Of Boycotting US Products

I wanted to write about the furore over the boycott on US products, but Nageb has done a marvellous job on that and I am tempted to merely lead you to his writing. Essentially my opinion was pretty much in the same context as his, that the idea of boycotting the products is not aimed at crippling the US economy but rather is a moral obligation to all human alike as a show of defiance towards the mass killings in Gaza. Of course, seeing their economy collapse at the end of the day would give a more sound reminder. However, let’s be real; we are talking about the biggest economy in the world which depends not only on two or three products. Surely without concerted effort, our action would hardly bring any impact on their part. Nevertheless this reason alone is not ample to justify one’s decision to exempt oneself from this effort of boycotting the products; as has been stressed by Nageb, while the number of people murdered in Gaza grows day by day, surely the least we can do is stop buying products that will eventually benefit the nation that supports this violence. If you cannot even agree to this simple act, all I can say is you are the epitome of utter selfishness. Our society has become rotten beyond repair.

The other thing that bothers me is the argument that the boycott will only lead to the downfall of local companies that sell the US products. Well, again I have a helping hand; read this piece by Tun Mahathir, look out for point number 13. Anyway, I do not believe that our effort would go full circle to the point of crashing the local economy. At this rate we are doing, I believe that no McDonald’s franchise would close down, certainly no local workers would get fired. Even if the latter happens, how severe is that compared to the fate of people of Gaza? Moreover, the boycott would also be restricted to a few products. Certainly foreign investment would keep coming in; I do not believe that this government is going to say no to US companies looking for a root here despite their earlier call to stay away from goods from this country.

It all comes down to the question of whether you are willing to take action. In this instance, certainly going to Gaza yourself to help is not realistic. What do we do then? Well, for me the next thing we can do apart from doa is to boycott US goods. You can join me, or you can stand up from far and watch as the sufferings in Gaza continue.