On Tuesday, I - together with my colleagues from Parliament on both sides of the political aisle - attended a special briefing arranged by International Trade and Industry Minister Mustapa Mohamed and his Miti team, on the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA).

As far as I know, this was the first time since the GE13 that a minister had arranged a bipartisan briefing for all MPs about a motion or a bill which we would later vote on in Parliament (I had previously attended a bipartisan briefing on the revamp of the National Service Training Programme that was arranged by the Defense Ministry, but this was not in connection with any bill or motion which needed to be passed in Parliament).

The minister had fielded questions from all MPs during the plenary session. He also said he would propose that a vote be taken on the TPPA during the special parliamentary debate on Jan 26 and 27.

He should be commended for organising this special session - especially since the TPPA does not require legislative approval in order to be passed. This special parliamentary session will allow MPs from both sides of the aisle to raise important questions and concerns surrounding the TPPA, of which there are many.

After the plenary session, MPs were invited to choose from one of the following four workshops on hot-topic items: “Intellectual Property and Access to Medicines”, “Investor State Dispute Settlement”, “Government Procurement and State-Owned Enterprises”, and “Market Access / Labour / Environment”.

I attended the “Market Access / Labour / Environment” workshop and I commend the civil servants from Miti and other ministries, for their willingness to answer all of the questions posed to them by MPs from both sides. Their answers were comprehensive and showed a deep familiarity with the issues at hand.

At the same time, the ministry should be commended for giving public access to materials associated with the TPPA.

This was the first time that two studies - the PriceWaterhouseCoopers’ Cost Benefit Analysis (CBA) and the Institute of Strategic and International Studies’ National Impact Assessment (NIA) - were commissioned to evaluate the impact of the TPPA. While these two studies painted a largely positive picture, they also highlighted areas of concern as well as some negative impact that would arise as a result of the TPPA.

Miti website on TPPA available

Both studies were in English, but the ministry recently made available a Bahasa Malaysia version as a summary of both studies. The final text of the TPPA was also printed for all the MPs and distributed on the final day of the parliamentary session last year (16 volumes in total). Moreover, copies of the CBA and the NIA had been given to MPs on Tuesday, along with a BM summary of the TPPA final text.

All of this information is available for download from Miti’s website on the TPPA. Other relevant information - including past presentations and dialogue sessions conducted by Miti - can also be found on this website.

While I still have many existing concerns about the TPPA - which I will raise in a following statement - Mustapa and his team at Miti should be commended for their efforts in public engagement, not just with MPs but also with state governments, industry groups, as well as NGO representatives.

It is still a learning process - especially for the civil servants - in terms of public outreach, but this is a good lesson and a good benchmark for the government to move forward.

Such engagements must continue as part of the process of implementing the TPPA, assuming it receives majority support in the upcoming special parliamentary session on Jan 26 and 27.

ONG KIAN MING is DAP's MP for Serdang.