Putrajaya yet to give full notice to Singapore on HSR

KUALA LUMPUR: Putrajaya has yet to give full notice to Singapore of its decision on the Kuala Lumpur-Singapore HighSpeed Rail (HSR) project, said Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad.

“As far as the Singapore government is concerned, we have not given them full notice yet, but they know what we want to do,” he told reporters during a briefing by the Malaysian AntiCorruption Commission here yesterday.

Dr Mahathir was responding to a statement by Singapore Transport Minister Khaw Boon Wan yesterday that there had been no official notification from Malaysia on the cancellation of the mega project.

On June 1, the republic had sent a diplomatic note to Malaysia seeking clarification on its position on the project.

Dr Mahathir, who celebrates his 93rd birthday today, explained that the government had to be careful when making an announcement to avoid a negative market reaction.

“Decisions are not so easily made. When we make a decision and announce it, the markets react negatively. They apparently like to be told lies about how good everything is so they could give you good marks.

“But if you tell that we have discovered wrongdoings, they react by running away with the money and stop investing,” he said, adding what the government was doing now was to ensure the country was financially run properly.

Khaw was reported as saying that Singapore continued performing in accordance with the bilateral agreement signed in December 2016 and had incurred more costs. — Bernama