We believe, correctly, that the root cause of what is happening in Rakhine state is economic, and we believe, correctly, that multinational corporations and foreign investors in Myanmar wield unparalleled influence. We also believe that, because both of these things are true, the conventional strategies are not going to yield results, just as they have not yielded results thus far.
By conventional strategies, I am referring to the standard approach of pleading to the United Nations, to governments, to international institutions and governmental organisations like the EU or ASEAN.
The United Nations has been colluding with the Myanmar government in a game of denial and delay for years. Leaked internal documents from the UN show that their own researchers believe that the UN has been too blinded by its emphasis on economic development in Rakhine to be at all competent in halting the program of ethnic cleansing.
Their approach to the crisis is too tied to vested financial interests of Security Council members and the corporations that exert influence in those countries. There is no international will to intervene because international business has not yet evaluated the situation as detrimental to their interests.
The current atrocities are awkward because they bring too much attention, and pressure to take actions that no one wants to take; and the best that can result from this is that the regime will be pressured to resume the previous slow-motion genocide it has been pursuing for decades.
The key, therefore, is to ensure that business does evaluate the situation as detrimental to their interests. The key is to bring international capital onside. And that has to be done, can only be done, on the grassroots level by organised consumer coalitions.
#WeAreAllRohingyaNow