Man fails in suit to revive RM100m HSR project

 

A Malaysian citizen failed in his lawsuit to revive the RM100 million High-Speed Rail (HSR) project between Malaysia and Singapore.

The Kuala Lumpur High Court today struck out Mohd Hatta Sanuri's civil action against former prime ministers Dr Mahathir Mohamad and Muhyiddin Yassin.

The civil action is over the 2021 cancellation of the ambitious project.

However, there have been attempts to revive the project under the present Anwar Ibrahim-led administration.

During open-court proceedings, judicial commissioner Roz Mawar Rozain ruled that the lawsuit is confusingly worded and does not disclose a clear cause of action.

Roz Mawar said the court had to go through the suit’s convoluted 63-page statement of claim three times and discovered there is a lack of specificity on the alleged misfeasance in public office by Mahathir and Muhyiddin, as well as three other defendants.

“There has been an abuse of court process, as while he (Hatta) claimed that public funds have been (wastefully) expended in cancellation of the project, but the plaintiff filed the suit to seek monetary gain from public funds.

“This court prevents such ventures, as allowing this suit (to go for full trial) would inundate the judiciary with such cases.

“There is no need for more precious judicial time be spent on this case,” Roz Mawar said, ordering Hatta to pay RM10,000 costs to Mahathir and Muhyiddin as well as the three other defendants.

The other three defendants are former minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Mustapa Mohamed, former transport minister Wee Ka Siong, and the Malaysian government.

Potential revival?

Malaysia and Singapore first inked the bilateral agreement on HSR on Dec 13, 2016 - during the administration of then-prime minister Najib Abdul Razak.

The RM110 billion project, which involves 350km of development, was intended to shorten the travel time from Kuala Lumpur to Singapore to only 90 minutes.

Later, during the Mahathir administration in late 2018, the government decided to postpone the HSR project.

Then on Jan 1, 2021, Muhyiddin in a joint media statement with Singapore’s Prime Minister Lee Shien Loong announced the cancellation of the project.

However, this year, the Anwar-led government confirmed the project’s revival, with the opening of a request for information (RFI) for local and international firms.

Through the lawsuit filed in December 2022, Hatta sought a court order to revive the project as well as demand that the five defendants cough up RM1 million in compensation to each Malaysian citizen.

The plaintiff was also seeking an order to compel the defendants to give a written explanation regarding the reasons for the postponement and cancellation of the project.

Hatta came into the limelight previously over a failed legal bid against the government on the International Court of Justice (ICJ) awarding Singapore sovereignty over Pedra Branca (Pulau Batu Puteh).

Senior federal counsel Donalf Joseph Franklin appeared for Mahathir, Muhyiddin, Mustapa, Wee, and the government.

Counsel Nur Izatul Nabila Nazarudin appeared for Hatta. - Mkini