Thursday 28 Mar 2024
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LANGKAWI (April 21): Former Finance Minister Tun Daim Zainuddin said the Malaysian government would be killing its airline industry with the implementation of the RM55 billion East Coast Rail Link (ECRL) and the Kuala Lumpur-Singapore high speed rail (HSR) project.

“Is it necessary at this stage to have the ECRL or travel by train to Singapore? What would happen to our MAS, or AirAsia and Malindo? People would use the train instead of our airlines.

“(For example) if I can go to Singapore in 90 minutes (by the HSR), why would I want to wait in the airport for 45 minutes and then take another train? I might as well take the HSR. So what’s going to happen to our airline industry? Did they (the federal government) think about it? Have they studied what would happen to our airlines?” he told reporters after a get-together session titled “Langkawi ... Pasca (Post) Mahathir” with local residents in a hotel here.

Daim, who held the finance portfolio twice from 1984 to 1991, and 1999 to 2001, also said the federal government was not adept at responding to public institutions over the exemption of the goods and services tax (GST) over ECRL cost.

“What they are saying is the cost of the ECRL is higher than RM55 billion but it has absolved the GST. So public institutions ask why must they pay GST. What’s the answer? To reduce the cost of the project,” he said.

However, he alleged that that response only made the people angry as “they are suffering due to GST” unlike business people such as the ECRL contractor who “is going to make money anyway”.

“So people ask what about their cost? The people cannot accept the way it is explained. Universities complain they should not pay GST as they are public institutions belonging to the government. I think they (the government) thought people would not know about the ECRL,” he said.

On Langkawi, he said knows the island very well because he was the Langkawi Development Authority (LADA) chairman from the time it was established in 1990 till 2001.

Daim questioned what has happened to the Langkawi masterplan on development as there are highrise developments allowed by the seafront which was not allowed in the plan.

“I was in charge of development, so the people here know me. There is the masterplan. Has the government gone against it or revoked it? We must always hear people’s views and let them be involved in the decision-making process. You don’t simply bulldoze your ideas through,” he said.

He added that former Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamed developed the island in a bid to ‘remove’ the legendary Mahsuri’s curse.

“He made Langkawi a duty-free island and built an airport, and ferry terminal. Land prices soared then. He developed this island for the people, not for himself. He loves Langkawi and only he can look after it,” he said.

Mahathir will be contesting the Parliamentary seat this May 9.

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