Govt to consider building schools for Indonesian children in East Malaysia

KUALA LUMPUR: The government will consider building schools for Indonesian children who are legally living in Sabah and Sarawak.
Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad noted that although there are schools for Indonesian children in the Peninsular, there have been no schools for them in the Bornean states.

"In Malaysia, we have Indonesians who came in legally and illegally. Those who came legally did not come alone, they also came in with families.
"In Peninsular we have schools (for the Indonesian children), but in Sabah and Sarawak we don't have (the schools) yet. So we will improve this," he said today in a joint press conference with Indonesian President Joko Widodo during a two-day official visit.
Mahathir acknowledged that there is a need to build schools for the Indonesian children living in Malaysia, which was also part of the delegation's discussion with Joko.
He said he made his first official foreign visit to Indonesia because it is a "closely connected" country with a long history with Malaysia.
Mahathir even noted that many ancestors of Malaysians are from Indonesia including his father-in-law.
Pledging to strengthen bilateral ties between both countries, he said they would look into jointly addressing similar problems faced like palm oil export, migrant workers as well as education for Indonesian children.
Mahathir said both the leaders had also talked about their encounter in 2015 when Joko, who is fondly known as Jokowi, had visited Malaysia.
Jokowi had earlier delightfully shared how Mahathir drove him in a Proton Iriz at 180km/p when he visited in 2015.
Mahathir said he was nervous taking a "president" for a test drive at that speed but was glad that Jokowi did not complain.
"At that time, I was not a PM. I was just being a test driver for Proton using the test drive circuit," he recalled.
Earlier when addressing the press conference, Jokowi said that both the countries will continue working together especially on similar commitments of good governance, fighting corruption and maintaining good ties.