Dr Mahathir has Blogged his objections to the TRANS PACIFIC PARTNERSHIP
Here are his main points :
1. The secretary to the Ministry of Trade and Industry avers that trade negations must be done in secret. There should apparently be no public debate or even within the Government.
2. Let us see the record of trade and other agreements negotiated by the Malaysian Government. In fact they seem to result in Malaysia accepting unfavourable terms.
3. look at the water agreement with Singapore.
10. the purchase of the F/A-18 fighter aircraft. Actually the Government wanted the MIG-29. Somehow part of the fund was used to purchase the F/A-18.
11. Unfortunately the agreement to purchase did not include the source code. Without the source code the F/A-18 can only fly on missions approved by the United States.
14. The negotiators may think they negotiated a good deal but I just don’t think so. We are simply opening our markets to countries with closed markets.
16. We lost Pulau Batu Puteh but we cannot build the bridge or remove the causeway, or settle the provident fund issue. But we have given up our railway land worth billions to Singapore for practically nothing. And now we must ask Singapore’s permission to build our high speed train.
17. Look at all the agreements we have entered into and you will find practically none of them favours us.
18. Now we want to swallow the American conceived TPP, Trans Pacific Partnership. This is another attempt by America to let their huge corporations penetrate the domestic markets of the small countries, in particular Government procurements.
19. When the GATT (General Agreement on Trade and Tariff) failed they invented WTO (World Trade Organisation) for the same purpose. That also failed. They then invented APEC. Still they cannot achieve their objective. They introduced bilateral free trade agreements. Then they promoted a Globalised World, a world without borders in which their money can go anywhere, destroy economies and then pull out. In case we have forgotten they did this in 1997 – 8.
20. Still they cannot get at Government procurement. And now they invented TPP, a partnership of unequal, of the strong to take advantage of the weak.
21. This is going to be legally binding. If we breach the agreement, their corporations can sue the Government for billions. I have my doubts about our ability to convince the international arbitrators or courts. We cannot even convince the World Court over Pulau Batu Puteh.
23. We have a domestic problem and we have to solve this problem. They don’t care. Anyone who talks about the New Economic Policy (NEP) is labelled racist by our officials. ..We will be colonised again. President Sukarno was right about neo-colonialism.
24. I know MITI is already set to agree to the TPP. It will not entertain any counter arguments. It wants to do this secretly. We don’t punish people who make agreements detrimental to the interest of this country. So what is there to lose.
26. We talk a lot about transparency. Let us see transparency regarding the TPP negotiation. The October 2013 ultimatum should be ignored. And let China also be included.
I really dont know why the Ministry of International Trade is being such a moron over this TPPA.
The TPPA will have such a huge bearing on everything in this country. Yet there is no public debate or even meeting the public or public interest groups to explain why the TPPA is so good for us. Why the secrecy?
Has anyone in the MITI been paid off?
If the TPPA is so great for this country then please explain to us why this is so? Apa susah sangat?
Dont say you have met the public. Dont tell lies. I was not invited. Who am I? I am just a citizen just like Dr Mahathir. I write a Blog too.
Please engage the people and explain to us exactly why - point by point - why this TPPA is so good for the country.
The TPPA is nothing but
i. a deliberate attempt by the US to encircle China with an unfriendly alliance.
ii. It is also a predatory agreement that will allow the US to penetrate our market and at the same time make it unfavourable for our products to penetrate their markets.
Here is how it works. We will have to meet their standards.
For example they may say that all drugs must pass certain technologies before they can be marketed. With their technology their drugs will always pass their technology tests. Our drugs may not pass their tests. So while they can sell their drugs here, we may not be able to sell our drugs there. Worse we may not even be able to sell our own drugs here in our own country. That is the TPPA.
In Australia, American cigarrette companies can sue the Aussie Government which insists the packaging for cigarrettes must follow certain rules. The American cigarrette companies say the Australian rules infringe on their right to free trade and advertisement. So their cigarrette companies are suing the Aussie Government.
They can sue any Government for unlimited amounts. And worse, they can sue the Malaysian Government for example in the American Court. So we are really giving up our sovereignty.
As Dr Mahathir says when we buy the FA-18 jet they did not give us the source code. Why not? What type of free trade is that?
They can sell their manufactured products here. But if we try to sell our products there they can impose artificial non-tariff barriers on our exports. For example they can say that we cut the forests to build our factories which contributes to global warming. So we cannot export our manufactured products to their country.
Or they may say that our factories buy parts or intermediate products from China where prison labour is used to make those products. So our products will not be allowed into their markets. This way they can kill both China and Malaysia at one stroke.
I dont think our Civil Servants have the otak to figure out things like this.
In Pakistan the Americans make fun of the Pakistanis. They say they can buy the Pakistanis with a trip to America or even with dinner with an American. That is how lowly they think of the Pakistanis. There is a reason for that. The Pakistanis memang tak ada class. I think the Americans think the same way about Malaysians.
Michelle Obama and husband are coming here in October. Talk is that the condition for Michelle Obama and husband to come here is our agreement to the TPPA. Some people want to have their pictures taken with Michelle and Barack Obama. Maybe the Obama's will buy them a Big Mac.
We may be losing our sovereignty for a photo op.
There are also those at the MITI who are more nefarious. Yup we know the anti-NEP hoods there. We even know who you sleep with. The TPPA is also an opportunity for these hoods to completely undo the NEP. That is not the way to achieve a better Malaysia - yet. Dont be hasty.
Many a kitchen fire has burnt down the house - because the cooking was done in haste.