PKR today said the caretaker Barisan Nasional government would not be releasing details about the East Coast Rail Line (ECRL) project if Pakatan Harapan had not been hammering the government over it.

PH’s Permatang Pauh candidate Nurul Izzah Anwar said this following news that project owner Malaysia Rail Link Sdn Bhd and main contractor China Communications Construction Company Ltd were having a recruitment drive in Bentong, Pahang, to hire a workforce staffed 70% by Malaysians.

“After being pressured, they (now say the workforce) are 70% Malaysian. Without PH’s voice, we would not have heard these details. The government should be transparent and not wait for us to ask these questions,” she told a press conference at Yayasan Aman in Penang today.

PH had long criticised the ECRL project and the preferential treatment enjoyed by the Chinese contractor, including exemption from the goods and services tax.

Nurul Izzah said it was because the opposition feared the government’s decisions on the project were not in the interest of Malaysians.

The PKR vice-president cited concerns previously raised by former United Nations assistant secretary-general Jomo Kwame Sundaram, a prominent Malaysian economist, on “off-budget” infrastructure spending that often involved dubious public-private partnerships.

“The cost of the project has escalated from RM27 billion to about RM60 billion. Some RM55 billion is coming from a loan by China Exim Bank.

“The claim that ECRL will be handling goods of 60 million tonnes by 2035 is also nonsensical.

“Keretapi Tanah Melayu (KTM), which also operates the same route, only handles 6,000 tonnes for the entire Peninsular Malaysia. KTM still cannot make money,” she said.

Nurul Izzah, who was Lembah Pantai MP in the last term, said many questions had been asked in the Dewan Rakyat about the ECRL project, but the answers by the government had lacked clarity.

“PH are not against Chinese investments. We would still be asking the same questions if it was a Japanese firm handling the project,” she said. – May 3, 2018.