“Where is the RM207 bil Death Railway compensation money?” Then-PM Mahathir should answer, tetapi Melayu mudah lupa lah

“Where is the RM207 bil Death Railway compensation money?”



THE Malaysian Indian Voice in a letter addressed to the Japan’s ambassador to Malaysia, Hiroshi Oka today has raised the question about the compensation money for the victims of the Death Railway project.

The money, believed to be amounting to RM207 bil, was allegedly transferred by the Japanese government to the Malaysian Government in the 1990s during the tenure of former premier Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad.

The sum was meant to be distributed to 30,000 Malaysians who had been forcefully recruited by the Japanese occupation authority to build the Thai-Burma ‘Death Railway’ between 1942 and 1946.

The infamous railway was needed by the Japanese to bolster the its supply route for its forces in Malaya and nearby Asian countries during the period.

However, none of this money has ever reached the families of the victims, and the whereabouts of the RM207 bil have been shrouded in mystery to this day.

“It is exceptionally clear that some unreliable and greedy authorities had seized the cash that should have been disseminated the victims’ family for their own benefit,” wrote Malaysian Indian Voice chairman Papparaidu Veraman.

To bring justice to the victims’ families, Papparaidu demanded answers to the following questions:

• What was the actual deal between the Japanese government and the Malaysian Government (regarding the Death Railway compensation money)?;
• What was the exact amount of money that has been transferred by the Japanese government to the Malaysian Government?;
• When and where did the transaction take place?;
• Who were the people involved in this deal, and who signed the deal?; and
• To whom was the money transferred to, and to which accounts precisely?

“The answers to these questions would allow us to track down the cash and how the Malaysian Government has spent them since it was not disseminated to the victims’ families,” Papparaidu explained.

“We humbly request the Japanese government to provide more details on the Death Railway compensation money and also information on the identities of the 30,000 victims who had died during the construction of the railway,” he concluded. – July 16, 2021.