Chinese business boycott will hurt Malay consumers, says ex-MIER director

BY CLARA CHOOI
ASSISTANT NEWS EDITOR
May 20, 2013

File photo of people shopping at the SS2 market in Petaling Jaya. A call to buy Chinese goods and services last was mooted last week by several Malay-Muslim groups.KUALA LUMPUR, May 20 — The call to boycott Chinese businesses is a double-edged weapon, former Malaysian Institute of Economic Research executive director Datuk Dr Ariff Abdul Kareem said today, explaining that the campaign would also end up hurting Malay consumers through deprivation of their daily needs.
In an emailed statement, Ariff added that those targeted by the “insanely racist” boycott call may also retaliate in anger, further affecting consumers across all races, including the Malays.
“The call for the boycott is clearly a stupid idea as it is a double-edged weapon,” Ariff added in the email.

“It will certainly take a toll on the economy both directly through reduced volume of transactions but also indirectly by frightening away potential investors,” he said.
Noting that the call by Malay groups comes at a time when the country’s economy is already facing sluggish growth prospects, Ariff said he was worried at the direction the country is heading despite plans by the Najib administration for national reconciliation.
“Apparently there is a huge disconnect between the boycott proposal and the prime minister’s plea for national reconciliation
“I hope and pray that sanity will prevail,” he said.
The call to buy Chinese goods and services last was mooted last week by several Malay-Muslim groups, including the Muslim Consumers’ Society, who had faulted Chinese voters, whom they saw as being pro-opposition supporters — especially of the predominantly Chinese DAP — for causing the Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition’s weaker score at the May 5 polls.
The campaign “to teach the DAP” a lesson gained publicity after it was played up by pro-Umno bloggers.
While the new Minister of Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs Datuk Hasan Malek has said the federal government did not approve of the campaign, he defended the right of the right-wing groups to express their dissatisfaction through a boycott.
Ariff said the call for a boycott is a stupid idea as it is a double-edged weapon.Earlier today, The Malaysian Insider reported corporate leaders and an economist as saying that Putrajaya should not turn a blind eye to the call by Malay groups to boycott Chinese businesses as the campaign risks derailing the government’s economic transformation plans that could further slow down Malaysia’s growth.
The Malay and Chinese Chambers of Commerce, as well as economist Yeah Kim Leng, said the federal government needs to step in immediately to arrest the campaign they separately described as “unhealthy, childish and racist” from gaining ground and further spooking foreign investors even as Malaysia’s gross domestic product (GDP) grew just by 4.1 per cent for the first quarter of the year due to the political overhang resulting from delayed elections.
“It will not just give impact in our country, but potential investors will also reconsider this kind of race issue in the market and businesses,” Yeah, who is chief economist at RAM Holdings Bhd, told The Malaysian Insider.
“For businesses, they will suffer the boycott. The result could dampen the national income, and dampen growth, make a lot of people lose job opportunities,” he said.
Yeah also cautioned that such a boycott had far-reaching results than the proposers may have first imagined as the discriminatory campaign would eventually affect all ethnicities.
Unless steps were taken to strongly “discourage” the instigators of the boycott, investors still wary over the “politicisation of businesses” may choose to explore opportunities elsewhere and this would affect Malaysia’s foreign direct investment (FDI), he said.
Malay Chamber of Commerce (DPMM) secretary-general Hanafee Yusoff said the groups who had called for the boycott had acted purely on sentiment without considering that their actions could harm the national economy.
“In the economy, we are dependent on each other... the impact of something that we want must be studied and discussed,” he said, adding that none of the groups had approached the DPMM before launching their boycott.
“If the boycott can take us forward, I feel there’s no problem... but in my opinion I do not see any positive impact or benefit that we can gain from this call to boycott Chinese businesses,” Hanafee added.
Tan Poh Seng, a national council member in the Associated Chinese Chambers of Commerce and Industry of Malaysia (ACCCIM), said Hasan needs to take a firm hand and initiate action to end what he labelled a “racist” and “childish” move.
“If about the boycott, he should call the NGOs that want to boycott and tell them this is not right. If the NGOs boycott us, our Chinese businesses, we Chinese may boycott the others,” he said, adding, “it’ll never stop. Who’ll be troubled? The people.”
“He should say, ‘the election is over. He should say ‘look forward. Like we say, ‘now let’s look forward, not look backwards’,” he added.

Source themalaysianinsider