NOVY SARTIKA PUTRI SARI DEWI

INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS DIPLOMACY 1/2013

016201300112

Paper Review on
Multinational Corporations and Global Governance: Is Corporate Social
Responsibility Enough? A study of Chevrons Yadana Gas Pipeline
Operations in Burma

The paper of Multinational Corporations and Global Governance: Is Corporate

Social Responsibility Enough? A study of Chevrons Yadana Gas Pipeline
Operations in Burma, attempt to evaluate these exploring the effectiveness of legal,
political, ethical measures taken against MNCs approaches using the case study of
human rights abuses in US oil giant Chevrons continued presence in Burma.
As the globalization era took place we cannot ignore the rise of globalized economy.
Nowadays, Multi National Companies known as MNCs were becoming trending
issues since they could considered as the political actors nowadays since they are
gaining a lot of presence in international political economy. MNCs could also
assumed as two-side coin, which can bring positive impact and also negative
impact. In fact we could clearly see that the companies could become the political
entities and their influence as the political actors slowly but steady could be felt
either the negative capacities but also the positive capacities. In order to reduce the
negative issue that rise, MNCs tried to do a program named Corporate Social
Responsibility or known as CSR. This action has goals not only to reduce the
negative issues but also to practice better corporations. As we know that it still
become a controversy whether companies are political actors or not? But if it is not
political actors as the general rule they should not interfere in the internal political
affairs of the countries in which they operate.
The case of Chevrons operation in Burma started when Burmas political condition
is unstable. Burma is just gained its independence on 1948 but right after that
precisely on 1962 there is a military coup detat, which then lead to the military
junta, took over the governments controlling by Burma Socialist Program Party
(BSPP). After BSSP took over the government, they make the condition of Burma
became stricken and they were not providing each citizens with civil or political
liberties. The condition under the military junta is worse because they were not only
snatched political liberties of Burmas citizen but also they took away the human
rights of Burmas citizen. United Nations, Amnesty International, and Human Rights
Watch have all reported abuses, which include murder, torture, rape, detention
without trial, and forced labor. In addition International Labor Organization also
known as ILO tried to help by given Burma pressure of gross proliferation of forced
labor.

However military junta still can maintain its position in Burma by some support of
the MNCs, which operate in Burma on of them, is Chevron. Since Chevron bought
UNOCAL in 2005, Chevron already becomes a principal member of the Yadana gas
pipeline project. However Chevron would not like to leave Burma, even though they
already gave which stated, "full foreign ownership of companies operating in Burma
is forbidden and almost all large investment in Burma is carried out through joint
ventures with the military regime. The reason why Chevron should leave Burma is
because they also did the same as what the military junta did to them, which is the
forced labor, rape, murder and tortures the citizen of Burma.
According to the theory of Marxism what have been done by Burma and Chevron is
both is exploitation towards the citizen of Burma. The hard work of those labors
were no longer appreciated by the upper class is one of the a characteristic that of
capitalism has taken over the country. As a cornerstone in the theory of Marxism
that highlight the high capitalism in a country, it makes both parties better than the
Military Junta and Chevron collaborated to get the maximum benefit. As a result this
causes suffering to the people of Burma.
In conclusion I would like to emphasize on the CSR itself as part of this paper. CSR
could be one of the solution despite of the things that happened between the
military junta itself and Chevron. It is an important development for the future of
transnational business and some corporations have already adopted significantly
more ethical practices, but for some companies its still all about the bottom line.