Malaysian police and government come down hard on peaceful rallies, calling for greater democratic space in the country.

But they opted for a weakling response when media reports stated that spying by the US Intelligence had been carried out in Malaysia by the US Embassy and the Australian High Commission.

In sharp contrast, European Union leaders are planning to stall the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) negotiations with the US following allegations that the US National Security Agency (NSA) was monitoring German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s phone.

And in a similar trans-Atlantic rift, Germany and Brazil submitted a new draft resolution to the UN General Assembly earlier this month, demanding an end to excessive electronic surveillance, data collection, and other snooping techniques.

The German government has called for the suspension of the Terrorist Finance Tracking Program (SWIFT) with the US as an expression of outrage and anger over the spying scandal of its Chancellor and citizens

The European Parliament voted to freeze America’s access to its banking network. The EU noted that “the US has been abusing the agreement to gather undue economic intelligence, which is in no way connected to terrorists’ activities”.

Reports have indicated that 90 US surveillance facilities were placed at diplomatic missions worldwide – including in Malaysia, Cambodia, Indonesia, China, Myanmar and Thailand, Vietnam, Papua New Guinea and East Timur.

But, Malaysia’s response to the scandal has been timid.

It only summoned the US and Australian mission heads to “hand over a protest note in response to the alleged spying activities carried out by the two embassies in Kuala Lumpur”.

Such a response is embarrassing.

The rule of thumb is that we don’t do business with enemies. We play smart. We keep away. And we certainly don’t ink on dotted lines, allowing them to reign over us. Neither do we threaten the sovereignty of our country by getting into a deal with them.

But our Prime Minister and ruling party leaders don’t seem to get this.

I am talking about the Trans-pacific Partnership Agreement or TPPA, Malaysia and the US.

The Malaysian government must take a stronger position by immediately stopping all TPPA negotiations with the US and Australia.

Negotiations should only resume when the US and Australia come clean on the spying scandal, spilling facts if Malaysian citizens were also spied on.

Stalling the trade agreement and demanding an explanation would send a strong and serious message to the US and Australia that eavesdropping on governments and its citizens are not acceptable.

Revelations of human rights violations and grotesque abuses by Chelsea Manning shook the world. Julian Assange further concretized America’s rogue image.

Despite that the world’s largest democracy, as the US is known, somehow managed to keep much of its diplomatic relations intact.

But former NSA employee and computer specialist, Edward Snowden’s NSA leaks and spying allegations have just gone too far and should not be tolerated. We need to stand up to the bully boy tactics of the US.

But would Prime Minister NajibRazak have the gumption to do so?