In our campaign thus far, we have reached out to just two major corporations invested in Myanmar; Unilever and Telenor. Unilever is the third largest consumer goods company in the world, and Telenor is a Norwegian telecom company with major investment in Myanmar, and also the owner of Digi here in Malaysia.
We selected these companies very carefully, and we campaigned very diligently, using several different angles of argumentation, all utilizing the internal logic of corporations. As a result, both companies ultimately did issue public statements about the violence in Rakhine, and endorsed the recommendations of the Kofi Annan report.
Because of our campaign, as well as the initiative by Azadi Asset Management to organise a demand by Chevron shareholders to pressure the Myanmar government to resolve the Rohingya crisis; when officials from Yangon toured six European countries in June to drum up investment, they were bombarded with questions about the country’s treatment of the Rohingya.
Bernd Lange, chair of the European Parliament Committee on International Trade, indefinitely postponed a visit to Myanmar, saying the human rights situation “does not allow a fruitful discussion on a potential EU-Myanmar investment agreement.”
This strategy has achieved more tangible results in a few short months than the conventional strategy has achieved over years.
This is because we are dealing with the real existing power dynamics that govern the world today. When someone like Paul Polman, the CEO of Unilever, makes a statement, no one can ignore it, and the ripple effect of his words travels across all sectors of business. When a company like Telenor expresses its concerns about the violence in Rakhine, investors all around the world become concerned. When international investors become concerned, governments become concerned, media coverage is affected, and it creates an impetus to act. Without this, nothing will be done; just as nothing has been done on this issue for decades.