PUTRAJAYA, Jan 28 — Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad today said that a letter shared on social media that showed the cancellation of the East Coast Rail Link (ECRL) project was not official and could have possibly been doctored.

The letter dated January 18 bore the signature of Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng.

"Letterhead of the government, we know people can just take it and turn it into a letter. That is not official.

"Has Lim Guan Eng made a statement? We wait for him,” he told reporters when asked to confirm the status of the rail project.

At 4pm today, former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak also shared a letter purportedly written by Lim confirming that the project was off.

When asked on the conflicting information given on the status of the project, Dr Mahathir reiterated to the media to wait for the official statement to be announced and said the new Pakatan Harapan government was bound to make mistakes as well.

"You wait, be patient and wait.

"Sometimes people make mistakes. We have to understand that this is a new government… the number of mistakes we make is not many but people noticed it because this is a new government.

"We wait until Lim Guan Eng announces,” he said.

Yesterday, Datuk Seri Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail had said that she would find out what happened at last week’s Cabinet meeting after differing statements were issued by Lim and Economic Affairs Minister Datuk Seri Mohamed Azmin Ali over the supposed cancellation of the ECRL project.

Lim said yesterday that he was shocked by Mohamed Azmin’s announcement that the Cabinet had last week decided to cancel the ECRL project because of its cost.

Mohamed Azmin had on Saturday said the Cabinet decided to scrap the project during a meeting on Thursday after it was found that the government would have to fork out RM500 million in interest it the project continued.