This year’s “headline” Annual General Meeting motions were the usual ramshackle collection of idealism and ignorance. The first, a motion proposing that a letter be sent to Edinburgh University Principal, Tim O’Shea urging him sell University shares in the TOTAL oil company, displays features of both essential elements.

In the first instance it displays incredible naivity and a gross over-estimation as to the global influence held by a Scottish higher education institution but more than that, it represents a move that more likely than not may serve to be counter-productive.

The Journal condemns unequivocally and unreservedly the actions of the Burmese Junta, whose appalling record on human rights and mismanagement of their nation’s wealth has set them apart as one of the greatest evils in the world today and believes it is nothing short of the absolute truth to say that foreign companies have been allowed to run amok with the vast amounts of natural resources the country holds. But whilst TOTAL can certainly not claim a clean sheet in its dealings with either the government or the people of Burma, let us not forget several vital facts: TOTAL is a European company based in a country and Union with a strong commitment to human rights, with legislation to protect human rights, with free speech and a free press in which to criticise those who abuse human rights.

Indeed, what will happen if TOTAL leaves Burma? It would be both idealistic and ignorant to assume that the Burmese Junta, left high and dry with no one willing to tap off their burgeoning lakes of oil and gas, would feel the heavy breath of international condemnation on their necks and crumple before our very eyes.

The People & Planet pressure group who proposed this year’s TOTAL motion will no doubt have discovered their issue du jour on The Burma Campaign UK’s website, where TOTAL is listed as a major investor in the Burmese economy. What they may have missed as they skipped through the site was the presence of two other major investors, China National Petroleum Corporation and China PetroChemical Corporation, the world’s eighth and eleventh largest petrochemical giants respectively, not to mention China National Offshore Oil Corporation.

In today’s globalised world, it is impossible for Europe and America to determine who can and cannot rule a country using economic sanctions alone, particularly not in China’s back yard. As soon as a European company moves out of Burma, a Chinese one is more than willing to step up to the plate. It is not necessary to patronise the reader with a list of Chinese companies that have been singled out for their less-than-transparent human rights records or, indeed, to mention the Chinese legislature’s lack of any of the protections of human rights that this nation, France and the European Union hold.

Putting pressure on TOTAL and other globalised companies to ensure that they treat their foreign employees fairly is essential. And most importantly, it is not impossible. No pressure, however firm or weak, can ever be brought to bear on China PetroChemical Corp. by People & Planet’s Edinburgh branch or anyone else.

Disinvestment is the one certain way to ensure that any disproportionately high voice Edinburgh students may have is lost. Losing insider status removes any option the university may have to pressurise TOTAL to protect the rights of their workers more effectively. Additionally, to extract TOTAL from Burma would be one certain way to ensure that the European Union has no way of affecting the powerbase of the Burmese Junta.