Malaysia has to cut spending, says Dr Mahathir

Chan Kok Leong Chan Kok Leong Updated 5 years ago · Published on 29 Jan 2019 11:13AM · 5 Comments

Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad says that the compensation Malaysia needs to pay China for cancelling the ECRL project is not as high as the costs for the project itself. – The Malaysian Insight pic by Nazir Sufari, January 29, 2019.

MALAYSIA is not out to frustrate China or renege on its contracts, but wants to cut back on expenses it cannot afford, said Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad.

“We are burdened by very heavy debts and have to cut back on some expenditures incurred by the previous government  

“It is not that we don’t want to honour our contracts, but we just cannot pay. This contract may cost us more than RM100 billion and will impoverish us.

“As such, we seek the understanding of the parties concerned.  

“We don’t want to frustrate or throw out a contract, but we are really tight in terms of finance,” Dr Mahathir told reporters after launching the National Anti-Corruption Plan in Putrajaya this morning.

He was responding to a question on the reason for conflicting announcements from Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng and Economic Affairs Minister Azmin Ali on the status of the East Coast Rail Link project.

Dr Mahathir, however, declined to confirm whether ECRL has been cancelled.

“The finance minister will give a clear explanation of what happened.

“Sometimes, ministers make announcements before they are due. I admit some mistakes were made and we will correct them,” said Dr Mahathir.

The 93-year-old said that the compensation Malaysia needs to pay China for cancelling the project is not as high as the costs for the project itself.

“The huge compensation that is due is not as huge as the debt we will carry for the next 30 years,” said Dr Mahathir, to the question of whether Malaysia needed to compensate China for cancelling ECRL. – January 29, 2019.

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Comments

  • When will be all the corrupted Umno War Lords, division leaders and the GLC bosses assets and wealth to be confiscated..??????????????. Enough of painting sad and sobbing stories of the country debt. If the Saudi Arabia Crown Prince could so easily just filled up the country treasury coffers by "persuasion" and so what is PH Government doing.??? Telling more grievances and sad tales to rakyat asking for donations to Tabung Harapan ??? Scrapping away the much needed affirmative plans in the pledges of the manifesto which was suppose to bring some reliefs to the economic well being of rakyat are now being viewd with impending taxation in place and now consumable goods and food prices are sky rocketing. So please tell us what good is PH ??????? No body gives a damn to your cabinets ministers arguing who is having the final say over the ill afforded ECRL. Stop worrying about Palestinians, or any Middle East countries just because they are under same Muslim Umbrellas of religion , when the local front are in dire straits. In other words stop being a busy body on other countries matter. Start governing In Malaysia or else we may not have a country where the sovereignty may be bought by the economic intrusion.

    Posted 5 years ago by Lee Lee · Reply

  • Negara sendiri HURU HARA sibuk jaga Negara orang lain

    Posted 5 years ago by Tharan Singh · Reply

  • PODAH PH

    Posted 5 years ago by Tharan Singh · Reply

  • 1 MDB tak boleh SOLVE mahu solve Palestian problem. GE15 boleh keluar baris.

    Posted 5 years ago by Tharan Singh · Reply

  • The rule of law says you put Jibby in orange suit, but you say one thing and do a different thing. Who are you kidding Che Det

    Posted 5 years ago by Duh Duh · Reply