The Anti-TPP Groups

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comprising of: 1) continued affirmative action to the Malays; and 2) incorporation of „healthy‟ competitive element with the non-Malays (Wariya, 2009, pp. 184-185). O‟Shannassy (2013) describes it as a way to gain new legitimacy among the constituents, namely to give more weight to the Ketuanan Rakyat (people supremacy) than to Ketuanan Melayu (Malay supremacy). Economically speaking, such agenda is important as it encourages more competition in the Malaysian economy, including to addresses the rent-seeker problem. Najib stated that “...the best way forward, for their interests and for the interests of this nation, is to adopt open competition, be it amongst Bumiputera or free competition for all...” (quoted in Wariya, 2009, p. 185). Such approach is also important to mitigate the brain drain issue that Malaysia faces nowadays, where there are more educated and skilled ethnic Chinese and Indian looking for overseas jobs due to unfavorable circumstances at the domestic level.

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and the Federal Land Consolidation and Rehabilitation Agency (FELCRA).⁴⁰ However, their role within the debate is quite moderate if not non-existent.

Perhaps disagreements occurred within these government bodies, but it has never come to the media or general public yet, unlike the NGOs.⁴¹ Moreover, they do not have significant influence since they are more to be an administrator rather than a distinct political actor. In Malaysia, everything is already planned within the development plan, and they only need to follow.⁴² Another agency is the Ministry of Finance, which is said to be protectionist as it has the authority over the procurement policy (Dhillon, 2009; Tham, 2014). However, now PM Najib himself chairs the ministry, therefore reducing the potential protectionist stance it can carry. In fact, several agencies indeed join the negotiation process along with the MITI, such as the central bank (the Bank Negara Malaysia) on financial service and Ministry of Finance of government procurement.⁴³

Second, a relatively more active role is played by opposition parties.

Usually, they are mostly active in giving press statements and in the parliamentary caucus meeting. Due to the case‟s high profile status, the latter is unprecedented in Malaysian history as the TPP is the only FTA to be discussed in the parliament and to be tabled for „parliamentary mandate‟ (The Star, 2013).⁴⁴ Usually, they question secrecy issue in which the government only circulates information among themselves, especially before the caucus was made in July 2013. Member

40 Interview with two economists from ISIS, Op. Cit.

41 Interview with an IR specialist from Monash University Malaysia, in Selangor, Malaysia, 25 February 2015.

42 Interview with two political scientists from UKM, Op. Cit.

43 Interview with two economists from ISIS, Op. Cit.

44 Under Malaysian current law, the executive has the authority over international trade negotiation.

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of Parliament (MP) from PKR Nurul Izzah Anwar on 6 June 2013 made a specific press statement about this. She concerned on the fact that Malaysia‟s law gives authority to the executive to conduct international treaty without any participation from the public (Anwar, 2013). Therefore, she called for a „parliamentary study group‟ to scrutinize every detail of the negotiation clause (Anwar, 2013). The stance of opposition parties also touch sensitive issues being voiced mostly by the NGOs (to be discussed later) such as the Investor Dispute Settlement (IDS), Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) and sovereignty. Among them is DAP MP Charles Santiago in July 2013 who referred to US-Jordan FTA that raised medicine cost to 20-30 percent (The Malaysian Insider, 10 Jul. 2013). He also feels concern about sovereignty issue since under TPP, certain domestic law can be bypassed by an international tribunal (The Malaysian Insider, 10 Jul. 2013).

Several other opposition parties MP use the parliamentary caucus arena to voice their concern. This secrecy issue was again complained by MP from Parti Sosialis Malaysia (PSM) Michael Jeyakumar, at a TPP protest in Kuala Lumpur, 19 March 2014. He wished the government to open the original negotiation text to the parliament member, since right now they can only study TPP based on previous US‟ FTA experience and ask questions to the government whether the deal includes topic A or B (The Rakyat Post, 19 March 2014). Other opposition parties who are among the most active is Wong Chen from the PKR. On 17 November 2014, he directly criticized Minister of ISI Mostapa Mohamed for not releasing

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the interim reports (in June 2013 and August 2014) and pending the dissemination of final report (Wong, 2014).⁴⁵

Third, among the anti-TPP group, the NGOs are among the most dynamic ones. They commented on many sensitive issues within TPP negotiation. Beside confidentiality issue discussed above, they also criticized many other areas, such as health and small and medium enterprises (SMEs). As voiced by Malaysia AIDS Council, they mostly criticize the very potentials of TPP raise medicine cost due to longer patent duration and data exclusivity (Rahman, 2013). In an interview with a policy manager from this NGOs, this applies, for example, to the Hepatitis C medicine that costs US$ 1,000 per pill. It also has patent duration for 20 years (under the existing WTO rule) and to be prolonged for another 20 years under the TPP‟s IPR regime.⁴⁶ Economically speaking, higher medicine cost will bring negative impact to Malaysian federal budget since health service is highly subsidized.⁴⁷ On SME issue, NGOs concern on national treatment principle where SMEs should confront with US‟ big companies (Idris, 2013).

