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Malaysia’s ECRL: US$20 billion rail deal still ‘being negotiated’, says Mahathir Mohamad
- The Malaysian prime minister has repeated his stance even as his predecessor Najib Razak shared documents online suggesting the country had definitively cancelled the project
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Malaysia’s Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad late on Friday was insisting his government was still negotiating with China over the US$20 billion East Coast Rail Link (ECRL), even as his nemesis and predecessor Najib Razak re-shared images of documents on Facebook that suggested the country had definitively cancelled the project.
With his administration equivocating over the issue in recent days, Mahathir was for the fourth time this week collared by journalists on the status of the project at a late-evening press conference following a meeting of his Pakatan Harapan coalition.
“The status of the project is that now it is being negotiated, and I cannot say what is happening because I have to wait for the result [of the talks],” Mahathir said when asked about the rail link.
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Asked when the decision would be finalised, Mahathir replied in Malay: “maybe soon”.
At around the same time as the press conference, Najib, who had signed the deal in 2016 with the railroad’s main contractor China Communications Construction Company (CCCC), re-shared a Facebook post that appeared to be screenshots of a letter dated January 31, Thursday, from a Malaysian official to the mainland company indicating the government had come to a final decision to cancel the project.
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The former premier re-shared the post from a Facebook user called “Ab Jalil Backer”.
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