Amanah Youth has appealed to the Council of Rulers to intervene and stop the signing of the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA) by Malaysia.

“We truly hope the Council of Rulers can convene to discuss this important matter, and reject the TPPA for the sake of the country’s future.

“We feel the royal institution is our last chance to block the TPPA in this country,” Amanah Youth vice-chairperson Mohd Fakhrulrazi Mohd Mokhtar said in a statement today.

This comes after the Dewan Rakyat passed the TPPA yesterday, after two days of debate.

The agreement is now being debated by the Senate.

Slated for signing in February

If passed, the government will sign the agreement in February and will have two years to ratify it.

Critics say the agreement will undermine the state’s ability to push “people-centric” policies, without putting themselves at risk of crippling lawsuits from corporations.

There are also concerns over prices of medication and access to knowledge, due to provisions on intellectual property rights – but the government denies this.

There is also dispute over whether the TPPA would bring in as much investment and growth as claimed by the government.

However, the government insists that opting out of the TPPA would put the country at an economic disadvantage, especially with countries like Vietnam, which are fast catching up in the region.

The 12 TPP nations are the United States, Canada, Mexico, Peru, Chilie, Japan, Australia, New Zealand, Malaysia, Vietnam, Singapore and Brunei.