By FMT StaffKUALA LUMPUR: The government has been urged to disclose to Parliament the details of Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong's “specific proposal” on the land swap deal before the two nations ink an agreement.
Responding to Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak's statement that Malaysia will conclude its deal with Singapore by September, PKR vice-president Azmin Ali said it was odd that Singapore agreed with Malaysia on several contentious issues if they (Singapore) were not getting what they want.
“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.
It was reported that Najib and Lee had a 45-minute meeting here and agreed to conclude a deal over Keretapi Tanah Melayu Bhd’s land in Singapore within three months.
Najib said Lee had "come up with a specific proposal on the land swap offer" and Malaysia will be looking “into it in great detail”.
Najib, however, did not reveal the content of the proposal.
Joint company to be formed
Last month, the two countries agreed to relocate the 78-year-old KTMB’s Tanjung Pagar railway station to Woodlands and jointly develop KTMB land in Singapore to maximise its full potential.
Both leaders agreed to form a Malaysia-Singapore joint company, known as M-S Pte Ltd, before Dec 31 this year to develop the land vacated by KTMB.
The company will be set up by Malaysia's Khazanah Nasional Bhd and the Singapore government's investment arm, Temasek Holdings Ltd, with each holding 60% and 40% equity respectively.
KTMB land in Tanjung Pagar, Kranji and Woodlands and three additional pieces of land in Bukit Timah, totalling 271 hectares, will be vested in the company for joint development.
The developed KTMB land could in turn be swapped, on the basis of equivalent value of pieces of land in Marina South and Ophir Rochor in Singapore.
Don't repeat oil blocks fiasco
Posing several questions, Azmin said: “We want to know if the deal is done, and if so what is the contents of the agreement? What are we actually surrendering and why the hurry to agree?”
“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.
He said Opposition Leader Anwar Ibrahim had also called for the Malaysia-Singapore agreement to be brought to parliament and discussed before signing any deal.
Citing a previous instance when former finance minister Daim Zainuddin undertook secret discussions with Singapore without the knowledge of many ministries, Azmin said this should not be repeated.
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