KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 25 — The Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) agreement will make all of its members equally powerful, and should not be feared, Barisan Nasional (BN) backbenchers chief Tan Sri Shahrir Samad said today.

“This is not like the United Nations where someone has a veto power. It’s not like someone has a majority vote. Everything in this agreement is by consensus,” he told a press conference here today on the eve of tomorrow’s special parliamentary session to debate the trade agreement.

“This follows the Asean model. Everyone is equally powerful as the next. And for me, that is one of the most important factor that convinced a skeptical person like me," he added.

The TPP will be debated for two days in a special sitting in Parliament.

Shahrir said that 15 BN lawmakers will take part in the debate, and that each have been instructed to touch on specific issues.

He said Malaysians should feel “proud” that parts of TPP standards had already existed in Malaysia for a long time.

“Take the registration of drugs for example. The standards set by TPP, we already had it in place for some time,” he said.

“In fact we even have extra measures compared to TPP standards. So the TPP is following the standard that was already set in Malaysia,” he added.