Busy November Ahead

It’s Saturday 1^stof November and I just got back from Parliament from a renewable energy forum organised by the ASEAN Inter-Parliamentary Assembly (AIPA) and Parlimen Malaysia. This tri-partite policy forum involved ASEAN MPs, Business Community and Experts. We discussed and deliberated policy and regulatory issues to make renewable energy and the ASEAN Power Grid more resilient and effective. The forum was a full 10-hour day. I had four roles; moderating a session, doing a TED Talk style speech, joined a panel of experts and lastly, giving the closing speech.

As such, I am writing this article in a somewhat “tired blur” and stream of consciousness state.

Yesterday, I had spent another 10 hours in Parliament for a Myanmar Democracy conference; where I took part in a panel and gave the closing speech too. That conference was jointly organized by my PSSC on International Relations and International Trade (PSSC) and the ASEAN Parliamentarians for Human Rights (APHR).

In short, I have been very busy. However, November is gearing up to be even busier! In fact, we are now in the middle of the end of year Parliamentary Session that will end on the 4^th of December. So, we have another 33 days to go. I have been extremely busy in my Parliamentary international portfolio. In fact, since my last posting last month about my Parliamentary trade trip to Kenya, I was away for a week in Brussels, Belgium in late October, for a series of European Union meetings with MPs and the Commission.

Ironically, I was not involved in any part of the ASEAN Summit as that is in the powers of the cabinet ministers of the Madani Government and is strictly not a Parliamentary matter. I was nevertheless invited not by my government but by the US Embassy to meet President Trump at an event but I had to respectfully decline due to a prior schedule in Singapore. Nevertheless, upon my return and after learning of the onerous terms of the US-Malaysia Reciprocal Trade Deal, it appears that I did not manage to avoid all of Trump related matters, after all.

This US-Malaysia trade deal is highly controversial in many aspects. I am not one who particularly enjoys political theatrics and will not lower myself to unfairly curse, but I do understand why some Opposition MPs are extremely furious.

As the PSSC chairman, I have decided to take a more measured response to the flawed trade deal; which is to call for a full hearing on 12^th November. The time selected is done on purpose; (a) to enable cooler heads to prevail, (b) to give time for experts to fully analyse and then testify accurately, (c) to track the reactions of our major trading partners, in particular China (d) to monitor the status of the US-China deal, and (e) to buy time to also cross-check the terms with other terms of multilateral FTAs such as the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) and Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP).

That being the case, this November may prove to be even more work than usual for me. And for that, I want to apologise to my constituents in advance, that I will most likely miss some of your November community events (which my officers are on standby to attend on my behalf). Wishing all a productive and happy month ahead.