MM Lee wanted to meet Prime Minister Najib Razal (fourth from left) and his wife Rosmah Mansor (third from left), as he had been told that they worked as a team. -- PHOTO: REUTERS
PRIME Minister Najib Razak and his wife Rosmah Mansor have been warm and forthcoming beyond Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew's expectations.
MM Lee said he called on Datin Seri Rosmah because he had been told that she and her husband worked as a team and it was necessary for him to understand both members of the team.
He asked to see her, and PM Najib made arrangements for them to meet.
Mr Lee said he found the Malaysian Prime Minister and his wife 'warm, positive and, more than I had expected to find them, forthcoming'.
'They spoke frankly to me and I spoke frankly in return,' he said.
Mr Lee visited Datin Seri Rosmah at her home in Kuala Lumpur on Wednesday afternoon. They spoke for an hour over satay and Malay kueh.
They were joined by the three ministers accompanying Mr Lee on his Malaysia trip: Finance Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam, Education Minister Ng Eng Hen and Acting Minister for Information, Communications and the Arts Lui Tuck Yew, as well as Senior Parliamentary Secretary Masagos Zulkifli.
Mr Lee and Datin Seri Rosmah exchanged notes on their families.
She expressed interest in Singapore's Gifted Education Programme and said she hoped there could be cooperation on that front.
Mr Lee also spoke about bilateral cooperation. He made the same point that he had earlier conveyed to Datuk Seri Najib.
Read the full story in Saturday's edition of The Straits Times
