KUALA LUMPUR, May 29 — The government’s decision to cancel the Kuala Lumpur-Singapore High Speed Rail (HSR) project is a “big mistake” and would represent a missed opportunity, former minister Datuk Abdul Rahman Dahlan said today.
Abdul Rahman, previously a minister in the Prime Minister’s Department who had overseen the inking of the mega project, said that Putrajaya was being “short-sighted” in its decision to scrap the project.
Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad yesterday announced that the project, which he said could cost Malaysia up to RM110 billion, would be scrapped as his administration tries to bring down the government debt and liabilities that have crossed the RM1-trillion mark.
“This differs greatly from the range of RM50 billion to RM70 billion cost that the governments of Singapore and Malaysia had budgeted earlier this year,” Abdul Rahman said in a statement on his Facebook page.
“The government should not be short-sighted when making an important decision like this. It is clear that the spill over benefits will be so huge that it will be a wasted opportunity if we don’t proceed with the project now,” he added.
Abdul Rahman questioned whether the government had taken into account the economic benefits of such a project for Malaysia.
He also said that the cancellation of the project will also affect the ability of 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) to repay its debt.
“The abandonment of HSR would also mean that the value of 1MDB’s Bandar Malaysia project, which was to be the terminus station of the HSR, would be substantially decreased — diminishing the ability of 1MDB to repay its debt,” he said.
He said that upon completion, the HSR would deliver RM4 billion of economic gain for Malaysia every year, and that the project would have contributed RM 209 billion of Gross National Income (GNI).
