After months of optimism, Malaysia has finally admitted that its negotiations over the free trade agreement (FTA) with the US are going nowhere. All this while the government has been shunning an infant movement which is slowly gaining momentum to oppose any FTA with Washington.

Alongside other developing and Muslim countries, the Americans have listed Malaysia as its next destination for the FTA, salivating at the prospect of laying foot on this economically booming Southeast Asian region, and what better to start with than the 'model Muslim state'!

As with its mess around the world, the US administration is losing patience as a July 1 deadline for trade authority looms. That power allows President George W Bush to negotiate trade agreements that Congress, before being taken over by Democrats who swept to victory in the recent elections, can never change.