Since the protest held last 30th October  during the US-Malaysia FTA talks in Kuala Lumpur , the resistance movement against the exploitative  agreement took a step forward .

Today, the coalition led by JERIT and other NGOs and political parties submitted a memorandum to the International Trade and Industry Minister, Dato' Seri Rafidah Aziz. The coalition gave a point to point rebuttal on the issues raised by Rafidah in replying to the memorandum send by the Coalition on 30th. October 2006.

The memorandum today which was endorsed by 42 Organisation was received by Mastura Ahmad Mustafa , The Principal Assistant Director of the Ministry. She promised to submit the Memorandum to the Minister.

Though the PSM position has been to stop US invasion through trade but nevertheless the Coalition which includes PSM took the following joint position that is calling for tranparency in making the cost-benefit study public, minutes of the talks to be made public, a feedback mechnism for the people to voice their displeasure, a mechanism where the people will be directly involved in the decision making and until all this is done for the FTA talks to be stopped.

Last week , a leafleting campaign was also done simultaneously nationwide .From Penang to Johor , the Stop US-Malaysia  FTA Coalition members actively distributed thousands of leaflets at key State and  Federal government buildings  nationwide . The simultaneous leafleting campaign was done between 12 pm to 2  pm , lunch  hour for  most government offices.

In Putrajaya itself, where the Federal Government Administrative is located, thousands of leaflets were distributed at all major food centers. Other major towns hit were Ipoh, Johor Bharu, Penang, Shah Alam and Kota Bharu.

The simple ,'direct to the point'  leaflets produced by  JERIT  People's  Coalition, PSM and Third World  Network received good support  form the public .Even though  many were not aware of  the implications  of  Free Trade Agreements, but  key issues  like  price  of  medicines , foreign investment and loss of  employment caught  the  attention of the common people .

The Government has been trying  hard to keep the trade  talks , which are  now  due  for  their  fourth  round  , as low profile as possible . As the 4th round of  talks are  due  to be  held  in San Francisco from the 8th to 12th January,2007 the US Trade  representatives are desperately fast tracking  the process , hoping to  conclude it   by March 2007.

The coalition since  November , has embarked on a nationwide roadshow leafleting and talks  campaign to inform the  people of the serious  implications  of  the FTA Agreement. The Badawi's government has already started to prepare to liberalize local economic sectors by welcoming  foreign banks , reviewing  the  investment act , consolidating  the Palm Oil companies  to prepare the platform to compete  in  the global market ,not protecting  the  local car industry and many others.

With  the resistance  campaign growing ,the rakyat(people) will soon  realize that the Badawi administration has only the interest of the big  companies  and  investors at  heart.

Only the big players would be able to benefit from US-Malaysia FTA as they expand further to capture the global market .The common working people and the rakyat will be the ones who will suffer in the end .

STOPUS -MALAYSIA FTA!

Sivarajan; Parti Sosialis Malaysia .