Khairy said he apologised after meeting Veveonah at Universiti Malaysia Sabah (UMS).

“On behalf of the government, I apologise to her and her family,” he said in a Twitter post.

He said he had proposed that Veveonah collaborate with Yayasan Inovasi Malaysia to establish innovative projects in her village.

Yesterday, Khairy said the Cabinet agreed that the recent comments by Deputy Finance Minister Abdul Rahim Bakri and Deputy Communications and Multimedia Minister Zahidi Zainul Abidin about the 18-year-old faking her online exam to garner views for her video were wrong and unreasonable.

“The Cabinet agrees that the real issue is internet coverage and other basic facilities, especially in rural areas. The government will work as hard as it can to fix this,” he said.

Zahidi last week accused Veveonah of being a YouTuber and faking her online exam to garner views for her video channel. He later apologised to Veveonah and said he had received “inaccurate information” on the matter.

However, Rahim, in a Facebook post two days ago, said Veveonah lived in town and her family no longer had a house in the kampung where she had claimed to have climbed a tree to sit for the exam.

His post accusing Veveonah of deliberately creating drama to seek attention and publicity sparked an uproar among netizens. This prompted Rahim to later delete the post.

UMS chairman Masidi Manjun has since verified that Veveonah had indeed sat for her final semester examinations online in June.