KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 5 — Umno vice-president Datuk Seri Mohamed Khaled Nordin today questioned if other mega infrastructure projects would also face the same fate as the terminated Kuala Lumpur-Singapore High Speed Rail (HSR).
The former Johor menteri besar criticised the Perikatan Nasional (PN) government’s approach to projects which would benefit the public, and also questioned as to why the HSR project which he deemed a “game changer” was politicised, which then led to its cancellation.
“Why is the ‘game changer’ project that is supposed to uphold the Malaysian economy politicised with attempts to make various changes to it, until it was finally cancelled?
“Would other infrastructure projects that bring various benefits to Malaysians bear the same fate in the hands of the PN government?” Khaled asked.
He said that the cancellation also reflected several governance shortcomings and decision making processes of the current government.
“Firstly, the Malaysian government does not seem to know what it really wants to benefit from, from the regional cooperation with Singapore. The Malaysian government has not been able to make firm and consistent decisions on cross-border economic integration of the two countries; even displaying a ‘flip flop’ stance.
“Malaysia is now missing a golden opportunity to further strengthen ties between the two cities which are among the main economic engines of South-east Asia. Secondly, the PN government clearly displays the ever-changing and contradictory commitment and determination, similar to the Pakatan Harapan (PH) government,” he added.
He said that PN also lacks understanding of long-term cost analysis of the HSR project, explaining that the increased connectivity between Malaysia and Singapore would create abundant benefits in terms of economic growth, employment opportunities, business environment, investment attractiveness as well as increased tourism which would surpass the cost of tourism for the HSR.
“In fact, a simulated analysis of the Institute of Developing Economies researchers from Japan, revealed that the economic impact of HSR for Malaysia in the best policy combination is US$ 1.589 billion (RM6.38 billion) annually by 2030, almost 2.5 times the economic impact on Singapore,” he said.
Yesterday, Singapore’s Transport Minister Ong Ye Kung said the HSR project was terminated because Malaysia had proposed to remove an assets company that had previously been agreed on.
This seemed to contradict Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Datuk Seri Mustapa Mohamed’s claim that the HSR project was cancelled due to the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic on the country’s economy.
Last Friday, Malaysia and Singapore both issued separate statements to announce the automatic termination of the HSR Bilateral Agreement.
Singapore’s Ministry of Transport said Putrajaya had allowed the HSR bilateral agreement to be terminated and has agreed to compensate the island republic for costs already incurred in fulfilling its obligations under the agreement.
Malaysia, on the other hand, said it would honour its obligations under the HSR Bilateral Agreement with Singapore and pay compensation.
