The former prime minister said that the cancellations were both politically motivated and done out of spite.

He said the 2018 general election (which brought PH into power) had set the country behind, and he was worried that those in PH, now in opposition, wanted to reclaim power.

“Truth is we are lagging further behind, while our neighbours are developing rapidly,” he said in a Facebook post, making reference to high-speed rail projects in Thailand and Indonesia.

He added that infrastructure was an important component in the development of any country.

Najib questioned what plans the government had for the country and where the economy was headed. “We need to focus on development again,” he said.

A high-speed rail (HSR) link between Kuala Lumpur and Singapore, proposed by Najib’s government, came under scrutiny by his successors.

In 2018, Dr Mahathir Mohamad decided to postpone the HSR project citing its high cost. In 2020, the Perikatan Nasional government, led by Muhyiddin Yassin, scrapped the project and proposed in its place a KL-Johor HSR line. Malaysia was then forced to pay RM320 million to Singapore in compensation for cancelling the project.