Speaking to FMT, Amanah Vice-President Mujahid Rawa said the Opposition was concerned about the hasty nature of the Chinese deal, saying that it was done without any prior assessment or evaluation.
“It’s not that we are against any country which wants to invest, but it seems like (Prime Minister) Najib Razak is relying on Chinese investors to save the ecocomy.
“Because of that, we could become submissive to China.”
Last week, Ismail, who’s also the rural and regional development minister, said the Opposition had run out of ideas when they accused Prime Minister Najib Razak of attempting to pawn the country.
Najib, during his six-day visit to Beijing, China, recently, had signed at least 14 deals on defence, agriculture, education, finance and construction, worth about RM143.64 billion.
Bukit Bendera MP Zairil Khir Johari also echoed similar sentiments, saying “we have no problem with investment”.
“But in the deal with China it seems like we are not getting the best out of it.
“The East Coast Rail Link (ECRL) cost is too high and following the recent bailout of 1MDB by China, one can’t help but wonder if this is a tit for tat deal that is made out of desperation.”
The ECRL is a RM55 billion project which is set to be financed via soft loans from the Bank of China.
Najib has said that the project would be launched in phases and would connect townships such as Port Klang, ITT (Integrated Transport Terminals) of Gombak, Bentong, Mentakab, Kuantan, Kemaman, Kerteh, Kuala Terengganu, Kota Bharu and end in Tumpat.
Mujahid said it didn’t make sense for the ECRL project to cost RM55 billion, pointing out that it should have cost about RM30 billion, citing the figure from their research.
“It only cost about RM32 billion and yet, we are receiving a soft loan for RM55 billion. So that’s our question — why an additional RM23 billion?
“If the government had a transparent evaluation of the project, then nobody would have questioned them.”
Seputeh MP Teresa Kok was also of the same opinion, pointing out that the construction cost of the ECRL was much higher than the actual cost.
“In the end, the rakyat will have to foot the bill. This is the problem.”