Advertisement

Singapore's MOU for high-speed railway to Malaysia 'troubling': SDP

image

Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong and his Malaysian counterpart Najib Razak Photo: Edgar Su/Reuters

The signing of the memorandum of understanding (MOU) for the high-speed railway (HSR) between Singapore and Malaysia is “troubling” in light of probes into state fund 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB), said the Singapore Democratic Party (SDP) in a Facebook note on Monday (25 July).

The opposition party noted that the US Department of Justice (DoJ) had launched an investigation into 1MDB’s “alleged corrupt practices”. The DOJ filed lawsuits in the US on Wednesday (20 July) seeking to seize dozens of properties linked to the Malaysian fund.

Also, Singapore authorities announced that they have been investigating various 1MDB-related fund flows for possible money laundering, securities fraud and other offences in the city-state. The Monetary Authority of Singapore has also pledged “tough action” if banks in Singapore were found to be involved in the scandal.

In light of these developments, the SDP questioned why Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong “saw it fit” to travel to Kuala Lumpur to sign the MOU with Malaysian PM Najib Razak on 19 July.

Raising questions

image

Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak has been embroiled in corruption allegations related to the 1MDB scandal Photo: Yusof Mat Isa/Malay Mail Online

The SDP pointed out that Bandar Malaysia, the HSR terminus in KL, was previously owned by 1MDB. The company sold a 60 per cent equity stake to a joint venture between China Railway Engineering Corp (CREC) and Iskandar Waterfront Holdings (IWH). The CREC-IWH conglomerate may reportedly bid for the HSR project as well.

The SDP claimed that this puts the CREC bid in “pole position” to secure the contract for HSR, which has also attracted interest by railway companies from South Korea, Japan and others.

Last month, the Malaysian government agreed to take over 1MDB’s remaining stake in the multi-billion dollar project.

The opposition party questioned if the PAP had done its due diligence on the HSR project, and whether the sale of Bandar Malaysia to CREC was conducted in a transparent manner.

It also asked, “How comfortable is PAP with the fact that CREC (owning majority control of Bandar Malaysia) is also bidding for the HSR operations? Can the PAP assure Singaporeans that the sale of Bandar Malaysia to CREC was conducted in a transparent manner?"