KUALA LUMPUR, July 10 — Former prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad said he was contacted by Finance Minister and Coordinating Minister of the National Recovery Plan (PPN), Datuk Seri Tengku Zafrul Tengku Abdul Aziz, this morning.

Astro Awani reported Dr Mahathir as claiming the purpose of the call was to arrange a meeting which is believed to be related to the National Recovery Plan Committee (PPN).

However, the Parti Pejuang Tanah Air (Pejuang) chairman explained that he had yet to agree to the meeting or set a date for it.

“We want to see (what kind of implementation), setting up a body (or any committee) is easy, but working on it, (especially) to lower the number of new (Covid-19) cases, needs a lot of new ideas.

“I don’t know if the finance minister has any ideas on how to reduce (the number of cases), but he asked to meet me, I don’t know, I haven’t made a decision yet, I listened (when he called) this morning,” he said as quoted by Astro Awani.

Dr Mahathir said this when met by the media after inspecting the Covid-19 Vaccination Outreach Programme at the KEDA Hall on Pulau Tuba, here.

He also said he hopes that the government will not fuel public anger further with actions and plans that he described as futile and would only make matters worse.

The Prime Minister’s Office yesterday announced Tengku Zafrul’s new responsibility following the first meeting of the Cabinet’s special committee on the NRP which was held virtually.

In his new role, which was agreed upon by the Cabinet meeting, Tengku Zafrul will be responsible for monitoring the implementation of strategy and aid and taking intervention measures that are proactive and suited to the dynamic Covid-19 pandemic situation.

Meanwhile, on Thursday, Dr Mahathir also repeated his proposal for a national recovery council consisting of experts on health, virus, economy, psychiatry, and sociology, among others.

He said that Pejuang will table the motion to create the council at the next parliamentary sitting, citing the need to do so quickly as more and more people are suffering as the government’s National Recovery Plan is not working.