Despite his lack of academic credentials, newly-minted Kedah Menteri Besar Ahmad Bashah Md Hanipah is the best choice as MB as he has a direct line to Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak and can expedite the state's development.

"(He) can whisper personally to the PM to help develop Kedah," Malay daily Berita Harian reported Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi as saying today, in asking the people not to bash Bashah up over his low academic qualifications.

Speaking to local reporters in Beijing, China, after concluding an official visit to the communist country, Zahid expressed confidence that Bashah's unique access to Putrajaya would grease the flow of allocations to the northern state.

Commenting on attacks against the freshly sworn-in MB for being only an SPM-holder, Zahid said the people should look at Bashah's experience at the federal administration level.

The DPM noted that Bashah, whom he has known since 1987, was a deputy minister and has been in the political arena for many years.

"Politicians shouldn't be judged on academic credentials alone, but must be evaluated in other areas too.

"Don't ridicule or belittle. Give him a chance. If we only look for faults, we will never find the truth. If the truth is what we seek, positive aspects must be highlighted," Zahid said.

The DPM urged members of the public to give Bashah a chance and lend him their full support, asking them to wait at least a hundred days for the new MB to reform the state administration in his own image, before throwing brickbats.

After leading a coup by state Umno elected representatives to oust former MB Mukhriz Mahathir, Bashah came under attack for stabbing his own party leader in the back and was ridiculed for his lack of tertiary education.

Bashah defended himself, saying that Umno is the university he graduated from.