The lower house of Malaysia’s parliament passed a bill allowing the country to participate in the Trans-Pacific Partnership on Wednesday, clearing a crucial hurdle for the government to sign the free trade pact next month.
In the chamber in which the ruling National Front coalition controls nearly two-thirds of the 222 seats, the bill was approved after two days of heated debate, with 127 legislators voting for versus 84 against.
International Trade and Industry Minister Mustapa Mohamad, who tabled the motion on Tuesday seeking approval from the lower house to allow the government to sign and ratify the deal, assured the legislators that Malaysian social agendas will not be compromised.
“The TPP will not change our economic model,” he said in a speech before voting began.
In reference to the mix of capitalism and socialism that Malaysia practices, he said: “We will continue to have the ‘bumiputera’ policy, social enterprises.”
“Bumiputera” or “prince of soil” refers mainly to the ethnic Malays, who make up some 60 per cent of the country’s 29 million population and who enjoy special privileges through the state’s affirmative-action policy due to the perception that they are still weak economically compared to the minority ethnic Chinese.
The “bumiputera” issue is particularly sensitive to Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak, whose party, the United Malays National Organisation, depends heavily on the Malay voting bloc.
The opposition’s main arguments revolved around fear of the government losing sovereignty especially over the investor-state dispute settlement chapter and the “bumiputera” policy, which comes under the government procurement and state-owned enterprise chapters. They also spoke out over concern that the price of medicine will rise as a result of a longer patent-protection period under the intellectual property rights chapter.
But Mustapa said the TPP recognised the “bumiputera” policy and the country is given a longer transition period and higher thresholds in certain sectors in order to allow the Malays to play catch up.
Outside parliament, a dozen or so activists bearing placards with slogans such as “Malaysia Is Not For Sale” and “TPP Agenda Amerika” camped out overnight in a show of protest against the TPP.
Nashita Md Noor, a 50-year-old social activist, believed Malaysia is not ready for the TPP.
“It is the big companies that will benefit, not the people. Also, the TPP will open the door for big multinational companies to come in and our local small businesses will lose out,” she said.
Although aware she is fighting a futile battle to thwart the deal, Nashita said, “It’s symbolic that there are people brave enough to fight the current government who are not doing anything good.”
According to a World Bank report released earlier this month, Malaysia, Vietnam and Japan will reap significant double-digit bumps in their exports by joining the TPP.
The TPP will open the door for big multinational companies to come in and our local small businesses will lose out
Social activist
It said the TPP will boost Malaysia’s exports by 20 per cent in 2030 while its gross domestic product will rise by 8 per cent. This is in sharp contrast to the United States, the largest economy in the 12-member bloc, which it said will see a gain of only 0.4 per cent in its GDP.
The TPP negotiations were concluded last October after five years of intense wrangling.
Besides Malaysia and the United States, others in the pact are Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore and Vietnam, which together account for about one-third of global economic output.
With the passage of the deal in the lower house, it will be brought for deliberation and voting in the Senate on Thursday, where it is expected to be easily passed since the National Front also dominates the upper chamber.
The 12 member countries are scheduled to sign the trade pact on February 4 in Auckland, New Zealand. After which, the government has two year to ratify the pact.
Mustapa has said Malaysia still needs to amend 17 laws involving customs, intellectual property rights, labour, among others, to ensure “best practices” under the TPP.
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Source URL: http://www.scmp.com/news/asia/southeast-asia/article/1906312/malaysias-lower-house-parliament-passes-contentious-trans