PRIME Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad has denied giving a new shipping hub project at the Johor Baru port to a crony, in response to the Johor crown prince who has expressed displeasure over the project.

“All people in Malaysia are my cronies, because I work for the people, including the people of Johor,” Dr Mahathir told reporters, who asked him about Tunku Ismail Sultan Ibrahim’s claim that the ship-to-ship transfer hub project was given to Putrajaya’s cronies.

“The menteri besar of Johor knows about this project. This project will benefit everyone. This project has been discussed over a long time. 

“He (crown prince) is in Johor, many Johoreans know about this and I am baffled he does not know. I can’t be asking each and everyone – do you know, do you know, about this project, one by one,” Dr Mahathir said after attending the signing ceremony for the project in Putrajaya today.

Malaysian company KA Petra and Hong Kong’s Hutchison Port Holdings signed the agreement that involves providing services, such as cargo transfer operations between seagoing vessels.

Dr Mahathir added that he had not received any objection from the Johor government about the project.

Yesterday, Tunku Ismail posted on his social media accounts about the project, saying, “Putrajaya cronies bulldoze Johor’s jurisdiction”.

A Johor Malay pressure group, Gerakan Muafakat Johor, also criticised the project, saying it was planned without Johor’s knowledge and had received “special treatment” from Putrajaya.

It also accused the federal government of excluding local businesses from the project in favour of “cronies”.

Dr Mahathir said the ship-to-ship transfer hub would be within Malaysian waters, recognising that Singapore had been objecting to intrusions by Malaysian vessels into its waters recently.

“We are aware of the protest from Singapore but the project is in our waters.”

Since the Pakatan Harapan government came into power last May under Dr Mahathir, Singapore and Malaysia have been engaged in a maritime dispute over borders in the Strait of Johor, where both countries have ports.

Both sides last month agreed to suspend their overlapping port claims as a precursor to talks to delimit maritime boundaries in the strait. – April 2, 2019.