and
destroy’ American brands in the region.
“One
obstacle is that the locals here are not really aware of other brands
besides Coke and Pepsi, once other brands are brought in, there might be
an impetus to enhance the boycott of U.S. products,” said a Muslim
shopkeeper in Kuala Lumpur.
In
Jakarta, Makassar, Solo and many other major cities of Indonesia, the
largest Muslim nation on earth with its 212 million people the boycott
of Coca Cola, Pepsi Cola and KFC as well as Macdonald’s are becoming
effective.
Though
some anti-U.S. protestors have used harsh methods to try to close down
some of these food chains, the fact remains that most Indonesian Muslims
are becoming increasingly conscious of the need to hit the U.S.
economically in a bid to make a political statement.
In
Indonesia unlike Malaysia and Brunei, Abdillah said to IslamOnline.net
in an interview on Wednesday, March 26, politics and economy are
intertwined.
Muslims
in general are more direct and decisive in their decisional structure.
When there is a movement to boycott anything, it will succeed.
Yet
it is in Malaysia, Brunei and Singapore that the boycott movements
should become stronger since the purchasing power of the Muslims in
these countries is much higher than in Indonesia or Thailand and the
Philippines.
A
recent boycott campaign against Coca Cola and other U.S. products has
not bitten deep into the economic strength of these products in Malaysia
due to the lack of political will by the people in general to accept
living without Coke or Pepsi or even Macdonald’s, said Abdillah.
While
Coca Cola maintains its grip on Malaysia and Brunei, it is bound to lose
considerable markets in Indonesia. It may take a strong “Cola War”
with some local financiers investing in new brands or existing Muslim
owned brands elsewhere to defeat King Cola in Malaysia, Abdillah added
wittingly.
According
to him, the Muslim markets in this region is ready to adopt any Muslim
based cola because there is now this deep sense of brotherhood and the
need for ‘revenge’ against the US for being belligerent and
aggressive against the Muslim world.
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