‘My successor is doing a good job’

Honeymah Dylyani, Malaysian Mirror

“Alhamdulillah (Praise be to Allah)! The man I chose is doing a good job.”

This was the spontaneous response of former prime minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, when asked about the first 100 days of Najib Abdul Razak in office as his successor.

“His approval rating is good; going up from 42% (when Najib first took over from Abdullah on April 1) to 65% (in the latest poll),” Abdullah told reporters after opening an exhibition of mosques in Germany at the Islamic Arts Museum here Thursday.

The survey was carried out by the Merdeka Centre, which considered inputs by the public on Najib’s leadership, performance and implementation of government policies.

The people accept Najib's reforms

Abdullah said the people had accepted the reforms that Najib had introduced, which mainly concerns the national economy.

“The people had gauged how he had performed and had approved his implementation of new policies,” he said.

Abdullah said the people understood why the changes had to be made and why the shortcomings of previous policies had to be rectified.

Regarding the revised policy on the teaching of science and mathematics in schools , Abdullah said it was not made in haste and the Government had taken into account various proposals and memorandums that were submitted to it over the past six years.

“Six years..it is fair and provides a good basis for analysis.

If the Government had decided to revise it, say within three years after it was implemented, it would certainly not be adequate for a decision to be made,” he said.

Policy made when Abdullah was PM

Deputy prime minister Muhyiddin Yassin had announced on Wednesday that the teaching of the two subjects would be reverted back to Malay from 2012. Science and mathematics are currently taught in English following a policy change in 2003.

Abdullah, said the current policy was made at the time he was prime minister and Hishammuddin Hussein the Education minister.

 “It (the revision)  is not something that we are not doing anything about. It is a decision based on six years of implementation. “Without any analysis over this period, we would not have gauged whether it is necessary or not to change the policy,” he stressed.“The point is, it has the support of the majority,” he said, adding that the English language will continue to be widely promoted so that all Malaysians would be well-versed in both languages .