The Straits Times reported today (July 11) that Malaysia's Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng appeared to revive flagging hopes that the High Speed Rail (HSR) project could be back on track:

"The project by itself makes some sense but not at the exorbitant cost."

Lim said if the price was brought down, Malaysia could consider resurrecting the project, as long as Singapore agreed on certain changes.

His remarks were made in an earlier interview with ST last Monday.

Lim added that the Pakatan Harapan government had received new offers from "people" who claimed they could cut the cost of the project by half, since Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad first floated a "trial balloon" suggesting that the project could be scrapped.

Regarding these offers, Lim said:

"We don't know whether that's serious... (but) that means the whole thing was way overpriced and that raises more questions."

Still got chance

Lim himself has previously suggested that the HSR project was not quite dead in the water, saying in a June 2018 interview with Channel NewsAsia:

"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."

Some commenters on ST's Facebook post of the interview were less than enthused about Lim's latest comments.

Others echoed Minister for Transport Khaw Boon Wan's statement in Parliament, and pointed out that the ball was still in Malaysia's court as they had not yet made an official decision whether to cancel the HSR.

According to Khaw, the Singapore government had sent Malaysia a diplomatic note for an official statement on the HSR, but had yet to receive a reply.

Soft loan please

Netizens also took umbrage at another comment made by a "top government official" who supposedly spoke to the Straits Times about reviving the HSR.

This source claimed that the Malaysian government was not opposed to the project in principle, but decided it wasn't viable once they discovered that debt levels stood at more than RM1 trillion (S$337 billion).

According to the official, the penalty for officially cancelling the HSR is less than the earlier estimate of RM500 million (S$169 million), but this did not include compensation for expenses already incurred.

The official added:

"If Singapore can offer a soft loan, it would drastically reduce the interest cost."

Whither HSR?

We hope the Malaysian leaders know what they intend to do.

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Top image from Lim Guan Eng's Facebook page.