ABSTRACT
In this chapter I discuss the potential ramifications of a Malaysia-United States (US) Free Trade Agreement (FTA) on Malaysia’s rice sector and national food sovereignty. While domestic resistance to the agreement may at first glance appear non-existent, a growing number of civil society agents in Malaysia have employed a range of overt and covert mechanisms to question and challenge the agreement and its negotiation process. Though they often focus on different sections of the agreement, these citizens’ groups have uniformly called for greater transparency, and public and parliamentary consultation about the negotiations. This chapter takes a critical look at these resistance efforts, examining which groups are – and are not – involved in the process, and highlights both the challenges they face and the limitations to their success. The discussion that follows is based, to a large extent, on semistructured and unstructured interviews conducted in July and August 2007 with Malaysian civil society agents, political party members and local media practitioners; as well as an extensive review of domestic media sources.
