IT is former prime minister Najib Razak’s belief that education minister Maszlee Malik did not wish to resign but was forced to so, Malaysiakini reports.

Najib, who is making an appearance on the Kimanis campaign trail in Sabah for Barisan Nasional, joked that Maszlee “introduced black shoes but in the end, he was made a black sheep.” 

“Pakatan Harapan has a lot of internal problems and he (Maszlee) was asked to resign, it wasn’t because he wanted to. He was told to resign because of external and internal pressures,” he said.

Najib also wrote on Facebook about Maszlee’s resignation, which the Pekan MP said could be due to the school internet project.

Maszlee had yesterday cited three issues that had led to his resignation, which were the introduction of Jawi in the vernacular schools, internet access for schools, and the free school breakfast programme.

Najib today said: “The Jawi issue we are generally familiar with.

“The issue of free school breakfasts is only starting now as only a small number of the schools are on the programme now.

“(But) the issue if internet access for schools is a big question mark.

“Is this related to the termination of the YTL-Bestarinet internet project on Maszlee’s watch?”

Najib was referring to the project contractor, YTL Communications, which has accused the government of reneging on its promise to call for an open tender for the project to make the schools internet-ready. YTL said the interim services contract was granted to its rivals after it had invested more than RM4 billion building the infrastructure for internet access in the schools. – January 3, 2020.