I never thought I'd live to see this surrender, says Mahathir as anger boils over trade deal signed by Anwar

Dr Mahathir Mohamad has joined the chorus of condemnation against the recently signed Malaysia-US trade deal, stating that the document is neither a "partnership" nor "reciprocal" as claimed by government leaders.

"It is a submission of our economic freedom which we have worked hard to protect and build.

"We agree to buy their airplanes, gas and machines, obey their digital rules, that they have the first bite of the cherry of our rare minerals, open our market on their terms and follow their conditions on who we can do or not do business with.

"All these for a tariff relief which is merely crumbs," said the former prime minister, who made nationalisation of the economy a keystone of his two decades in office during the rapid economic growth of the 1980s and 1990s.

On Oct 26, Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim and President Donald Trump signed the so-called reciprocal trade agreement, hailed as a pact to enhance reciprocity and secure supply chains.

Despite a major media campaign by the government promoting the agreement as a success in negotiations to seek lower tariffs imposed by Trump on Malaysian goods, social media erupted with anger as it emerged that the agreement binds Malaysia’s economic, foreign, and national security policies to the unilateral interests of the US, with critics and experts warning that it strips Malaysia of its sovereign regulatory power.

More to come