Malaysia will sign TPPA to stay friends with US, Umno veteran says
(Malay Mail Online) – Umno veteran Tan Sri Sanusi Junid believes Malaysia’s leaders will ultimately ink the controversial US-led Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA) in a bid to stay on the good side of the world’s current sole superpower.
The former federal minister said politicians would do anything out of desperation, and added that he had long predicted that Putrajaya would sign the deal even though the people were against it, Malay daily Sinar Harian reported today.
“Everyone is saying it is not good. From early on I had said they would sign it. Whether it was good or not, they would sign it because they placed importance in being friends with the United States,” he was quoted saying.
“If you want to be friends with the US, you have to sign it but they forget that the US is broke. The US has weapons, so if you want to be friends with someone who has a lot of weapons, they can go ahead and be friends but it would have no benefit for us.”
To illustrate and drive home his point on desperation, Sanusi said a drowning person would grab onto anything to save himself, “even filth”.
“They won’t be thinking about national interest and whatnot… that person is drowning, so anything someone offers, to be friends, they will just accept it,” he was further quoted as saying.
On Monday night, it was announced in a press conference in Atlanta, Georgia in the United States that 12 nations including Malaysia have reached a final agreement on the TPPA, the largest regional trade accord in history.
Those representing the countries involved in the pact must now seek approval to ratify the deal.
According to international reports, the Pacific agreement would phase out thousands of import tariffs as well as other barriers to international trade and establish uniform rules on corporations’ intellectual property, and open the Internet.
Critics have been criticising the secrecy with which the deal is being negotiated, claiming that it would, among other things, undermine the sovereignty of signatory nations and make medicine more expensive in member countries.
