ST : Call for Malaysian govt to reveal details of railway land swop deal

Jun 25, 2010

Call for Malaysian govt to reveal details of railway land swop deal

KUALA LUMPUR: The Malaysian government has been urged to reveal the details of Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong's proposal on the land swop deal to Parliament before signing a deal, reported news website FreeMalaysiaToday (FMT).

In a response to Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak's statement that KL will conclude its deal with Singapore by September, opposition MP Azmin Ali said that it was odd Singapore agreed with Malaysia on several contentious issues if it was not getting what it wanted.

'We are concerned as to how an issue which has been dragging on for so long, could be suddenly resolved within three months. It is very worrying,' he added.

Both premiers met in Putrajaya on Tuesday and agreed to meet again in three months' time to finalise details of a deal over Malayan Railway's land in Singapore.

The website said Datuk Seri Najib did not reveal the content of the proposal. Mr Azmin is vice-president of opposition Parti Keadilan Rakyat which is led by Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim.

'We want to know if the deal is done, and if so, what are the contents of the agreement? What are we actually surrendering and why the hurry to agree?' Mr Azmin was quoted as saying by FMT.

'We need to know the details of the what transpired because we don't want a repeat of the oil block incident where we lost blocks L and M in Sarawak to Brunei,' he added.

Mr Azmin also said opposition chief Mr Anwar had similarly called for the agreement to be brought to Parliament and discussed before any deal is signed.

The Malayan Railway land negotiations had dragged on for 20 years until the first breakthrough in negotiations was made in Singapore last month when both sides agreed to move the existing railway station in Tanjong Pagar to Woodlands by July next year.

The railway land left behind could then be jointly developed by both countries, or it could be returned to Singapore and land of equivalent value elsewhere jointly developed instead.