There is no issue with the appointment of economist Muhammed Abdul Khalid as Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad's economic advisor, according to professor Edmund Terence Gomez.

"Muhammed is a man of utmost integrity... He is a great defender of the poor. He is Daim's brother-in-law, but judge him on what he did, not whose sister he chose to marry," the Universiti Malaya lecturer said today.

Gomez was responding to a query on Muhammed's appointment after launching a report on government-linked companies at the university in Kuala Lumpur.

Muhammed, the brother-in-law of Council of Eminent Persons chairperson Daim Zainuddin, was the former research head at Khazanah Research Institute, chief economist with the Securities Commission, and senior analyst with the Institute of Strategic and International Studies.

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In 2014, he authored the well-received The Colour of Inequality: Ethnicity, Class, Income and Wealth in Malaysia which illustrated how Malaysia's wealth gap was widening in tandem with its economic success.

Gomez said he was confident that the Penang-born economist could keep Mahathir in check.

"In a way, it's not bad to have someone whose heart is with the poor, sitting next to a prime minister whose heart is with business.

"It is good that Mahathir has someone like Muhammed to remind him, 'pay attention to the rural poor'," he added.

Muhammed's appointment as Mahathir's economic advisor came into effect yesterday.