The Prime Minister said the teachers' duty was only to teach without any executive power, thus there would not be any conflict of interests if they were to hold positions in any political party.
"We don't want those with (executive) power to hold positions (in any political party). If we have a certain position...executive power, there is a possibility a conflict of interest may arise.
"We begin with the teachers group first, then we will look whether it is appropriate to widen it to the other (graduate officers) groups or not," he said.
He said this to reporters after launching the "Tun Abdul Razak Bapa Pembangunan - Suatu Pengkisahan" at the Putrajaya International Convention Centre, here Wednesday.
Najib was commenting on the approval given to education service graduate officers on Grades DG41 to DG48 to be involved in politics beginning Aug 1.
Newspapers on Wednesday quoted the Chief Secretary to the Government, Tan Sri Mohd Sidek Hassan, as saying that the approval was based on the fact that in the past, teachers had played a significant role in leading the community in the national political scenario.
The announcement enables about 190,000 graduate teachers throughout the country to be involved in politics.
Commenting further, Najib said that by allowing the teachers to be involved in politics, political leadership in the country could be further strengthened because this group could contribute in terms of intellectual leadership.
"There will be a vacuum in intellectual leadership at the grassroots level if teachers were not allowed to hold (political) positions," he said.
The Prime Minister said teachers were respected by society because they had better qualification and knowledge compared to others in a particular locality.
He said leadership that was intellectual in nature and not based on material wealth could also contribute towards the formation of a better political morality among leaders at the grassroots level.
"So, if the teachers become leaders, they will provide leadership that is more acceptable because the value of the leadership is based on knowledge and their position which can be said to command respect from the community in general, although there are exceptions," he said.
Meanwhile, he hoped that the teachers would not neglect their basic responsibility as educators and they must also respect the leadership structure in their respective schools and departments, after being allowed to be involved in politics.
"We cannot say that when we have political positions, we can ignore instructions from the department and so on," he said.
Asked on the possibility of a split among teachers in a particular school following the government's move, the Prime Minister believed that this would not occur.
"I don't think they will adopt an extremist attitude although they have political positions. They are adults in terms of their thinking and even in the past, we have allowed it (teachers to be involved in politics), there were no splits in the schools then," he said.
In another development, Najib said for the moment, the federal government had no intention of abolishing the policy of giving discounts to the bumiputera for the purchase of commercial real estates and housing units for rent.
He was commenting on the proposal by the DAP Member of Parliament for Petaling Jaya Utara, Tony Pua, that the Selangor government abolished the Bumiputera discount for the purchase of commercial real estates and housing units for rent in the state.
"This (matter) is actually under the jurisdiction of the state (government), the determination is stated in the approval for (State) Development Order. We have no proposal to abolish the discounts for Bumiputera (on the matter) at the moment.
"I concede that it may not remain forever but at the moment, it (abolition of the discount) is not appropriate yet," he said.
In this context, he reminded the DAP leaders against continuing to place pressure on the Malays and Bumiputeras on this matter because it could cause anger and dissatisfaction among them.
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