Of the TPPA and ‘global competition’

In the last week, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak has come out saying he believes a Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA) would help Malaysian companies compete on a global scale.

This is a first to me, because I’ve never actually seen our prime minister being serious about competing globally on any social justice scale but instead crows on being internationally competitive in business.

Let us look at what he won’t put Malaysia on a global competition scale, shall we?

In human rights, Malaysia has now slunk down to Tier 3 in the recent human trafficking report, which means that the United States could, if it chose to, impose sanctions on us.

Now whether this is a TPPA bartering chip or just the fact that we are guilty of human trafficking without a care, it is clear that human rights has never been a high point of Najib’s.

But then again, we do have an employee of our national airline’s caterer who can browse Facebook daily while her handicapped child is neglected, so maybe it’s not Najib’s fault.

Second, let’s look at education. Not a single public university broke into the Top 200 Asian Universities list this year, in what can only be described as our education system finally showing that they are ailing institutions in need of innovative thinking.

And by innovative thinking, I do not mean YTL’s Tan Sri Francis Yeoh’s “I am not a crony, I am an innovator” type of thinking.

In UiTM, for example, we have Christian-bashing sessions by fake former Christians, making the largest dodol logo and, at the same time, have one of the best debaters in Asia.

I guess one out of three hitting the proper target of a tertiary education system is not too bad in the Malaysian context, after all.

Where’s the cost benefit analysis, PM?

What this prime minister seems reluctant to address is that even now is what the TPPA will do to the Malaysian economy, particularly SMEs. He has yet to even reveal the cost benefit analysis report on the TPPA to the public.

This interim report was supposed to be completed in February. If it is completed after the tweaks that International Trade and Industry Minister Datuk Seri Mustapa Mohamed says it needed to address, where is it?

But since this is about competition, let us highlight this.

Perhaps our prime minister can answer these without going into a political kangkung tailspin.

In a five-year scenario post-TPPA, will we see the likes of Maxis, TM and budding ABN be swallowed up by the likes of Comcast? Will Astro have to compete with the likes of Time Warner Cable Inc?

Will Media Prima and RTM have to compete with the Rupert Murdoch powerhouse of NewsCorp?

Can Giant and Mydin compete with Trader Joe’s or a WalMart?

Not that it would be much different in news spins, but surely we should raise these questions since we are talking about global competition.

While it is true that we will still have our belacan, budu, keropok lekor and songket producers, but what of the global marketplace for goods?

What of state-owned enterprises, not just the Khazanah Nasionals and PNBs, but what about Mara, UiTM and the state-development corporations?

Larger marketplace at what cost?

The TPPA does grant us a larger marketplace, there is no denying that, but it also grants other nations access to our market as well.

Is it in Malaysia's best interest to allow large inflows of foreign funds and businesses which may or may not have to adhere to Malaysian laws?

We have long heard that to peg the ringgit is considered currency manipulation by the United States.

This move helped stabilise the economy during the 1998 Asian financial crisis.

Are we ready to let go of this ability to avoid being sued for billions of dollars through a tribunal?

If the TPPA impacts on government procurement, will we see local vendors losing out on business opportunities to American companies and subsequently, see a shrinking of local SMEs?

If the agreement impacts on medicine, will we have a nation where the sick cannot afford medication and treatment because of extended patents?

And will we see Malaysia sued for billions in overseas tribunals for taking legal action over environmental pollution, not implementing our minimum wage policy or even the use of Malay reserve land against American multinational conglomerates the likes of Chile, Australia and even Canada?

These are all real threats from the TPPA, and while our government keeps saying it will protect the people’s interests at heart, we still see Najib going around spewing that it is a good deal without detailing anything either out of ignorance or fear of a backlash.

The prime minister needs to consider this deal thoroughly since it will have an impact on generations to come and the last thing he needs as a legacy is to be known as “Bapa Sellout”.  – June 24, 2014.

* This is the personal opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of The Malaysian Insider.