Referring to Ismail’s suggestion to revive discussions with Singapore on the project, Hanipa Maidin (PH-Sepang) pointed out that the prime minister was a senior Cabinet member under the Muhyiddin Yassin administration.
Ismail was the defence minister and senior minister for security from March 2020 to Aug 16 this year, prior to taking up the post of prime minister.
“The previous government agreed to cancel this project, and we know that the government was led by Pagoh (Muhyiddin) at the time.
“The current prime minister was a senior member of that Cabinet. So did (Ismail) disagree with the cancellation?” he asked while debating the transport ministry’s allocations in the 2022 Supply Bill.
The former deputy law minister also pointed out that the HSR project was first launched by Najib Razak (BN-Pekan), adding that the former prime minister and Ismail are both from Umno.
He questioned if the decision to revive the KL-Singapore HSR project was political, since Muhyiddin was from Bersatu.
Hanipa also asked if Putrajaya has finally accepted that the proposed KL-Johor Bahru HSR line was not viable and this was why the government now wants the project to be connected to Singapore, again.
“And if the project needs to be renegotiated, does the government have the money to do so? We know the government has huge debts right now, partially because of one individual,” he said, alluding to Najib’s 1MDB scandal.
Last year, the PN-led government scrapped the project and proposed in its place a KL-Johor HSR line.
Malaysia was then forced to pay RM320 million to Singapore in compensation for cancelling the project.
Meanwhile, Dr Xavier Jayakumar (Independent-Kuala Langat) called for the government to do an in-depth study on the HSR project.
“Do we need it? Will this bring benefits to our economy? Is Malaysia ready for the HSR industry?”
“If you ask me, we don’t have the distance for HSR and I don’t know why we want to go into HSR,” he told the Dewan Rakyat.
He said other than HSR, there were other facilities that the country could develop instead.
“There are certain areas we must develop in Greater KL and other cities for greater connectivity,” he said.
He gave an example that Bukit Beruntung has no KTM station when it’s known to be a satellite city that services the city centre.
“The government won’t need to spend much to build a station there for it to become a big hub and just need to extend the train line. This is important for the people in the area,” he said.