Do Your Homework, Wee Ka Siong

On 29 October when MITI Minister Tengku Zafrul Aziz delivered his Ministerial Statement on the Malaysia-United States Agreement on Reciprocal Trade (ART) in Parliament, Speaker Tan Sri Johari Abdul told the House that MPs would be allowed to raise questions on this issue the next day on 30 October, during MITI’s winding-up session for Budget 2026 debates.

Representing MITI, I allowed ample chances for MPs from across the aisle to debate and raise questions on ART during the winding-up session. Never once I tried to stop them throughout the one-hour session.

However, Wee Ka Siong was nowhere to be found.

Choosing to forgo the opportunity to question the administration in Parliament, he later released a video claiming that “Cambodia can, but Malaysia cannot”, implying that Cambodia reached a better deal with the US than Malaysia. Worse still, he was merely picking up from Machang MP Wan Ahmad Fayhsal Wan Ahmad Kamal’s flawed argument in Parliament.

I have no intention of comparing Malaysia’s deal with Cambodia’s. In fact, it cannot be compared because the interests and circumstances vis-à-vis the US are different for both nations. However, I have to explain and correct the false claims by Wan Fayhsal and Wee.

In Article 5.1.1 of the Cambodia-US trade deal, Cambodia has to take trade actions as spelled out by the US, as long as that does not infringe on Cambodia’s sovereign interests.

This was pointed out by Bangi MP Sdr Syahredzan Johan, who is a lawyer by training.

Whereas in Article 5.1.1 of the Malaysia-US ART, there are clauses that explicitly protect the interests of Malaysia. It clearly states that actions taken should:

• Be guided by principles of goodwill

• Address a shared economic and national security concern

• Be in accordance with domestic (Malaysian) laws and regulations

• At a timeline acceptable to both parties

I also explained to Parliament that while Cambodia has eliminated tariffs on 100% of US industrial goods and US food and agricultural products into the country, Malaysia’s list is comparatively much shorter.

Like I have repeatedly said in the House, as countries across the world remain highly dependent on the US market, we have to negotiate a trade deal with the US after “Liberation Day”.

Only if Wee was present in the House on 30 October, or even at the briefing session I conducted for government backbenchers on 29 October, he wouldn’t have posed such unsubstantiated claims.

I welcome Wee to contact me directly via WhatsApp if he would like to seek further clarification on the Malaysia-US ART. After all, he has had my contact number since 2005.

Otherwise, we know that it is just another cheap publicity stunt from him in yet another attempt to discredit the MADANI government, of which he is part of.