Consumers International celebrates its 50th anniversary this year, having grown from a resource for product testing to a powerful global consumer representative in its own right.

WE all know it is well within our rights not to be cheated or shortchanged by any business or corporation. When we buy a product that is faulty or does not do what it was advertised to do, we have the right to complain and seek redress.

But how many of us realise that consumer activism extends beyond just that? As consumers, we have the right to a healthy and clean living environment. And as consumers, we also have the right to basic amenities. Consumer activism is not just about buying and selling; it also involves issues such as the environment and poverty.

A shopper browsing at shoes in a store. Consumer activism is not just about buying and selling; it also involves issues such as the environment and poverty.

As long as we live and breathe, the consumer movement involves each and every one of us, since we are all consumers. Consumer activism is more than two centuries old; in his book Buying Power: A History Of Consumer Activism In America, Lawrence Glickman traces it as a tradition that goes as far back as the 1760s, and cites examples such as the abolitionists’ boycott of slave-made goods. Glickman writes that it was only in the 20th century that the idea of “consumer protection” was conceptualised, and it was also then that consumer groups and organisations emerged. In the 1930s, the various groups organised into what became known as the consumer movement.

In 1960, five consumer organisations from the United States, Europe and Australia formed the International Organisation of Consumers Unions (IOCU), which later became Consumers International (CI). This year, CI celebrates its 50th anniversary. Initially a global information exchange between consumer product-testing organisations, it has become a powerful global consumer voice with more than 225 member organisations in 115 countries.

According to its president Samuel Ochieng, CI’s evolution saw its programmes becoming much more involved in issues such as public utilities and food and drug safety to the environment and credit and debt. Today, CI continues its campaigning efforts, representing consumer interests on the global stage and building the consumer movement.

One man’s influence

Some may not be aware that it was a Malaysian who brought a lot of crucial changes to CI and the entire consumer movement. In the early 1970s, when the IOCU set up its first regional office in Malaysia to serve Asia and the Pacific, Datuk Dr Anwar Fazal, one of the founders of the Consumers Association of Penang, became its director. That was when Malaysia became the hub of consumer activism. He was later elected president of the IOCU and served from 1974 to 1984, the first person from a Third World country, and the youngest (at 37) to hold the position.

We need transformational leader ship and global advocacy organising skills around issues that matter for the future and our survival,’ says Datuk Dr Anwar Fazal

Anwar is recognised as one of the most influential figures in the history of the IOCU. He was instrumental in laying down the groundwork for global membership, creating networks in the NGO community that enabled collective efforts on specific issues. He also brought the unconscionable marketing tactics by transnational corporations in developing countries to international attention, as well as initiated a global urgency to such issues as infant feeding practices, pesticide hazards and pharmaceuticals.

“In the 1980s the consumer movement, through IOCU, led a magnificent proliferation of global people power, and this happened because we saw the consumer interest beyond ‘value for money’,” said Anwar. “We enlarged the core of the movement’s work by making ‘value for people’ and ‘value for the environment’ an integral part of IOCU’s soul and voice. Nowadays, progressive business entities have adopted this approach and call it the ‘triple bottom line’ – financial, social and environmental.”

He lamented that today’s world continues to be even more a captive of the triple culture of violence, manipulation and waste. “We need transformational leadership and global advocacy organising skills around issues that matter for the future and our survival,” he said.

Anwar stated that one of the things he and the IOCU did during his tenure as president was to transform the consumer movement from a “fringe group for the middle class” to a movement that “meant real things to real people”, namely the poor, oppressed, exploited and disempowered.

During that time, Penang became the power base for the growth of the organisation, with the development of information and networks, and ideas that were creative in dealing with cutting-edge issues.

“I was once told that we achieved the humanly impossible from Penang,” said Anwar. “It amazed people that a small, creative team could do so much and even build a global force to be reckoned with. Charles Medawar, a leading British public activist, once said that our work changed the consumer movement forever.”

Anwar was instrumental in the formation of the International Baby Food Action Network by IOCU and other citizens’ groups in 1979, after the dangers of bottle-fed formula milk were highlighted. Consumer boycotts were organised against companies selling milk products whose campaigns were said to subtly undermine breastfeeding. This led to the World Health Assembly of the World Health Organisation adopting the International Code of Marketing on Breast Milk Substitutes.

Anwar listed out the five important components of the consumer movement – people, power, human rights, environment and justice.

“These five pillars, I believe are the basis on which to judge the relevance, competence and success of the consumer movement,” he said. “Today, these five pillars are very much an integral part of the work that has taken us at the global level to deal with the power of transnational corporations, the possibilities that lie with international institutions, and the development of global citizens networks.”

In the 1990s, priority issues for CI included access to, and management of, utilities services, the regulation of genetically modified organisms and protection of consumer rights and privacy in the digital age. Today, CI’s focus has broadened to include poverty reduction, corporate responsibility, services, sustainable consumption and climate change.

Anwar emphasised the importance of solidarity as one of the principles that provide for consumers’ action, that the best and most effective action is through the cooperative efforts of citizen groups. And as Ochieng pointed out, with CI’s established reputation as an agent for change on the consumer issues of the day, the organisation continues to build a powerful international movement to protect and empower all consumers.

Anwar once uttered this old saying at the end of his speech when he accepted the Right Livelihood Foundation award in Stockholm in 1982: “If the people are asleep, awaken them. If the people fear to act, give them courage by taking the first step yourself.”

It continues to ring true.