Anwar said any proposal to build an airport required careful study besides having to go through certain procedures and regulations.

“An airport cannot be built so easily … it touches on the issue of national security. You need to ask RMAF (Royal Malaysian Air Force), whether or not clearance for the flight zone would be given,” he said at a tea reception with villagers in Permatang Pauh, Penang.

The proposed Kulim airport, to be located at a 4,000 hectare site in Mukim Sidam Kiri, Kedah, would lie about 24km northeast of RMAF Butterworth, the air base at Mata Kucing, Penang.

Plans for the airport were first initiated by the Kedah government in 2014 and the current menteri besar, Sanusi Nor, had recently urged Anwar to set aside his “personal interests” and speed up approval.

Anwar said today, without naming anyone: “If you want to be a leader, you have to study a little, you have to study more than others.”