Low Taek Jho offered to help Malaysia in its negotiations with China over the East Coast Rail Link (ECRL) project, Daim Zainuddin told the South China Morning Post.
The fugitive financier, better known as Jho Low, got in touch with the Council of Eminent Persons chairman him while he was China to renegotiate the rail project last July.
“The last time (Low) got in touch with me was during the ECRL (negotiations). I mean, I refused, I said, ‘Look, no need’.”
Asked what Low had offered, Daim said: “He said he can help…so I said, ‘Why don’t you come back here? Come and brief me here’,” he was quoted as saying.
However, the former finance minister and trusted ally of Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad declined to disclose more details on phone.
“This (Jho Low) is more complex than the ECRL,” he was quoted as saying in the report.
However, in an immediate response to the report, Low’s spokesman said in a statement to This Week in Asia that “Mr Low has never had any contact with Mr Daim and any assertion to the contrary is untrue and categorically denied.”
In the interview, Daim said the ECRL is likely to be loss-making for a considerable period after its completion in 2026 but it was expected, as like most public infrastructure projects it had a long gestation period.
Daim was tasked by Dr Mahathir to lead a team to Beijing soon after Pakatan Harapan’s election victory last year to renegotiate the terms of the ECRL deal.
Daim renegotiated a supplementary deal that brought down the cost by 32.8%, or RM21.5 billion, from the original price tag of RM65.5 billion entered into by the previous administration under former prime minister Najib Razak. – TMI