PARLIAMENT | Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak had ruffled the feathers of the opposition during his Budget 2018 speech in Parliament last week when he praised poultry business owner Wan Azizah Wan Salleh, whom he referred to as Kak Wan.

This was an obvious jibe at opposition leader Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail, who is affectionately known as Kak Wan.

Debating the budget this afternoon, Wan Azizah raised the issue of her namesake and revealed that her husband, jailed former opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim, played a significant role in the success story.

The Permatang Pauh MP pointed out that it was Anwar who revived the Amanah Iktiar Malaysia (AIM) when he was still with the BN administration.

The now millionaire 45-year-old poultry entrepreneur, who was present in Parliament during Najib's speech, had kicked off her business with an initial capital of RM500 from AIM in 1993.

"Thanks to (MP of) Pekan (Najib) who went through the trouble of inviting her (the entrepreneur) to this noble House. I wish to congratulate AIM for guiding the entrepreneur to her success.

"But I wish to remind the House that (AIM) started from the proposal paper of a Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) team that was brought to (the government) by Anwar, the then education minister who introduced the programme to eliminate poverty," said Wan Azizah.

"The success of Kak Zah (the entrepreneur) has proven the (success) of the programme revived by Anwar," she added.

In his budget speech, Najib had expressed amazement over the resilience of the entrepreneur.

"Wan Azizah, better known as Kak Wan, had gone through numerous challenges in her life. But due to her patience, she continued to persevere.

“It seems that Kak Wan is here with us today," he added to loud protests from the opposition bench.