While Parliament may have approved the motion to ‘sign and ratify’ the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA), Bantah TPPA asserts that this is not in the interest of the rakyat that the MPs are supposed to represent.

The Dewan Rakyat voted 127-84 in favour of the motion on Jan 27, 2016. The next day, the Dewan Negara followed suit, placing its rubber stamp on an agreement that will have extremely far-reaching implications for all Malaysians today as well as future generations.

Signing of the TPPA is scheduled for Feb 4 in New Zealand. While the cabinet retains the constitutional right to join treaties, the move to bring the TPPA debate to Parliament was driven by strong public protest, but with actually a foregone conclusion, given the partisan divide on the issue.

Nonetheless, the opportunity to debate such serious issues allowed the mainly opposition MPs to articulate the many reasons, supported with facts and analyses, as to why Malaysia must not join the TPPA.

Among them is the fact that the economic gains from the TPPA are questionable, as evidenced by the government-commissioned cost-benefit analysis by PriceWaterhouseCoopers (PWC), which projected a worsening trade balance. Furthermore, their GDP growth predictions are based on unrealistic assumptions that are not reflected in the TPPA text that will be signed this week.

Add to that are the costs of the 24 non-trade chapters of the TPPA’s 30 chapters, such as the increased intellectual property protection preventing early entry of cheaper generic medicines into the market, keeping the costs of medicines in Malaysia prohibitively high. Or the extended copyright protection provisions keeping educational materials expensive for longer and thus making them inaccessible.

Along with the increased exposure of the government to potential multi-million dollar lawsuits via the investor-state dispute settlement mechanism, will come the ‘regulatory chill’ of the government’s reluctance to regulate in the public interest for fear of being sued.

These are all costs that Malaysia can ill afford, especially in the current uncertain economic times.

Yet, the government has pursued the TPPA agenda with a vengeance, apparently intent on bulldozing this controversial pact through. Why the rush, when the full implications of this very complex agreement still need to be ascertained? Why ask Parliament to simultaneously approve ‘ratification’ of the TPPA, when the work is not yet done to examine the legal ramifications of the new obligations and commitments the TPPA demands?

Even worse, the certification process that the United States (US) requires as a condition for its own ratification of the TPPA means that Malaysia will have to further amend our laws to implement the TPPA to the satisfaction of the US beyond the existing 26 amendments of law claimed by Malaysian government.

This means that the US can extract even more concessions from Malaysia, reaching deep into our policy- and law-making space as they have done with other countries in similar trade agreements.

Bantah TPPA conclude that approval by Parliament ‘to sign and ratify’ TPPA is not in the true spirit of democracy and is a clear case of abuse of democratic process therefore the signing of TPPA by Malaysian Government on Feb 4 in New Zealand; is not in the name of the rakyat. Bantah TPPA reiterates its demand that the government not lead us down this devastating path. It is still not too late to act in the interest of all Malaysians.

Bantah TPPA will continue its campaign and protest against TPPA.

MOHD NIZAM MAHSHAR is chairperson, Bantah TPPA.