Hey Steemians! I just read the news on the scrapping of KL-Singapore High Speed Railway (HSR) project. Malaysia's Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad confirmed this in a press conference yesterday (video below) that the project will be scrapped.
“We need to do away with some of the unnecessary projects, for example the high-speed rail, which is going to cost us RM110 billion (US$28 billion) and will not earn us a single cent. That will be dropped,”
-- Malaysia's Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad
Disappointed but not surprised
During his previous term as Prime Minister (1981 - 2003), Mahathir was not the best of friends with Singapore. In fact, we had several disputes, notably the Pedra Branca dispute, disputes on Water Agreements and the forced suspension of Central Limit Order Book trading. Therefore, when the results of the recent Malaysian Election was unveiled, I was pretty sure that he will "re-look" at all agreements with Singapore, including the KL-Singapore HSR project.
The KL-Singapore HSR is said to be able to reduce the traveling time between Kuala Lumpur and Singapore to just 99 minutes. Which is a huge difference when compared with 4–5 hours by road, 7 hours by conventional rail services, or 3 hours by air (including travel to and from the airports, check-in, boarding and other airport procedures). In addition, it is estimated that 111,000 jobs will be created by 2060 due to this project. To facilitate this project, both Raffles Country Club and Jurong Country Club in Singapore were acquired to make way for the terminus. Basically, much resources had been committed and it is really disappointing to see how this project can be cancelled unilaterally. At a personal level, I have been looking forward to the fast travel to KL. I have a cousin and his wife is from KL. He drives to KL on a monthly basis and each time it will easily take him 4 hours to reach his wife's home. I bet he will be disappointed with this decision as well.
What is happening to the US-North Korea summit in Singapore?
Source
I previously posted on the US-North Korea summit and I thought it was confirmed. But on 24 May, Trump called off the summit, blaming "open hostility" from North Korea. An official letter was released from the White House (as below).
Now, Trump is willing to meet again... To me, this is just cheap negotiation tactics. It might be commonly seen in business but for the first time, I see it being played by the leader of USA. What has become of this world? Is global politics cheaper than business negotiations?
It is not easy for Singapore to host such global events under short notice. There are many mobilization of manpower in the back-end and a lot of planning to do. I have friends who were called up for duty, then asked to stand-down and now being called up again. This is absolutely disruptive to their work and personal life. It is really disappointing to see how this event is unfolding. There might even be a chance that it will be called off at the very last minute. Who knows? And when that happens, I know my friends will curse and swear again 😂...
Anyway, enough of all my rants. Today is Vesak Day (aka Buddha Day) and it is a festival celebrated in Singapore. That is the reason why I have time to write an article 😎. I will like to take this opportunity to wish everyone a happy holiday! As usual, please share your thoughts on the 2 topics that I have discussed and thanks for reading!