Prime Minister Najib Razak has eleven media officers, almost four times the number who served Dr Mahathir Mohamad at any one time.
Revealing this today, former New Straits Times Berhad's group editor-in-chief A Kadir Jasin (pic) said the 'big names' acting as media advisors for Najib include former TV3 chief Farid Redzuan and former deputy chief for Reuters Malaysia, Jalil Abdul Hamid.
According to Kadir, who is a staunch Mahathir loyalist and acted as UMNO's chief propagandist during its heydays in the 1990s, the others in the team include Khalid Mohamed (former chief editor of Utusan group), Tengku Sariffuddin Tengku Ahmad (press secretary), Jalaludin Bahaudin (media advisor) and Hardev Kaur (former deputy editor of NST group), who now is Najib's special officer.
According to sources, Jalil and Khalid have joined National Communication Team which has its office at MidValley, Bangsar.
Farid meanwhile was said to be 'loaned' to the PM’s office to manage youth related issues, as well as the new media.
Hardev Kaur is acts as Najib's media advisor in the latter's capacity as Finance minister.
The sources also claimed that individuals who previously served with APCO - the Israeli-linked international consultancy firm hired by Najib for a whopping RM70 million annual fee - are now serving at the PM’s office.
The sources further revealed that the media officers were "handsomely paid".
Bloated cabinet
Meanwhile, writing on his blog, Kadir criticised the appointment of G Palanivel to a minister's post in the Prime Minister's Department, describing the MIC president as another politician rejected by the people.
“Now the cabinet has 30 members with an addition of a rejected politician. If by adding the number, will increase the Key Performance Index (KPI), then KPI for PM has increased another notch,” he remarked.
Two others appointed as ministers despite losing the last general election are Koh Tsu Koon and Shahrizat Jalil.
According to Kadir, Malaysia's cabinet was oversized.
“Our cabinet is really big. UK with 62 million of citizens has 23 ministers, France with 66 million population has only 23 ministers, United States with 312 million citizens has only 12 cabinet members and Switzerland with 8 million population has seven ministers.
"We have 28 million population and 30 ministers.
"It’s not strange that the people find it hard to see a minister, because no one knows which of them is a minister,” quipped Kadir.
- Harakahdaily
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