Tuan Ibrahim urges Harapan to continue with ECRL

PAS hopes Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad will not cancel the East Coast Railway Line (ECRL) approved by the previous BN government.

“Projects that are in progress and that have been approved in the 11th Malaysia Plan (11MP) should be continued and completed, for the benefit of the people.

“This includes the East Coast Highway phase 3 (LPT3), expansion of the Sultan Ismail Petra airport in Kota Bharu, the central spine road, and most importantly, the ECRL,” said PAS deputy president Tuan Ibrahim Tuan Man.

He said this in a statement today lauding the new Pakatan Harapan government for agreeing to return Kelantan up to 20 percent of the state’s oil royalties, something the opposition under the previous administration had fought long and hard for.

“With this move by Mahathir, PAS hopes the sort of vengeful politics practised by the (previous) BN government will no longer be followed,” he said.

Tuan Ibrahim said Mahathir’s willingness to help Kelantan, which PAS won in the 14th general election, could signal a “new era in the culture of mature politics” that would set Malaysia on a path of being a model democracy.

Harapan had vowed to review projects approved by BN, particularly those involving several Chinese investments, as being dubious and possibly disguised as bailouts for the Najib administration.

While the expensive ECRL is still in progress following Harapan’s ascent to Putrajaya, Council of Eminent Persons chairperson Daim Zainuddin on Friday said that the project, previous touted to be RM55 billion, could cost an additional RM11 billion.

Last year, economist Jomo Kwame Sundaram, who sits on the Council of Eminent Persons, opined the ECRL was not economically viable and superfluous in view of the existing railway line to the East Coast. - Mkini