Some of us like to take moral
high ground and point fingers at various corporations in a frontier or
developing economies for not being transparent enough, for getting ‘favours’
from certain government officer, for participating in potential military
equipment import, potential links to drug trade or funds, and the list of ‘wrongs’
could go on and on.
Myanmar, with decades of military
rule, and being a big part of the infamous Golden Triangle, easily falls into
the ‘generalization’ of potential ‘killers and opium traders’ category for the
morally right world, at least.
Therefore, my question for this
article is whether all large corporations in Myanmar are linked to military
equipment import business and also tainted with opium related funds?
Before I answer to that question,
let us look into some interesting developments in not-so-far-away land called
Hong Kong. Biggest private employer in Hong Kong is a mega corporate called
Jardine Matheson (only the government of Hong Kong employs more people in Hong
Kong than Jardine Matheson group). With some highly-reputable institutions such as Hong
Kong Land, Mandarin Oriental hotels, Dairy Farm, Jardine Lloyd Thompson
(or JLT), Jardine One Solutions, and so on, it is a ‘five star’ corporation. (Note: this author has worked for Jardine
Matheson group at a management level in late 90's).
However, if we go back to a few
centuries ago, when Jardine Matheson group founders were just starting out their business, it
was well recorded that major part of the revenue (and no doubt, most popular
product must have been) came from Opium products, thus linked to the infamous
Opium War in the history; Thus a mixer of Opium and Weapons for sure then.
As time progressed, Jardine
Matheson has transformed itself and improved by leaps and bounds in whatever measures we choose -- from not-so-ethical
traders of certain negative products to what it is today – one of the most
respected corporations not only in Hong Kong, but in the whole world.
Therefore, are we going to keep
on knocking Jardine Matheson’s head forever due to its history of opium and
weapon trading activities? Probably not. I could quite easily find similar examples of USA version of 'Jardine Matheson' during the early part of the country/federation, but I won't waste my column space for now.
Now, back to the question of whether
large corporations of Myanmar are all killers and opium traders?---
The answer is ‘NO’… Not all of them. Yes, some of them had direct or indirect dealings in the military equipment and others may have benefited from opium related funds. Do they deserve a second chance to ‘atone’ themselves, do what is right for themselves, for the general public and for the country in general? YES, definitely. I am fully confident that they will continuously try to do what is right and also to contribute to the society while strengthening professional and ethical corporate governance level that everyone aspire to be.
The answer is ‘NO’… Not all of them. Yes, some of them had direct or indirect dealings in the military equipment and others may have benefited from opium related funds. Do they deserve a second chance to ‘atone’ themselves, do what is right for themselves, for the general public and for the country in general? YES, definitely. I am fully confident that they will continuously try to do what is right and also to contribute to the society while strengthening professional and ethical corporate governance level that everyone aspire to be.
These big corporations deserve a
chance to do the right thing and contribute to the betterment of the society. Not
so much of pointing fingers at the moment. Let us give them a break and space
that they need.
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