Boycott: A snub up to snuff?

Taking a stand: Malaysians gathering to express their support for Palestine at the National Mosque last year. Others are choosing another way to protest. — Bernama

SUPPOSE you have been on social media in the past few months.

In that case, you may have seen others sharing long lists of “companies to boycott” over their purported links to Israel amid the escalated war on Gaza since last October.

The widely shared lists are usually packed with the logos and names of tens or hundreds of companies from various industries which consumers can choose not to engage with.

The call to action on these lists ranges from “boycotting companies that support Israel” to “boycotting Israeli goods” altogether.

However, boycott movements have often faced criticisms about their effectiveness in achieving their goals. After all, more than four months on and with close to 29,000 Palestinians killed, Israel is showing no sign of stopping its genocidal attack on Gaza.

On top of that, this current scattergun approach which appears to be fragmented and lacking a coordinated strategy has raised further questions about its efficacy in pressuring Israel over the Palestine issue.

The strongest rebuke is that such boycotts may inadvertently make casualties out of local employees or franchisees of international corporations.

If South Africa can, why not Gaza

These are all part of Universiti Malaya economist Prof Dr Rajah Rasiah’s concerns, who says such international boycotts have hardly worked due to the interests of countries, the lack of legal means to enforce them and the general lack of consensus common in these movements.

“Calls against the aggressor are generally more symbolic than act as a platform for effective action.They also often distort markets in a way that is detrimental to the allocation of resources.

“At most, the (current) boycotts have only served as symbolic initiatives to emphasise that the Israeli bombing of Palestinian targets is creating a genocide.”

Dr Rajah Rasiah: International boycotts have hardly worked due to the dearth of legal means to enforce them, among others.

However, the symbolism of boycott movements is still important, even if they do not have a direct effect on their targets, he says.

“Given the perilous situation facing the Palestinians, it is important to flag the current injustice with the hope that there will be a peaceful solution for them.”

Boycott, Divestments, Sanctions (BDS) Malaysia chairman Prof Dr Mohd Nazari Ismail begs to differ on the effectiveness of boycotts.

Boycotts work, he asserts, as proven by the movement against the South African apartheid regime in the past.

“The BDS movement is inspired by what happened in South Africa.

“As we know, there was an apartheid regime there from 1948 to 1994, but slowly, civil societies and ordinary people found out about the situation in South Africa and they pressured their governments and corporations to boycott the country unless the South African government changed their policies, which they did, leading to the end of apartheid in 1994.

“So if we can do that with South Africa, why not Gaza?”

Prof Dr Mohd Nazari: Boycotts work as proven by the movement against the past South African apartheid regime.

Their current efforts to boycott companies complicit with Israel have also shown results as Nazari says a German sportswear brand, which BDS is targeting for its sponsorship of Israel’s national football team, has recently announced it will end said sponsorship in 2024.

Unavoidable casualties, losing momentum

The boycott movement against Israel in Malaysia has been growing since Oct 7 and it has already shown its effects in the local consumer market.

McDonalds Malaysia started legal action last December against BDS Malaysia for “false and defamatory statements” that the fast food chain says have hurt its business.

Economist Prof Emeritus Dr Barjoyai Bardai says such short-term effects, including layoffs to protect the business, are unavoidable but steps can be taken to mitigate the damage.

“This is one particular risk that no one is responsible to protect against. Unfortunately, we have to have this situation, but it needs to be addressed separately (from the boycott movement),” he says.

There are methods to organise boycott movements to make them more effective in pressuring Israel enough to change their ways, Barjoyai adds, such as ensuring the movement is sustained and continuous.

But boycotts typically occur without much planning, and hence, they seldom become long-term, says Rajah.

One of the issues boycott movements often run into is that people lose their momentum after a while without a concerted effort to organise the boycott - a problem that Nazari acknowledges.

While the public may be gung-ho about the boycott against Israel now, he says what happens a lot is that people will forget about the movement once news coverage of the Gaza conflict slows down.

A more targeted approach vital

Unlike the massive boycott lists of companies that are floating around social media right now, Nazari says they have a more succinct group of targets, which will help with the efficacy of such a movement.

“Because the BDS movement has a targeted, focused strategy, we do not have a list of hundreds and hundreds of companies (even though) there are hundreds of companies operating in Israel and if you are operating there, you are actually complicit.

“But if you have hundreds and hundreds of companies (to boycott), it is not practical. So the BDS movement has developed a list of targets and we focus our efforts on this to make it effective,” Nazari says.

Describing the boycott lists commonly shared on social media these days as “organic targets” borne from the grassroots, he says there are many that BDS Malaysia never directly campaigned against.

However, BDS do support certain boycott calls from the grassroots. This is because the targets have legitimate reasons to be boycotted, but Nazari still calls upon the public to focus on the priority list as endorsed by the BDS movement.

“We prefer targets which can help us explain the injustice (in Gaza).”

Having a shorter, more focused list of companies to boycott may help prevent the fatigue people often face when participating in prolonged boycotts.

Having a unified front is also important as Barjoyai said the leading organisation for a boycott movement could hold engagement sessions with Malaysian companies under international master franchises.

They can discuss how to go about the boycott so that in the end, the companies can still go back to business profitably but at the same time, the boycott’s effects can be focused on the appropriate channels, he says.