Najib breaks silence on Kedah MB crisis

KULIM: Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Abdul Razak has broken his silence over the Kedah Mentri Besar crisis.
Najib expressed confidence in the ability of newly minted MB Datuk Seri Ahmad Bashah Md Hanipah who took his oath of office on Thursday to lead the state.
“I believe he can take care of the welfare of the people here,” he said in his speech when opening a Tamil school here.
Najib also gave his approval for the proposal to rename the school to SKT Ko. Saranggapani from SKT Paya Besar in honour of the Tamil language and culture activist of the 1960s who founded the Tamil Youth Club.
The RM13 million school started operating in 2015 after approval was given by the Education Ministry to construct the facility in 2012.
The political situation in Kedah made headlines in the past two weeks when Umno divisions statewide claimed they had lost confidence in Datuk Seri Mukhriz Mahathir as MB.
The political crisis ended when a secret ballot in front of the Kedah Regency Council found Mukhriz had lost the confidence of the majority and Ahmad Bashah, who is Bakar Bata assemblyman, was appointed to the post.
In his speech, the premier said his government was focusing on uplifting the condition of the bottom 40% of income earners (B40) in the country.
He said BR1M and direct welfare aid was one of the methods but stressed that providing free and quality education had longer lasting effects.
“The socioeconomic condition of a family will be improved even if one of them has achieved a high level of education,” he said.
Also present was Education Minister Datuk Seri Mahdzir Khalid, his deputy Datuk P. Kamalanathan and Health Minister Datuk Seri Dr S. Subramanian who is also MIC president.
At a press conference later, Dr Subramaniam said six more Tamil schools were in various stages of development.
He said these were in Sungai Petani, Sungai Siput, Taman Sentosa, Petaling Jaya, Cheras and Masai.
"When completed, there will be a total of 530 Tamil schools in Malaysia, up from the 524 now,” he said.