Malaysian Student Leaders & The Israel Boycott

It’s almost the 12th day of the Gaza offensive by Israel and it’s absolutely disheartening to see the Muslim world powerless politically, economically and almost in every sense to stop Israel from beating the hell out of Palestinians in Gaza. Gone are the days when at least a Muslim country could be considered a significant and strong state to alter the political landscape. I see demonstrations in the streets as plainly emotions at heart in which we could only contribute emotional support which is very much intangible.

But we forget. Forget the Muslims world did. We still hold significant economic power.

Tun Mahathir has called the boycott of jewish products, followed by the Malaysian Muslim Consumer Association today which would boycott Coca Cola as a start followed by other products which are deemed as “possess jewish interests”.

It’s time for Malaysian Student Leaders to take action and follow suit on an economic boycott. This will give us a double edge benefit: helping our Malaysian industry & creating a consumer-centered business model. How?

Well you see, I do hope the next MPP SeMalaysia or MPPK members would coordinate a “systematic boycott”. With IPTA students numbering more than 500k at aggregate, it’s a force to be reckoned with intelligent mobilization. The concept is mainly;

• Work with Consumer & Industry Associations, NGO : Student Associations should approach all the crowd pullers for a start and ensure the association pledge for boycott of “selected” products. This would create media coverage and probable chain effect.
• Provide Substitute Products : A triggered idea. Should product X (Coca Cola) be taken out from the market and we promote a substitute, product Y (Malaysian Beverage brand) would receive free promotional effect. Should work only if the substitute product share almost the same characteristics. Good business opportunity for our industry. Imagine many other products. Good time to promote Barangan Buatan Malaysia.
• Segment labeling : With the help of associations, let’s get the merchants in the association to label these products as “our systematic boycott” or in any colour in their stores. Can you imagine majority wouldn’t buy it because others would be looking at you buying something with support a war cause? Ah the mircale of psychology.
• Use Social Networking : I see many Gaza causes springing up in facebook and friendster, what better way to coordinate systematic boycott through these communication channels and recommending substitute products.
• Carefully select products to boycott : We wouldn’t want our industry to be in trouble don’t we? Let’s examine which products would be wise to boycott at a start and which we can live without. Then we work to boycott others from there.

Mind you, I have jewish friends and I am totally against suicide bombing and I am not anti-semitic but i am against the Israeli politicians who possess so much self interest and influenced by their ‘oligarchs’ and think tanks. Look what will happen to the children who survived in Gaza after this war. They would be traumatized and would sow hatred in their hearts. It creates more and more problem. We Muslims should learn from what I read in the Roman Abromovich biography, the author states that jews possess “ceiling effect” which made them resilient. Perhaps Muslims should learn from our jewish friends.

Anyway, since I am no more the student leader, I do hope our student leaders would do this in the future. Let’s act smart. Let’s imitate political tactics employed by Ghandi. Let’s use intelligence.

For all this are not driven because of hatred, but it’s the only tangible aid we can offer to comfort the tears of the Muslims in Gaza.