DR Mahathir Mohamad said today that he is not interested in joining the National Recovery Council (NRC) if the majority of its members are politicians.

The Langkawi MP said such a body should be filled by professionals who are not related to any political parties.

Dr Mahathir was responding to Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin’s offer that the government be opened to have opposition members in the NRC.

“It is obviously a political body. Government members are in there and the opposition leaders are invited but politicians do not deal with Covid-19.

“This body should be apolitical. Those with knowledge on how to fight an epidemic or experts in health should be in the council. If politicians are in the council, they will only play politics.

“Therefore I am not interested in joining the council,” said Dr Mahathir.

Among those invited to sit on the NRC are former finance minister Nor Mohamed Yakcop, former Khazanah managing director Azman Mokhtar and AirAsia Group CEO Tony Fernandez.

Also included are World Health Organisation Science Council member Prof Dr Adeeba Kamarulzaman, Star Media Group adviser Wong Chun Wai, SME Association of Malaysia president Michael Kang, director-general of education Dr Habibah Abdul Rahim and associate professor in psychiatry Dr Sivakumar Thurairajasingam.

Last week, Finance Minister Tengku Zafrul Tengku Abdul Aziz was appointed by Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin to head the National Recovery Council to supervise the execution of the National Recovery Plan.

Tengku Zafrul said the new council would be comprised of members from the private sector, civil society groups and industry experts.

He also said that the decision was aligned with the whole-of-nation approach formulated by the government to guide Malaysia out of the Covid-19 pandemic in a programmatic and safe fashion.

Under the recovery plan, states transition from one phase to another after threshold values for the three main indicators are met.

The three key threshold value indicators to move into phase 2 are: The nationwide number of Covid-19 cases reported in a day to drop to fewer than 4,000, bed occupancy in intensive care units (ICU) reaches a moderate level and 10% of the adult population in the state has been vaccinated. – July 26, 2021.