Chitchat Mahathir Begs Chinkland To Show Mercy! Jiuhu Will Go Bankrupt If They Build East Coast Railway! Jiuhu To Pay Cancellation Fee To Chinks, Not To Sinkie

[JohnTan]

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia will be "impoverished" if it continues with the East Coast Rail Link (ECRL), said Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad on Tuesday (Jan 29).

Since winning power last May, Mahathir has repeatedly vowed to renegotiate or cancel what he calls "unfair" Chinese projects authorised by predecessor Najib Razak, whose near-decade long rule ended in electoral defeat amid a massive financial scandal.

The Cabinet has decided to cancel the contract with China Communications Construction Co Ltd (CCCC) for the East Coast Rail Link project, economic affairs minister Mohamed Azmin Ali said last week.

"We seek understanding from the parties concerned," Mahathir told reporters, adding that Malaysia was burdened with "heavy debt" and could not afford the project, one of the biggest signed in China's signature Belt and Road initiative.

"It is not because we don't want to honour our contracts, but we just cannot pay. This contract may cost us more than a RM100 billion (US$24 billion). It will impoverish us."

Mahathir said Malaysia will still have to pay a cancellation fee. "The huge compensation is not as huge as the amount of debt we will carry for the next 30 years."

The government is still determining how much to pay CCCC as cancellation fee, Azmin said last week. Government officials have previously said the project cost had been inflated.

However, the actual status of the project still remains unclear, with contradictory statements made by other officials on the issue.

In Beijing this week, Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said he was unaware of the project being cancelled.

"I admit some mistakes were made, but we are going to correct (those mistakes)," said Mahathir in response to the contradictory statements that had been made.

He said on Monday that the status of the ECRL project will be announced only by the Minister of Finance Lim Guan Eng.

However, Lim said on Tuesday that he had been advised by Mahathir to hold back on making any statement on the ECRL project.

"I met PM this morning and he suggested that I do not make any statement (on the ECRL) for the time being. So please wait for the statement," he said.

On Sunday, Lim said an official statement will be issued on the status of the ECRL project this week.

He added that since the ECRL involved massive funds, it was only appropriate that the announcement be made through a written statement.

In August Mahathir had said the project would be cancelled "for now", but the government later said it was in talks with CCCC on the future of the rail line.

Mahathir has blamed Najib's administration for taking total government debt and liabilities to more than RM1 trillion, including that of scandal-plagued state fund 1MDB, which is being investigated for corruption in at least six countries.

Read more at https://www.channelnewsasia.com/new...e-impoverished-mahathir-ecrl-project-11179652

 

[red amoeba]

Singapore can makan - don’t pay also lan lan. China cannot billy so pay compensation.

 

[laksaboy]

China bribes a lot of politicians around the world to allow Chinese companies to 'invest' in the country.

Najib was just one of them.

It is also my opinion that Najib was bribed by the pappies into relinquishing the KTM railway land, wouldn't have happened under Mahathir.

 

[winnipegjets]

Na

China bribes a lot of politicians around the world to allow Chinese companies to 'invest' in the country.

Najib was just one of them.

It is also my opinion that Najib was bribed by the pappies into relinquishing the KTM railway land, wouldn't have happened under Mahathir.

Najib should pay the penalty since he had taken a big bribe.

 

[Hypocrite-The]

Madhatter is truly a good negotiator,,,Ah Tiong land back down and offer the rail at half price,,for the m&ds, as long as got a high portion of local content will be worth taking,,

AsiaChina offered to nearly halve cost of Malaysia's US$20 billion rail project: Sources
image: data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==
The East Coast Rail Link base in Bentong, Pahang. (Photo: Melissa Goh)
31 Jan 2019 03:47PM (Updated: 31 Jan 2019 03:50PM)
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KUALA LUMPUR: China offered to nearly halve the cost of a US$20 billion rail project to save the centrepiece of its infrastructure push in Southeast Asia, two sources said on Thursday (Jan 31), but contradictory remarks by Malaysian ministers leave the outcome uncertain.
The conflicting statements made over the past week on the status of the East Coast Railway Link (ECRL) underscore the political and diplomatic challenges facing the government of Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad in renegotiating the contract.

"If it was just about the cost, China has offered a big reduction on the cost, as much as around half," said one of the sources privy to the talks.
Contractor China Communications Construction (CCCC) had offered to cut construction costs of 67 billion ringgit (US$16.39 billion) for the 688km project by as much as half, the sources said.
Expenses on interest and land acquisition help make up the rest of the total cost.
Despite the proposed discount, Mahathir's government decided to cancel the contract this month, said the sources, who asked not to be identified because of the sensitivity of the topic.

