Stop lecturing us on sovereign rights, US envoy told amid anger over Anwar's 'surrender' to Washington

A former DAP leader has slammed US ambassador Edgard D Kagan for his comments welcoming the recent trade deal signed with Washington as mutually "beneficial", despite public outrage and expert opinions describing the pact as "one-sided" and a surrender of Malaysia's sovereignty.

"Kagan should refrain from adding insult to injury by continuing to portray this lopsided agreement as a success," said P Ramasamy, the former Penang deputy chief minister who now leads opposition party Urimai.

"My simple advice to Ambassador Kagan: please stop interfering in Malaysia’s internal affairs and refrain from telling Malaysians what is beneficial for our nation. We Malaysians know what is best for Malaysia."

Kagan had described the so-called reciprocal trade agreement between Malaysia and the US, signed by Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim and President Donald Trump, as "extraordinarily beneficial to both countries".

This was despite a chorus of condemnation from the public, economists and politicians who warned that the treaty strips Malaysia of its sovereign regulatory power.

Ramasamy said it was inappropriate for the ambassador "to lecture Malaysia on what the country should or should not do".

"I find it surprising that Kagan has chosen to advise Malaysia, particularly when the recent US–Malaysia trade deal is fraught with serious problems.

"How can Malaysia hope to enhance its strategic and economic initiatives under the unfair and one-sided conditions of this agreement? Many of the provisions contained in the trade pact are inimical to Malaysia’s long-term interests," he said.

At the heart of public outrage is a provision that obliges Malaysia to become a direct participant in US economic conflicts.

It states that if Washington imposes sanctions or tariffs on any third country for national security reasons, Malaysia "shall adopt or maintain a measure with equivalent restrictive effect", effectively ending Malaysia’s long-held foreign policy of non-alignment and mirroring US sanctions against other nations.

Ramasamy said Kagan was "intent on whitewashing" the deal's flaws, adding that Anwar "has effectively signed away aspects of Malaysia’s sovereign rights by endorsing this agreement".

It is a view is increasingly echoed by economists and experts, even as the government appears to have engaged spokesmen and analysts in a media campaign to present the deal as a success in Malaysia's attempt to secure a more competitive tariff rate from Washington.

Prominent economist Muhammed Abdul Khalid concluded that the deal was unprecedented and the first time a prime minister has surrendered Malaysia's sovereignty.

"They had bartered away our sovereignty in a deal so grotesquely one-sided, so reminiscent of a bygone era of vassal states, that it sets a gold standard for how not to represent a nation's interests.

"Let’s be clear: this is not a trade agreement; it is a surrender to a hegemon," said Muhammed,who wrote a detailed evaluation of the agreement's clauses.

"This is a chilling throwback to the era of British adviser and the Malay sultans, where advice was, in effect, a command. If this is not a submission to a foreign country, then what is this?" he added.