I must have touched a very raw nerve of the government now that the TPPA is getting closer to conclusion. Anifah Aman, the Foreign Minister has also stepped in to the fray alleging that I selectively used the PwC report and insists that the TPPA will bring real economic benefits.
If Anifah has read the PwC report properly, the so called economic benefits (which are insignificant) stemming from reductions on Non-Tariff-Measures which are not legal certainties but based on a woolly, feel good “what ifs” scenarios. It is Hanifah that has selectively read the PwC report without understanding the basis of the projected numbers.
So my basis for complaining about his foreign policy is very simple:
If we don’t stand to gain economically, the only reason why we are pursuing TPPA must be for geopolitical reasons.
Therefore Anifah better explain to Malaysians what great geopolitical gains we will get, so much so, that we are willing to sacrifice some of our sovereign rights to sign the TPPA?
We have always been a nation that pride ourselves in being neutral and in facing superpowers, remained steadfastly non-aligned. But now our new foreign policy direction under Najib seems to be to bend our backs to American interests under TPPA? To what end do we risk upsetting China, our no.1 trading partner? For what gain? For a few extra lousy dollars?
Yet, very recently we have seen Najib willingly happy to accept China’s chequebook diplomacy when China bailed out 1MDB power and lands.
Anifah better explain these glaring inconsistencies. Are we pro American on paper only (TPPA) but happy to take China’s money (1MDB)? What kind of foreign policy is this? How did we fall from a proud leader of the third world and non-aligned movement under Dr.Mahathir, to pursue double dealings?