Thursday, January 8, 2009

Mahathir's Clarion Call:Boycott America ?

Hantu Laut

Hahahaha......Boycott US products? What a laughable matter.

Former Prime Minister Mahathir Mohammad called for a boycott of American's products. Can we ?

Some bloggers have jumped on the band wagon and very excitedly bandied the former premier clarion call to stop buying US made goods.Easier said than done.

One over-zealous blogger have assembled a list of popular American brands we should boycott as shown in the box below.


For every Malaysians, our lives are very much immerse in two foreign brands which are almost impossible to avoid, Japanese and American.These two have made us unbearably dependent on their products.Just look around us if we can actually proudly say anything in our households are truly authentic Malaysian made goods, they are either Japanese, American or European.They may be made in Malaysia but they are not Malaysian products.Others, like the Korean and Chinese still comprises small segment of the all the products we used.

Those bloggers who supported Dr Mahathir's call probably forgot they are blogging on American products.If you boycott America than you have to stop using computers, computer's software and all the American made blogs and not forgetting the Internet.Can you? Our former premier probably didn't realise that he himself is a blogger and very deeply involved in using American products.

Even the list of products and companies prepared by the over-zealous blogger, whoever he is, is a pool of errors.Take for example the company L'Oreal.It is not an American company, it is a French/Swiss conglomerate.The major shares are held by the Bettencourt family of France and Nestle of Switzerland. Mark & Spencer is a British retailer with headquarters in London.It is not an American company.Carrefour is a French international hypermarket, it is not American. There are many more that I need not list here that are not American.Are we supposed to boycott the rest of the Western world too? Than you may have to stop driving your Mercedes,BMWs,Porsche and other European made cars.I understand one of Mahathir's sons hold the agency for Porsche, maybe, he can give up the agency too.

Maybe, we should try sanctions. Don't sell any of our products to them and see how long we can stand on our own two feet.

Don't get me wrong, I would have supported Mahathir if I find it practical.Likewise, I am very much against what happened in Gaza and have written two articles condeming America just few days ago.Going by the response the average Malaysians are not interested in Gaza or cares about the Palestinians, they are more interested in what going to happen in Kuala Trengganu on 17 January.

My guess is, it could go either way.

24 comments:

Anonymous said...

HantuLaut....The problem is I don't think anyone understood Dr Mahathir's call. He specifically said selected products like Coca-Cola, Macdonald's etc...things that you can live without.

He had made it clear that it has to be selective since the world revolves around American/western consumer products...

I think he is being practical, but most commenters find the easy way to hit out at him without being rational...

instead of condemning him, surely we have the sense of rationality to think we will not die without coke, macdonald's and levi's jeans...

Anonymous said...

ya, boycott american goods and we do without computers...

boycott mcD and coke, no use lah, no effect.

Anonymous said...

How come he can select which products to boycott and which ones to use?
His chedet.cc runs on what machine?
Uses which browser?
What right does he have.
Yup that blogger is an idiot.
Enough of this hypocricsy, on one hand Dr Mahatir will condemn americans, europeans and on the other hand he will pay millions to meet bush.
On one hand he will condemn Israel when 400 Palestinians were killed in the air raid, and on the other hand he will ask Petronas to invest in Sudan where millions are killed.
Apalah dei!

Anonymous said...

hantu laut,

if read carefully his talk, basically he singled out coca cola...man be selective man...not boycotting every single product by the American..

i think u get him wrong this time and last 2 articles also..

the gist of his boycotting call is

BE SELECTIVE.

i am already boycotting Coke McD ..but definitely i wont risk to boycott some US pharmaceutical product that i used to prescribe to my patient

but i can definitely boycott Sara Lee and perhaps Johnson and Johnson..as the alternative are readily available and these two product makers did help the Jews economically directly.

drputera

gram.kong said...

Anonymous,
Do you honestly believe by not drinking Coca Cola and not eating MacDonald is going to hurt America.You must be joking!

gram.kong said...

Anonymous,
There are too many anonymous, I don't know which is which, why don't you guys just give yourself a name, make life easier for you and me.

Yes,you right, no effect, lah!

gram.kong said...

Mr Padedoh,
You know as well as I do, that's what politicians do.

It's called histrionics.

Anonymous said...

