Malaysia's Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng would like a little help with his country's debt problem.

Ever since the Pakatan Harapan (PH) coalition government announced that Malaysia was about RM1 trillion (S$338 billion) in debt, they've been trying to come up with solutions.

They asked ordinary Malaysians to donate directly to the government to help pay off the debt.

They agreed that Ministers will take a 10 per cent pay cut.

The King also wants to help out -- he's volunteered to take a 10 per cent pay cut too.

But perhaps the most impactful, at least where Singapore is concerned, is Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad's announcement that he would scrap the High Speed Rail (HSR) project.

This would save the Malaysian government at least RM110 billion (S$37.2 billion), with interest payments.

However, Mahathir later said that the project was merely postponed, and could be revived in the future.

Good neighbour

During an interview with Channel NewsAsia, Lim said:

"As far as the HSR is concerned, it's scrapped for now as announced by the PM but in the future, that is something that we want to discuss with the government.

In that sense, we're talking about the possibility of deferring and discussing with our good neighbour Singapore to see how they can help us out of this debt predicament."

Lim's entreaty was met with some pushback, if online reaction is anything to go by.

Many netizens pointed out that the countries had signed a contract, and there should be consequences for backing out of such an agreement.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="600"] Screen shot from CNA's Facebook page.[/caption]

Some also wondered why members of the Malaysian government have been speaking to the media, but have yet to formally inform the Singapore government of their decision.

Mahathir has said that Malaysia might have to pay a penalty of RM500 million if they formally decided to back out of the project. Still, RM500 million is less than RM1 trillion.

Hi Jack

The HSR isn't the only project that the PH are looking at.

They also intend to re-negotiate the terms of the agreement for the Chinese-backed East Coast Rail Link (ECRL). Said Lim:

"We are confident China understands our debt predicament and they'll be willing to help us out, give us a helping hand."

It may or may not be related, but Lim is believed to have held an informal meeting with Chinese billionaire Jack Ma over dinner on June 17, ahead of the opening of Alibaba's office in Kuala Lumpur on June 18.

It's possible that the ECRL was discussed. For now, everything seems up in the air.

Top image from Lim Guan Eng's Facebook page.

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