TPPA Controversy

TPPA is not get attention from Malaysia only but also in 11 other countries, namely Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, the US and Vietnam. A special focus and attention on TPPA happen because it is considered the most comprehensive trade agreement because it includes many things such as investment, trade in electronic goods, government procurement, intellectual property, human resources and environment.

Malaysian against to the agreement is largely focused on two themes, namely, government procurement and intellectual property (IP). This is because it is feared that if the government is constrained by international law through the TPPA, basic assist Bumiputera companies as well as government-linked companies (GLCs) will be stunted. For IP, it is expected that medical costs will become more expensive and this will certainly increase their financial burden in facing increase in cost of living.

 There are already exists a parliamentary caucus on the TPPA, which consists of six representatives from the government and five from the opposition and the overall total of 14 consultations have been taking place since 2013 but the debate in Parliament after the final TPPA is quite different from the caucus level discussion since before this all discussion is based on the limited information TPPA.

Therefore, the expectations of all people involving 222 MPs is that the debate must be based on facts and not on emotions or unfounded allegations. All the elected representatives not only be guided by the facts contained in the TPPA content but should also refer to the two efficacy studies TPPA is being made by the independent professional institute that is the Institute of Strategic and International Studies Malaysia (ISIS) Malaysia and also the company PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC)


The House of Representatives had given 25 days for the Third Meeting starting from 19 October 2015 to 3 December 2015. Each of the 12 countries in the TPPA was given 2 years to decide whether to join it or not. Hopefully, the House of Representatives will be use as well as possible so that the results to be achieved must be the best interests of the country and people and not precede political agenda.