The best thing to do is to educate the palestinians to stop agitating the powerful israelis and concentrate on peace and development on their infrastructure and economy to give their people a better life. When their economy has grown more powerful they can have more bargaining leverage. All this tit for tat killings is doing them no favor. The future is bleak for the palestinians.

gram.kong said...

Anonymous,

You do what you have to do if you believe you can hurt America.No skin off my nose.

There was a call by Iran to use oil as a weapon against the US, did the Arabs world agree?You tell me not drinking coca cola going to bring America down to it knees.

Come on, mate!I am sure you can think better than.If Mahathir say drinking your own urine is good for your health, would you do it.I know some people in India do.Desai, was one of them.

Mahathir may have been a PM of this nation for 22 years, that doesn't make him right all the times.

In everything we do there must be benefits, I don't think The Jews and America would stop what they did to the Palestinians in Gaza if you stopped drinking Coca Cola and not eating MacDonald.

You can disagree,I stand by what I wrote and I am correct in both instances.

Khun Pana aka johanssm said...

If really boycott then we have to deny Boeing aircraft from landing,switch off your pc as they uses MS OS,our army to throw away their M16s , polis to throw away their Smith&wesson,destroys their motorolas ,ask all the sultans to burn their cardillacs,throw away your DKNY and why not confiscate the PS away from your chidren? PS japanese ? wrong again. Japs support US and Israel.
Why be so selective and make no sense? If boycott Coke, i can drink Pepsi , if boycott McD i can go KFC , if boycotts Colgate i use ...see? make no sense.

To really hurts america why dont you ask your OIC and OPEC brothers to cut their oil to USA.
And why we have to listen to an old senile former so and so?
Ban mahathir is better.

Anonymous said...

madir adi nyanuk la....

noting to do, try to make himself famos again la...

ajimsan said...

Boycott the things that you can live without. And not just American products but Zionist products.

At least you are doing something rather than nothing. Might not change the situation but at least... collectively you are doing something.

I do like the idea to boycott the US dollar... it is a worthless piece of paper...

Anonymous said...

Boycott what we can better than doing nothing. The least we can do. At least Mahathir has some suggestions on what we can do to help.

Anonymous said...

Ini la punca kalau tak berfikir secara positif.. be practical la HAntulaut avoid buying something that have choices la... jgn la jadi bebal otak tu..

Boikot something yg tak ada alternative memang la tak boleh tetapi kalau boikot barang yang ada alternative seperti Barang Originally made from Malaysian atau Non US boikot la...

Sometime people who dont want to sacrifice something for benefit of other people always give reasons!!

JAdi MR.PApedoh semata-mata hang tak suka kan Tun MAhathir hang nak sokong AMERIKA dan ISRAEL la??? Dah jadi macam ANWAR IBRAHIM?? Mengaku rakan negara ARAB tetapi TAKUT nak KECAM AMERIKA!!

And tu HAntulaut atleast if all of us BOIKOT one company and give financial problem to the company that company will bising to the US CONGRESS!!
Tetapi kalau ada hantu-hantu macam Mr.Padedoh yg otak mcm tu memang jangan harap la nak berjaya.. (wondering apa cadangan PENGEMBALA PADEDOH nak keluarkan utk memberi tekanan kepada AMERIKA dan ISRAEL? Kalau setakat pihak kerajaan asyik BANTAH,KECAM saja memang macam tiup ikan dalam laut la)

Tetapi itu diperingkat kerajaan..di peringkat kita rakyat biasa,apakah tindakan kita?? (selain berdoa)

Sila jawab yg nak kondem tak bertempat..

Anonymous said...

American economy is USD 14 trillion.
I'm just being sensible. If this is the strategy it will achieve nothing.

You just want to show that your pro Palestin by saying your gonna boycott - Boycott US goods is impossible in today's world.

And lastly, what is the criteria to boycott. If we cannot think sensibly, how can we solve anything.

zooky said...

Well, i don't know.... we've had these calls now and then and it usually just peters out.
I think many msians are employed in these american concerns. And hey, jobs are hard to come by and the economy worldwide isn't so pretty innit?

Having said that, personally for me, a boycott protest is easier for me. I'm sure I can give up my once-in-4-days latte (expensive, meh)and I dont smoke marlboros or anyhting. Easier than asking me to go and burn candles at those rallies. Hello, that is sooo culturally alien for me.
And what's with the candles, can anyone tell me? Tu budaya mai mana? Saya dari kampung, tak tau lah.

