HSR project compensation to S’pore should be made public

THE Facebook post by Minister in Prime Minister’s Department (Economy) Datuk Seri Mustapa Mohamed that the compensation to Singapore pertaining to the scrapped Kuala Lumpur-Singapore High Speed Rail (HSR) project cannot be revealed due bilateral secrecy is unacceptable and a total betrayal to the democracy for both Malaysians and Singaporean.

This is considering public infrastructure such as the HSR project does not fall within purview of defence and/or national security, thus transparency should be allowed to prevail, according to Parti Sosialis Malaysia (PSM) Central Committee member Sharan Raj.

“Both the governments are entrusted to managed public resources and have an undisputable obligation to remain transparent to the people,” he pointed out.

“Historically, government projects and spending have been kept ‘secret’ to hide their failures and/or corruption.”

According to Sharan who is also PSM Melaka state secretary, the element of secrecy raises doubt for back-door deals, over-bloated compensation and/or corruption further widening trust deficits on the ruling parties.

“Perikatan Nasional (PN) should not push Malaysia back into policy-dictatorship as the era of ‘government knows better’ is over,” he further noted.

“Henceforth, PN is urged to disclose all related information, studies and compensation regarding HSR to the people.”

On Dec 31, both Malaysia and Singapore terminated the HSR project as both countries could not reach an agreement on several changes proposed by the Malaysian Government.

Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin and his Singaporean counterpart Lee Hsien Loong announced the decision in view of the expiry of the suspension period of the project on Dec 31. – Jan 4, 2021

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