Moreover, various NGOs with different concern even join a grand NGOs coalition, namely the BANTAH TPPA (literally means AGAINST TPPA). At 21 May 2013, they released an open letter as an answer to MITI‟s press release; with

45 Unsurprisingly, there is a contending argument to Wong Chan‟s view from Datuk Ahmad Hamzah, who is the Parliamentary caucus‟ chairman himself and happens to come from PM Najib‟s faction within UMNO. After the meeting of 30 September 2013, he commented that

„caucus members were satisfied‟ and that the government had shown „initiative and dedication towards the interest of the nation‟. Look at The Borneo Post (1 Oct. 2013).

46 Another problematic area is the enforcement of patent to Braille-converted literature, which will potentially charge higher cost for the blind people. Interview with an NGO activist from Malaysian AIDS Council (Majelis AIDS Malaysia), in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, 23 February 2015.

47 The TPP: Najib Razak‟s gordian knot – Shankaran Nambiar. (2014, July 2). Retrieved from http://www.themalaymailonline.com/what-you-think/article/the-tpp-najib-razaks-gordian-knot-shankaran-nambiar

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this they stated their stances on various issues such as confidentiality, health, SMEs and many others. (Idris, 2013). Specifically on the investor-state dispute settlement, they challenged the government to develop Malaysian economy organically without any dependence from MNCs and sovereignty-threatening legal obligation. This coalition NGOs conduct regular demonstrations in Kuala Lumpur, including those on 22 May 2014 in the wake of Barrack Obama‟s visit.

They also use media to raise awareness among general public, mostly the internet website, even since the bilateral Malaysia-US FTA talks. (Smeltzer, 2009, pp. 15-17).

Fourth, another serious contender from the anti-TPP group is the intra-UMNO business-politician. They are the one to enjoy the most leverage from Malaysia‟s Bumiputera policy, therefore, feel threatened by the possibility of dismantling it. Their causation has started even from the US-Malaysia bilateral FTA talks, such as from the Malay Businessmen and Industrialist Association of Malaysia (in Malay abbreviation, Perdasama), the president of which Moehammad Izt Emir is an important leader in UMNO (Smeltzer, 2009).⁴⁸ In August 2013, there was a headline from Utusan Malaysia, a Malay language newspaper owned by the UMNO, which labeled Malaysia‟s TPP negotiators as

„traitors‟ (Kyodo News International, 2013).

Arguably the most vocal contender from this intra-UMNO group is no less than ex-PM Mahathir Mohamad himself. He was Malaysia‟s longest serving

48 Also within the anti-TPP group is the government-linked companies (GLCs), which are mostly owned by the intra-UMNO business-politician. They have similar concerns about liberalization, yet they do not release many statements. Interview with two political scientists from UKM, Op.

Cit.

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PM, the founding father of the NEP and Bumiputera policy and the strong advocate for government intervention. He made a lot of statement regarding the TPP. In August 2013, he openly called the Malaysian government to withdraw from the TPP talks as it reduces government‟s ability to implement socio-economic policies, especially the NEP (Kyodo News International, 2013, Oxford Business Group, 2014). He also commented that TPP will ensure smooth penetration from US‟ companies to enjoy market and government contracts in Malaysia‟s economy (Global Research, 2013), a comment that has strong resonance with his statement for US-Malaysia bilateral FTA, namely the deal as a US‟ way to „politicaly and economically re-colonize developing and newly industrializing countries‟ (Smeltzer, 2009, p. 19). In July 2014, he openly criticized PM Najib himself by saying: “...the quality of a strong leader is his willingness to stand up against foreign pressure [the TPP] and protect the interests of the country. If you can‟t do that, then you are not considered a strong leader...”.

IV.3.3 Assessing the Influence of Pro- and Anti-TPP Groups: Toward