On awkward TPPA news

Et tu, Wan Saiful? It was bad enough when Tan Sri Ramon Navaratnam jumped on the bandwagon.

I find it really odd that Wan Saiful Wan Jan from the Institute for Democracy and Economic Affairs (Ideas) seems to have fallen for the pro-TPPA spiel in the latest round of telling off Nik Nazmi Nik Ahmad.

I guess that happens when an institute quietly decides to invite a US trade ambassador to give a talk on the Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA) involving ourselves and 11 other nations.

In his recent statement, he targeted the PKR Youth chief by saying that we should not think of those negotiating for the country as idiots with pro-American sympathies.

The translation may be to my liking since I’m reading Wan Saiful’s statement in Bahasa Melayu.

Yet, I find it odd that the Ideas chief, who is also on the record against the National Education Blueprint a few years back, now finds himself more trusting of government officials.

Perhaps it is because he had read the National Education Blueprint, while the TPPA chapters are not openly available.

Of course, Wan Saiful admits this openly that the negotiated chapters should be made public.

But more so, I have to wonder if he still refuses to call those in the Ministry of International Trade and Industry (Miti) “idiots with pro-American” sympathies if he has read the leaked chapters which were made available on Wikileaks.

Furthermore, I am a bit surprised that the chief of Ideas has also adopted the “wait and see” propaganda that has been out for quite some time. The sell out goes like this; if the final draft of the TPPA is not to our liking, then Malaysia will not sign it.

Yet, Wan Saiful himself has forgotten (or quietly omitted) that Miti has yet to reveal the cost benefit analysis that was promised since early last year on the impact of this international trade deal.

Wan Saiful has also forgotten (or quietly omitted, again) that without fast track trade authority in the US – which was voted down by their Congress – anything and everything agreed by the nations could be reneged by the Americans themselves.

Which is perhaps why US President Barack Obama is revisiting our country in November.

There are many things that are being linked to the TPPA akin to conspiracy theories.

The raids by KPDNKK on Petaling Street and Uptown Shah Alam for those selling fake goods has been linked to it. Heck, even the recently passed Animal Welfare Act in Malaysia was suddenly linked to it.

But what matters more here is that the TPPA is not just about trade, but regulating what its member nations can and cannot do – and quite frankly, there seems to be a lot that we cannot do especially in terms of buying generic drugs that can save lives and keep it affordable.

We aren’t even talking about excluding ourselves from investor state dispute settlements (ISDS).

In The Atlantic, an American based newspaper, Alan Morrison raised the question of how this would affect minimum wage in California (http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2015/06/tpp-isds-constitution/396389/).

The scenario highlighted by Morrison could be a bargain for Mydin opening up to America and paying their staff all in the Malaysian ringgit and letting them live off the land, but it raises a lot of questions about what we can expect.

In Malaysia, the question would be similar; would we now have to open government procurement and vendor development programmes (VDPs) from the priorities to Bumiputeras? If we didn’t, can the nation be sued for billions under the ISDS?

But more importantly, the TPP will block our access to generic drugs yet again. In a piece written up by Dean Baker, co-director of the Centre for Economic Policy Research (perhaps Ideas's American counterpart), the treatment for Hepatitis C could balloon from US$1,000 to US$84,000

But of course, maybe we can all just go let the government subsidise these drugs out of those many, many tax dollars that 6% of the population pay from their incomes and all of us have to fork out with the goods and services tax (GST). But would you dare risk it?

Now perhaps Wan Saiful is cool with signing indirect death warrants by denying access to medication for those affected by signing the TPPA. Because that is what we’re talking about right here.

While it is fine to be flippant and say “let’s wait and see”, the issue is we have waited and seen Miti present the same slideshow over and over again, with none of the concerns being addressed, no new information being made public.

And quite frankly, the fact that they have yet to release the cost benefit analysis for this long tells me that they have something to hide.

Yet, Wan Saiful wants to trust Miti. I wouldn’t. – June 25, 2015.

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