This is taken from The Malaysian Insight here. The writer Dr Rosli Azad Khan who is a transportation specialist, is a friend of mine (we once spent a night on the top of a beautiful jungle hill in Jedok in Kelantan - along with some other folks - eating durian and in the company of jungle "spirits".)
THE East Coast Rail Link (ECRL), for all its intents and purposes, is owned and supposed to be managed by the Ministry of Finance via its wholly owned vehicle, Malaysian Rail Link (MRL).
Yet, despite that, this single track railway is controlled by an outsider, who has been calling all the shots, dictating how things should be executed. This outsider is not letting locals come anywhere near, as far as subcontracting is concerned.
This outsider is also not very transparent, what more accountable for its costs, as most of the materials are imported, and now this outsider is influencing our authority to change its alignment back to the northern Selangor route.
The ministry, under the Pakatan Harapan government, slashed the ECRL original expenditure by almost RM21.5 billion and identified a southern alignment, for which it was to follow and was agreed.
As a government with no more money, announced by PM last week, you would expect the ministry to take the cue, take back the ownership and establish a block, especially when it comes to making major financial decisions.
Please put a brake on this runaway train as far its cost overruns are concerned.
Additional RM10 billion
For the ministry to cough up an additional RM10 billion in taxpayer funds on this single track railway is completely nuts and irrational, especially when the government is saying its funds are running low.
Certainly, not on the pretext of a better development potential for northern Selangor as mentioned by the Ministry of Transport.
This statement does not make any economic sense, when the Selangor government disagreed and said otherwise. Even the passenger and cargo statistics do not rhyme either.
A single track rail will not be able to meet the demand stated by those figures, 5 million passengers and 26 million tonnes of freight traffic in the first year of operation.
Many people in Selangor, are in fact cynical about this unnecessary expenditure. They see it as ‘a kiss of life’ to a political party that is deservedly facing a slow and timely death.
It is totally absurd to spend good money on a political party with a poor track record. This huge addition to the original cost of RM44 billion is considered excessive, uncalled for and a complete waste of public funds.
This political party’s track record in government, especially through the Ministry of Transport, is littered with project scandals and financial mismanagement. This speaks for itself as it has been well publicised and documented.
The PKFZ fiasco is a major example. Plus, there has been financial abuse of KTMB land banks and other rail dual tracking contracts.
Recently, there was also a report on ‘10 car EMU rail contract’ (www.sabahkini2.com), highlighted about a week ago.
Appeal to the Ministry of Finance
Against this backdrop, I therefore would like to appeal to the Ministry of Finance to please stop the ECRL north Selangor alignment from going ahead.
If the ministry does not, it would become another financial misdeed befalling our public purse.
Please stick to the southern Selangor alignment as no additional cost will be necessary except for the overseas loan that the future generations have to pay in many years to come.
The government of today does not need more financial mismanagement, as this will reflect badly on its short tenure in office, against their better judgment and good decision-making processes.
Instead, a responsible ministry should show us more transparency and a move towards public accountability by exposing the accounts of this superficial railway project.
A lot of our hard-earned money has already gone into paying the foreign Exim bank that has been used as a conduit to certain past politicians.
Some people within the government, sad to say, are using this rail project for their own gain in the name of their fledgling political party and for the benefits of a few. Certainly not for the country at all.
Why should this government be in cahoots with that dying party and tarnish your good name by letting this runaway train depart unnoticed? – April 18, 2021.
* Rosli Khan reads The Malaysian Insight.
* This is the opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of The Malaysian Insight.
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