KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 15 — Contrary to popular perception, the proposal for Malaysia to produce a third national car was not Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad but "plagiarised from people”, the prime minister indicated today.

In an interview with Singapore daily Straits Times published today, the PM said he keeps a very broad outlook and is willing to adopt a lot of other people’s ideas even if they are risky, if it could spur growth for the country.

"I have always listened to people. A lot of ideas are actually plagiarised from people,” he was reported saying and cited as example, the controversial proposal to build a new national car.

He indicated that he pushed for the idea because it signalled a new growth phase for the country’s automotive industry.

"We have to listen to everybody who has ideas about how to solve our problems, financial and development and, well, the disruption of the machinery of administration.

"When somebody comes up with a suggestion... we can’t just say, no, no, no, this is untried, we better not try it,” he told the daily.

The 93-year-old said the new Pakatan Harapan government is also willing to risk failure with the controversial new ideas presented in Budget 2019.

Among other controversial ideas introduced in its Budget tabling was a peer-to-peer financing initiative to help more Malaysians buy their first homes and a plan to limit fuel subsidies to cars with engines smaller than 1,500cc .

In the same interview, Dr Mahathir also clarified that the government’s move to dip into state oil firm Petronas’ profits to offset its debts was a "one-off” deal.

"We asked them, ‘Can you give us more to tide off the borrowings?’ And they said they’ve studied and said, ‘Well, we can afford to give RM30 billion more.’ It is a one-off.”

Financial analysts have said that Petronas could be subjected to more cash calls considering the government’s struggle to control its sovereign debts said to amount to RM1 trillion.