Anonymous said...

dont be so close minded guys.. yes i agree there r lots of US goods that we cant avoid from using it. But realistically, we do have the power to boycott some goods that OBVIOUSLY give most of their profits to the zionist. we should do what we can do. its better than do NOTHING! so, if it doesnt bring any effect to them, so are u saying that u gonna continue to buy those products even if u have any other choices?? IGNORANCE is NOT BLISS!! Have u ever heard that, each 1 ringgit or 1 rial u spend on these products, it costs a price of one bullet, which is to kill a person! behind every number is HUMAN BEING!! remember that. so, if u said that u cant do the boycotting, please maybe u can start off by reducing the amount of goods u bought from them. it is better enough from not doing anything.
wallahualam~

Anonymous said...

Why are we so hypocritical.
When Petronas was doing business with the Sudanese, who were killing other Muslims by the thousands, no one said anything.

There is only person who can stop this war and thats George W Bush. But our Foreign Minister said it was good to throw a shoe at him, so he won't bother to listen to us.

People in power i,e, the USA listens if we are a nation that is respected by both the West, the East and the Middle East.

Go ahead and boycott. Its a personal statement that you make to yourself.I wont agree with you just to be politically correct.

I'm not a hypocrite.

Will never be one.

gram.kong said...

Dear All,
Mahathir is a politician who lives in an ivory tower.

Maybe, you all didn't realise it, the ban is calling for is going to hurt Malaysia and Malaysians more than the US and Israel.

Almost all American brands in this country are brought here on franchise.It means they are Malaysian investments,Malaysians workers and Malaysians money that are going to suffer.The American companies are only paid royalties. Loss of sales mean loss to Malaysia and it would be your brothers and sisters out of job if the companies have to close down operations.

Don't always think Mahathir is right.

Anonymous said...

HL,

I think I know which blogger you're talking about. :P

For those readers who are unusure, I'll drop you a hint...

Clue: Pink Floyd


Anyway, my response to him was removed. Not a surprise, as it would expose to readers his hypocrisy for calling a boycott, calling others to "lead by example" by resigning from jobs in US companies... while he still uses an American blogging service... and possibly other American products in his home...

As they say... cakap tak serupa bikin!

:P

dzerio said...

All of this does have an effect if all of us are willing to do it.
Theres a lot of thing we can boycoot america.If we can boycoot hollywood film or entertaiment we can definetly cripple their economy.Boycott all fastfood NOT JUST McD will also help a lot.Boycoot their product like loreal,levis and other america accecories product will also help a lot.Theres alot more if you check on the website

For example Iran succesfully boycoot coca-cola,and they started develop zam-zam cola which became popular in arab nation.And this help the muslim economy to growth.

Of course we cannot boycott computer as all of it use microsoft and intel which were develop by Israel.But if we can acchive 40% of their product,that should have significant effect on america.

This will took cooperation of entire muslim nation in order to achive succesfully.

Atleast boycoot are better then blowing yourself and killing hunderds of people,and then the muslim get a negative image.This is an economy jihad,not by using AK47!

Don't become `hangat-hangat tahi ayam sudahler'!

Anonymous said...

go to hell israel and uncle sam.........BOYCOTT

Anonymous said...

Dear,


When Danemark made a cartoon about Mohammed - pbah - we boycoot them, so they abologized and asked Muslims to stop the boycoot campaign agaist them


In Germany, them made a film against Islam, so the companies there told the director of the ovie if the Muslims boycott us you will pay for our loss


so how does that mean its useless to boycott them ??


WE should support Gaza and palestine, cause the war there is against Freedome and all the free people around the world


Check what Israel has done In Gaza:

http://www.elfarra.org/gallery/gaza.htm#

http://www.fotowar.net/gallery/main.php?g2_itemId=19

http://cid-52845b21cc70587c.skydrive.live.com/browse.aspx/Israel|4s%20Barbaric,,,%20Holocaust%202009?sa=518770541

Anonymous said...

Anon...

The two boycott u call in Denmark & Germany is not BOYCOTT!

You treated to KILL..

KILL... KILL.... VIOLENCE!!!!