KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 8 – The government must work together to effectively inform the people of the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement’s (TPPA) benefits, the Institute for Democracy and Economic Affairs (IDEAS) says. IDEAS Chief Executive Officer Wan Saiful Wan Jan said the International Trade and Industry Ministry (MITI) had so far been shouldering the burden alone while other ministries behaved as if they were unconnected to the process.
“All the ministries involved need to speak up as one government and there must be a coherent strategy to communicate with the public. Both the TPPA cost-benefit analyses by the Institute of Strategic and International Studies (ISIS) and PriceWaterhouseCoopers (PWC) did not play down concerns raised by various parties and concluded that Malaysia would benefit from the trade pact,” he said in a statement.
Wan Saiful highlighted that both reports would allow parliamentarians, decision makers and civil society stakeholders to get answers to their concerns and then make informed decisions. At the same time, he said he is worried about those who oppose the TPPA because they have been unduly influenced by anti-liberalisation activists who will oppose it even when studies say it is good.
In the meantime, he also added that it is shocking how much coverage these anti-liberalisation activists have received and how many people have been influenced by their scare tactics. He said he would like to urge everyone to read the two studies and decide based on the facts.
