KUALA NERANG, Aug 11 — The unity government is currently undertaking major efforts to raise the standards of living of the people, including padi farmers, rubber tappers and fishermen, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim said.

In this regard, the prime minister urged the people of Kedah to give unity government parties that opportunity by voting them in as the new state government.

"What’s the point of all this political talk? Yes, it’s true... to take care of the Malays, Siamese, Chinese and Indians... but what is more important is to raise the income of the people. I will not be proud of being the prime minister if I end up doing nothing to help the poor,” he said at the Jelajah Perpaduan Madani ceramah in Naka here today.

The state chairmen of Kedah Barisan Nasional (BN) and Pakatan Harapan (PH), Datuk Seri Mahdzir Khalid and Datuk Mahfuz Omar were also present.

Anwar said to enable development plans to run smoothly, including for foreign investments to come in, there must be good ties between both the state and federal governments.

"...I am asking that such an opportunity be given for the state government to have better cooperation with its federal counterpart for the benefit of the people.

Anwar said the stability of the unity government plays an important role in attracting foreign investors, including in Kulim, Kedah.

He said several questions to him, including the government’s guarantee of stability and efforts to control extremist groups were asked by German company Infineon Technologies AG (Infineon) which had decided to make an additional investment of RM25 billion in Kulim last month.

"The first question is whether this unity government will be stable and last for five years, I said Insya-Allah, and explained about Umno, Barisan Nasional, PH’s position and also Abang Johari’s (Sarawak Premier Tan Sri Abang Johari Openg’s) GRS’ (Gabungan Rakyat Sabah) and the Sabah Chief Minister’s positions.

"The second is that they (Infineon ) read our economic policy, and they are happy (and asked) if the government would change this policy, I said no, as long as we are in the Madani Economy government... it has been accepted in the Cabinet and it will be carried out.

He said they went on to ask if the northern region was a hotbed for extremists and whether the government can control the situation as they fear they (extremists) will wreck our policies, to which I replied not to worry, Insya-Allah, in the six state elections, we expect to wrest one or two more states (in addition to the three expected to be retained),” he said.

Anwar also criticised caretaker Kedah menteri besar Datuk Seri Muhammad Sanusi Md Nor for claiming that Infineon’s decision to invest in the state was made last year.

"Please Google this and find that the decision was done at the end of July, the board had approved a €5 billion, or RM25 billion, to be invested in Malaysia, and we agreed that it should be in Kulim,” he said. — Bernama