Growing Number of Businesses Shun Myanmar Military-Linked Goods, Services
Anti-coup protesters hold a placard reading “Don’t buy goods produced by the military” to show their stand against the military regime in Yangon. / Don’t Buy it / Facebook
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By Nan Lwin 25 February 2021
YANGON More and more businesses in major cities are joining “social punishment” campaigns launched by young anti-coup protesters to bring down Myanmar’s military regime leaders, including boycotts of military-linked products and calls for shops to refuse to sell food and other goods to the security forces.
In the latest such campaign, shops including roadside vendors are refusing to sell goods to the police and military personnel, and their family members. It is intended to demonstrate their opposition to not only the military regime, but also the security forces involved in cracking down on anti-coup protesters.
In addition, the firm has cancelled a sale of such products to Yangon International Airport.
It will also not sell to Myanmar s military, Ong said.
Myanmar activists previously called the company out on social media for supplying the military with anti-drone guns.
A tweet posted by advocacy group Justice for Myanmar, however, was taken down on Feb. 22.
Sold anti-drone products to Myanmar s police
Prior to the coup on Feb. 1, TRD Singapore had sold anti-drone products to Myanmar s police force.
According to
VICE News, the products included devices such as a drone gun which disrupted signals and forced them to land.
The Myanmar military’s political power is tied in part to its web of private enterprises across the energy, mining, banking, telecom and other industries. These military-owned companies have hindered development and are the clearest target for foreign governments and companies as they move to support Myanmar’s growing resistance.
On February 1, Vijay Dhayal, an Indian business consultant in Myanmar’s biggest city, Yangon, received a call at 6am (23:30 GMT) from a member of his team telling him that a coup was under way, plunging what had been a routine Monday morning into turmoil
The military had begun detaining civilian leaders, overthrowing Myanmar’s democratically elected government and turning the clock back to the period between 1962 – when Myanmar’s military first took control, 14 years after independence – and 2011, when it ushered in parliamentary elections and democratic reforms.
In addition to concerns about human rights and civil liberties, the coup has also raised flashing question marks for the foreign businesses who had, since 2011, seen Myanmar as a high-risk but potentially highly lucrative place to invest in, mainly as a base for manufacturing goods at low cost for export. It has also become an attractive market, as consumer demand for everything from soaps to smartphones and moto
The Daily Universe
FILE – In this Feb. 1, 2021, file photo, Toni Winter, left, chants as she marches with members of Community Justice Initiative and supporters to the Rochester Police Department’s Clinton Section, protesting the police handcuffing and pepper spray of a 9-year-old Black girl in Rochester, N.Y. A police officer using pepper spray against the girl has spurred outrage as the latest example of law enforcement mistreatment of Black people, and one that shows even Black children are not exempt. (Tina MacIntyre-Yee/Democrat & Chronicle via AP, File)
What started with a report of “family trouble” in Rochester, New York, and ended with police treating a fourth-grader like a crime suspect, has spurred outrage as the latest example of law enforcement mistreatment of Black people.