Bantah TPPA would like to voice its support for the three students currently facing disciplinary action in Universiti Malaya (UM) for their actions of holding up ‘No TPPA’ placards during the recent visit by United States President Barack Obama.

The three students are UM Student Council’s vice-president Lee Jin Yang, secretary Fahmi Zainol and deputy secretary Leong Yu Sheng.

The three of them were issued show-cause letters from the university’s student affairs division yesterday.

Firstly, Bantah TPPA would like to voice its admiration for the three students who know that Obama is in fact the main promoter of the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA) which is currently being negotiated.

We are grateful that the three students took part in sending a broader message to the world, that there was opposition against this agreement amongst the youth, particularly in this renowned Malaysian tertiary education institution.

And having witnessed the question-and-answer session with President Obama, the statement made by these students was the most intellectual by far.

While the TPPA is now in a state of prolonged negotiations and is scheduled to only be completed before the end of Obama’s tenure in office, its effects will be felt through the ages not only by those leading today but also our future leaders, namely those currently studying in universities.

The students in universities should know that the TPPA will affect them if it is passed by the 12 nations due to provisions which the United States has deemed necessary to include. Intellectual property will make your textbooks more expensive and perhaps inaccessible, Internet freedom will be limited and the rising cost of living will be further compounded with higher costs of medicine and medical treatment.

In addition to this, whatever debts accrued by the government will pass down to the next generation. It is a likely possibility that should our government could approve the TPPA and be involved in investor state dispute settlements (ISDS) which could remove billions of ringgit from our national coffers.

This would subsequently leave the next generation to pay off the debt.

As such, we are surprised to know that the university is taking action against the three.

Internationally, the TPPA is being protested not only by those in Australia, New Zealand and Japan, but also by Americans themselves. This was highlighted by President Obama, who himself said he was having a hard time on the matter with his political party, the Democrats in the United States.

‘Pinocchio’ protest

Similarly, US Trade Representative Michael Froman during his testimony to the US Senate Finance Committee also faced a ‘Pinocchio’ protest which was acknowledged by the committee chairperson as a right to freedom of speech.

 If the president of the United States himself - the leader of the free world - finds it acceptable for his own people and party to speak up and had, in fact, said he was not bothered with the UM protest, why does Universiti Malaya see itself bound to penalise those who wish nothing but to make a statement for the betterment of Malaysia?

The university’s student affairs division says that the show-cause letters were merely procedure whenever a student’s actions may affect the good name of the university. It is our point of view that the students did not defame UM, but instead showed that it is open to maturely discussing international issues which will have a national impact.

Bantah TPPA urges the student affairs division to reconsider the reprimand made out for the three which represents a larger silent majority of Malaysians who are slowly becoming fully aware of how the TPPA affects the next generation.

What we are asking for is not a demand for all students to take up resistance against the TPPA’s implementation and negotiation, but rather for all august and learned institutions such as Universiti Malaya to promote an intellectual discourse of the topic at hand.

BANTAH TPPA is an anti-Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA) coalition of NGOs.