DEWAN Rakyat has approved next year’s budget for Communications and Multimedia Ministry despite fierce opposition to the return of the propaganda unit Jasa, now rebranded as J-Kom.

More than that, Communications and Multimedia Minister Saifuddin Abdullah (Indera Mahkota-Bersatu) was taken to task on at least two occasions for some of his remarks as he tried to justify why Perikatan Nasional (PN) was reviving Jasa/J-Kom.

Under Barisan Nasional (BN), Jasa, which was headed by Umno’s political leaders, was used as a propaganda unit against the opposition.

Among the arguments Saifuddin put forth was the need to have a more “grassroots” based information agency and how the revived agency would help “disseminate information” to marginalised groups.

Interestingly, his arguments contradicted that of the deputy finance minister Abd Rahim Bakri (Kudat-Bersatu) when he tabled a motion to cut Jasa’s budget from RM85.5 million to RM40.5 million.

Earlier, Abd Rahim said that the rebranded Jasa will help Malaysians migrate to a digital era and promote patriotism while Saifuddin noted that it will be yet another agency to disseminate information about the government’s policies.

As it is, his ministry has Jabatan Penerangan, RTM and national news agency Bernama.

“Jasa is the past and the future is J-Kom (Jabatan Komunikasi). So, we thank those who contributed to (Jasa), including the 776 people who were cast out by the cruel and oppressive Pakatan (Harapan) government,” said Saifuddin, who was the Foreign Affairs Minister in the last administration.

The irony of his “cruel and oppressive Pakatan Harapan (PH) government” remark did not go unnoticed, and RSN Rayer (Jelutong-PH) called him out on it.

“Weren’t you in the Pakatan cabinet when Jasa was disbanded?” said the lawyer.

But Saifuddin ignored Rayer and went on to justify J-Kom’s revival.

He said although his ministry had other agencies such as the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC), Finas and others, they were only at the national and state levels.

He said that his ministry needed more “grassroots” agencies.

Using disabled people as an example, Saifuddin, who holds the distinction of having been a minister under three different parties – Umno, PKR and now Bersatu, said that although there were 500,000 OKU in the country, only 10%-15% were registered under the Social Welfare Department (JKM).

“If the opposition doesn’t agree, it is because they don’t want the government to communicate with the disabled.”

But when former family, women and community development deputy minister Hannah Yeoh (Segambut-PH) tried to correct Saifuddin by saying that JKM had its own communications department to promote its policies, Saifuddin sarcastically dismissed her as just “a former deputy minister”.

“The one (Yeoh) speaking now is a former minister. That’s why the government didn’t last.”

His last remark drew more “pengkhianat” taunts from the opposition, but Saifuddin, who is used to it by now, carried on by saying that the programmes did not cover enough people because of the lack of manpower.

“It’s different work and we must establish J-Kom for this,” said Saifuddin, who was the PH secretary before he resigned from PKR to cross over to Bersatu along with former PKR deputy president Mohamed Azmin Ali and former vice president Zuraida Kamarudin.

Despite the objections, the Communications and Multimedia Ministry was approved by 107 votes to 100 with 13 absentees.

At the close, Dewan Rakyat has approved the budgets for three more ministries, making it 22 out of 27. The other ministries that had their budgets approved today were the Youth and Sports Ministry and the Human Resources Ministry.

Dewan Rakyat will continue the budget debate next Monday with the Federal Territories Ministry, Defence Ministry and Home Ministry. – December 10, 2020.