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After coming to power in May, Mahathir, a critic of China's investments in Malaysia, vowed to renegotiate or cancel what he calls "unfair" Chinese projects authorised by his predecessor Najib Razak, and suspended the ECRL in July.
However, on Wednesday Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng said Malaysia was pursuing more talks with China.
That news came days after another minister said the cabinet had decided to terminate the contract and a day after Mahathir sought China's understanding over the planned cancellation.
Negotiations have continued since the July suspension, with Malaysia indicating that it was looking for cheaper proposals on what would have been China's biggest Belt and Road venture in Southeast Asia.
TOO MANY OFFICIALS
The sources also said negotiations had been complicated by the involvement of too many Malaysian officials.
Apart from the finance ministry, CCCC and its domestic partner Malaysia Rail Line (MRL) have also had to present their proposals to Mahathir's long-time adviser, Daim Zainuddin, among other government officials.
"Each has their own agenda and looks at the project differently ... it's a very peculiar situation," one of the sources said.
Daim led the now-disbanded advisory council formed soon after Mahathir came to power. His office declined to comment.
The Malaysian finance ministry directed queries to the prime minister's office, which did not immediately respond to questions. MRL and CCCC declined to comment.
In Beijing, foreign ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said this week he had seen the reports of the cancellation but was unaware of the specifics.
"As far as I know, this project was agreed upon by companies from both sides in accordance with market principles based on equality, mutual benefit and consensus-building," he said.
"The Chinese and Malaysian sides have been in communication on the relevant matters."
He did not elaborate.
On Wednesday, the Malaysian cabinet said it had decided to stop making comments on the project, save for those by Mahathir.
Ties with China deteriorated after Mahathir led a coalition of unlikely partners to election victory over Najib's Barisan Nasional alliance that had governed the country for 60 years.
"It is not an easy task for a coalition of diverse parties with almost no experience in the federal government," said Adib Zalkapli, Malaysia director of public policy consultancy Bower Group Asia.
"And each of the parties may have different ideas about foreign policy in the 'new Malaysia'."
The rail project was launched in 2017 in a push for Chinese investment during the administration of Najib, whose near-decade long rule ended in electoral defeat amid a massive financial scandal.
Hit by ballooning costs, lack of transparency and the risk it could saddle Malaysia with uncomfortably large debt, the project has come to symbolise Najib's scandal-ridden administration.
At the time, the opposition, which included Mahathir, accused Najib of selling out Malaysia's sovereignty to China.
Source: Reuters/jt
Tagged Topics

Read more at https://www.channelnewsasia.com/new...il-project-negotiate-cost-20-billion-11189898

 

[syed putra]

At half the cost, wont be long before the entire line collapse.

 

[syed putra]

China bribes a lot of politicians around the world to allow Chinese companies to 'invest' in the country.

Najib was just one of them.

It is also my opinion that Najib was bribed by the pappies into relinquishing the KTM railway land, wouldn't have happened under Mahathir.

And nobody in umno protested.i suppose that money trickled down to the borttom.

 

[syed putra]

Singapore can makan - don’t pay also lan lan. China cannot billy so pay compensation.

High speed rail cost can be reduced if it ends in woodlands.no need for another bridge and station. And from woodlands, a elevated tram or mrt link to smrt kranji station using old ktm land. Elevated so that land below can still be used as a park or heritage area. Plus jiu hu kias can indulge in horse racing on weekends.

 

[hofmann]

Throw in jho and the chinks have got themselves a deal!

 

[whoami]

It is also my opinion that Najib was bribed by the pappies into relinquishing the KTM railway land, wouldn't have happened under Mahathir.

I cant said whether bribery involved. But in Msia history other than sinkieland being a "gift" from Tunku...no other PM of Msia have ever give up an inch of their territory willingly. We are talking about sovereignty.

 

[Hypocrite-The]

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Commentary: The impasse over the East Coast Rail Link is hurting Malaysia’s credibility
Commentary Commentary
Commentary: The impasse over the East Coast Rail Link is hurting Malaysia’s credibility
This domestically driven flip-flopping also dents other countries’ desire to cooperate with Malaysia, says Tom McGregor.
image: data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==
Mahathir Mohamad
Malaysia Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad. (File photo: Bernama)
By Tom McGregor
01 Feb 2019 06:00AM
(Updated: 01 Feb 2019 06:20AM)
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BEIJING: When former US Secretary of State Jon Kerry was campaigning for the White House in 2004, he admitted:

I actually did vote for the US$87 billion US funding for the Iraq War before I voted against it.
That statement, among many other things, led to the eventual demise of his US presidential ambitions. It demonstrated how quickly he could flip-flop on a game-changing decision for his country, one that ought to be carefully deliberated over, a tendency which could prove disastrous for the country if he were to be elected to its highest political office.

