PUTRAJAYA may decide to not make the Council of Eminent Persons’ report public, as it was only meant to give feedback to the new government, said Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad.

Dr Mahathir said that the job of the council was to investigate and report to him, and that it was not necessary for the government to reveal the details of the report to the public, reported Malaysiakini.

“Their job is to investigate and report to me. Whether I accept the report or not is my business. The main thing is to feed me the information I need in order to make decisions, so it is the government’s business.

“When we make decisions in government, we don’t always publish it,” he was quoted as saying.

Dr Mahathir formed the five-member council, led by Daim Zainuddin, immediately after becoming prime minister following GE14 to help formulate a report on economic and financial policies for the new Pakatan Harapan government.

In the course of its 100-day tenure, the council interviewed some 350 people from 200 organisations and submitted its recommendations to Dr Mahathir last Monday.

Last week, Dr Mahathir reiterated the need for the council to continue, perhaps in a new form, to support the government.

Other members of the council were former Bank Negara governor Zeti Akhtar Aziz, former Petronas president Mohd Hassan Marican, economist Jomo Kwame Sundaram, and tycoon Robert Kuok.

The council’s secretariat head Muhammed Abdul Khalid has since been officially appointed as the prime minister’s economic advisor. – August 27, 2018.