A JOHN KERRY MOMENT

Closer to this part of the world, Malaysian Prime Mahathir Mohamad might have be having his own John Kerry moment this week.

The world’s oldest prime minister swept into office in a landslide election and unseated the Barisan Nasional on a firebrand campaign promising voters to fight corruption, unite the people and forge a new Malaysia.

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READ: So much for a new Malaysia. A commentary

The prior prime minister, Najib Razak, had faced a swirl of allegations of scandal and corruption over his and his family’s handling of the 1MDB fund, not helped in part by the many pricey infrastructure projects his government sign onto, amid accusations that he was selling out his country to foreign interests.

So it seemed like a natural course of action for Mahathir to go ahead and cancel all of these projects, including the US$20 billion East Coast Rail Link (ECRL) with the contractor China Communications Construction Co Ltd (CCCC). The nonagenarian had said unequivocally the ECRL would be cancelled “for now” in August 2018, and added that the ECRL would “impoverish” Malaysia on Tuesday (Jan 29). It seemed like the deal was all but dead.

image: data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==

Malaysia's Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad has shelved three China-backed projects
Malaysia's Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad at a news conference with China's Premier Li Keqiang at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on Aug 20, 2018. (File photo: AFP/How Hwee Young)

Of course, Beijing would not be pleased with the decision, since CCCC is a state-owned enterprise and the project would be partially subsidised by China. But when a business decision is made final, even if this involves tearing an original agreement up, Chinese leaders are stoic realists who do their best to move on.

READ: Did the KL-Singapore high-speed rail unravel because of costs? A commentary

NEW CONFUSION

Nonetheless, new confusion was added to the situation, when Malaysian officials backtracked and said that they were still in talks with China.

There has been a lot of noise over the project in Malaysia over this past week, with Economic Affairs Minister Azmin Ali stating last Saturday that the project had been cancelled while Mahathir then announced on Tuesday that “no final decision has been made”. Terengganu Chief Minister Ahmad Samsuri Mokhtar has even called for the formation of a special committee to study whether the ECRL is viable.

So what is the deal? Does Putrajaya even still have the same fundamental misgivings over the project they expressed when the Pakatan Harapan first swept into office?

Did the Malaysian government even formally cancel the pact, or was that just bluster to score a better deal on the ECRL and renegotiate the terms?

Such yes-and-no decision-making does not bode well for Malaysia’s relations with other countries.

No doubt the Pakatan government had a mandate from Malaysians to root out corruption, curtail public spending and straighten out Malaysia’s finances, but this domestically driven flip-flopping hurts Malaysia’s credibility and dents other countries’ desire to cooperate with Malaysia.

READ: Hosting the World Championships would have been too costly for the Pakatan govt, a commentary

END TO THE IMPASSE?

China has now found itself in a catch-22 and is trying to find a face-saving way out of the deal for Malaysia. While CCCC is left hanging, Beijing has extended a generous hand to halve the cost of the 688 km-long rail project to end this impasse.

READ: Governments criticise China yet sign deals with them still, a commentary

image: data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==

(dn) MM poste Malaysia GE 3
The groundbreaking ceremony of the East Coast Rail Link was held in Kuantan last August, officiated by the then Prime Minister, Najib Razak.

In a scenario where Kuala Lumpur cancels the project, Malaysia will have to foot hefty cancellation charges but has not paid up, and Beijing may have calculated that they are not likely to cough the money up.

Malaysia should take the deal or pay up. As Prime Minister, Mahathir has a responsibility to his people to make an executive decision and lead the charge either ways. Either he supports the ECRL or stands opposed to it, and leads his government to implement that decision.

To keep an external partner guessing and leave CCCC in a state of animated suspense violates all sense of diplomatic decorum and kills off any remaining business confidence other countries might have in dealing with Malaysia.

If Malaysia wishes to remain a respected member of the international community, they must do better at honouring their contractual obligations, including paying up if they renege on the agreement. Countries understand that when governments change, political considerations can lead to old deals being undone.

But leadership is about making tough decisions and standing behind them. All parties involved deserve better than to be given contradictory statements with each passing day, with no end in sight.

While China might come out of this situation with no deal or compensation in hand, the biggest loser is arguably Malaysia, because the country has just signaled that they might not honour a deal signed previously.

Tom McGregor is a commentator on Asia-Pacific affairs based in Beijing.
Source: CNA/nr(sl)
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Malaysia

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[ChristJohnny]

KNN … don't anyhow accuse Najib hor. Show me prove that he is corrupt. If he is corrupt, explain how Madhatter's sons became Billionaires.

 

[Hypocrite-The]

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CHINA | MALAYSIA
Malaysia and China: breaking up is hard to do
The East Coast Rail Link is a planned railway link connecting Port Klang on the Straits of Malacca to the Northeast Peninsula in Malaysia (Photo: Blue Ship/ Flickr)
BY Ben Bland COMMENTS
1 February 2019 06:00

Breaking up is hard to do, judging by the Malaysian government’s latest contortions over how to handle a US $20 billion Chinese-backed rail project of questionable economic value.

The East Coast Rail Link (ECRL) is one of several high-profile Chinese infrastructure deals signed by previous prime minister Najib Razak, who is separately being prosecuted for corruption and money laundering for his role in the 1MDB graft scandal. (He denies any wrongdoing.)

Pushing back too hard against Xi’s signature initiative could backfire.

New (and former) Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad promised to scrap or renegotiate these “unequal treaties”, as he called them in a phrase designed to stick in Beijing’s craw. But that is easier said than done given the divisions in his loose governing coalition and the potential costs of saying no to an emerging superpower.

Last week, Economic Affairs Minister Azmin Ali said that the government had cancelled the ECRL, which is meant to connect the country’s less-developed east coast to southern Thailand and the capital, Kuala Lumpur, because the costs of paying interest on the Chinese loans were unsustainable.

But Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng insisted that no final decision had been taken and that negotiations with Beijing were continuing behind closed doors.

Construction, which is still in the early stages, is being led by the state-owned China Communications Construction Company and is 85% funded by the Export-Import Bank of China, one of Beijing’s main policy lenders.

The ECRL is one of the most high-profile projects connected to the Belt and Road Initiative, Chinese President Xi Jinping’s plan to deepen trade links with Asia and Europe through massive infrastructure investments. That puts the Malaysian government in a tricky position as it seeks to extricate itself from a deal that most analysts believe is not economically viable.

Pushing back too hard against Xi’s signature initiative could backfire, given that China is Malaysia’s biggest trade partner, has the ability to pressure Malaysian interests in the South China Sea, and has not been shy in the past about using boycott diplomacy.

The opposition Malaysian Chinese Association, which was part of the Najib government that agreed to the ECRL deal, warned (self-servingly) this week that “a nightmare looms” if Mahathir cancels the project and Beijing retaliates.

But the Chinese government, and the state-owned entities directly involved, will also undermine the prospects for the Belt and Road if they are seen to be forcing a small developing country to proceed with a plan that makes little financial sense and was agreed with a former leader now on trial for corruption.

Domestically, the ECRL impasse also highlights the political discord bubbling just below the surface of Mahathir’s Pakatan Harapan (or Alliance of Hope) coalition and the festering internecine disputes at the heart of Malaysian politics.

93-year-old Mahathir promised after last May’s election victory that he would hand power within two years to Anwar Ibrahim, his former protégé turned foe turned ally of sorts.

But Anwar, who has twice been jailed on politically motivated sodomy charges (during the reigns of Mahathir and Najib), remains fearful that Mahathir might go back on his word and stay on longer or seek to promote alternative leaders.

Enter Azmin, a former long-time aide to Anwar with his own ambitions for the highest office and relative youth on his side (he’s 54 years old, while Anwar is 71). Azmin has clashed with Anwar over appointments in their Parti Keadilan Rakyat (People’s Justice Party) following hard-fought internal elections last year. And his apparently premature comments on the cancellation of the ECRL underline his desire to push himself to the top of the political agenda.

Mahathir, wily and playful as ever, has said he will stand by his promise to hand over power to Anwar, while also casting some doubt on his intentions, telling the Straits Times in November that “as a democratic nation, we have to listen to the people”.

With political divisions and economic pressures at home, and much uncertainty over how to resolve the disputed projects with China, it will not be easy for Mahathir and his government to keep the “New Malaysia” on the rails.

The ECRL disagreement is also a big test for Beijing, which will have to show more flexibility and pragmatism if it is overcome the problems that inevitably arise when promoting large infrastructure projects in developing democracies such as Malaysia.

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