Dear PM, please stop creating useless 'patriotic' campaigns

All of us know that the current government loves doing big and flashy events that superficially show its political prowess.

However, what we don’t know is the amount of the rakyat’s money being spent to promote all the campaigns and related events that are being carried out nationwide.

Semi-political campaigns such as “1Malaysia”, “Janji Ditepati”, “I Love PM”, “Negaraku” and the newest edition “1Malaysia Negaraku” do not really fit into the patriotic category, as all of them are basically BN’s way of showing the rakyat that they are still relevant.

Of course, most Malaysians can see clearly through BN’s façade, but the fact of the matter remains that money is needed to fund all of these campaigns.

In the current economic situation where the rakyat is burdened with GST, unstable petrol and diesel prices and the ever-increasing cost of living, it seems that the government is happily spending money to promote campaigns that would not benefit any Malaysian.

When I was a kid, government campaigns really meant something. I still remember the 90s, when the government was campaigning for all Malaysians to be literate in information technology (IT). There were songs created by famous composers and sung by the biggest stars.

At the end of the day, we all knew that the government was preparing us for the new millennia, where computers would play a crucial role in our daily lives. Kudos to former premier Dr Mahathir Mohamad and former deputy prime minister Anwar Ibrahim, the dynamic duo, for making the 90s a memorable era.

Nowadays, every time I switch on the television, my eyes will be blinded by the cheesiest government-sanctioned video clips and songs, which are also sung by stars (but I doubt they were made by good composers) carrying slogans for campaigns that have no benefits nor provide any meaning for us Malaysians.

I mean, just look at what the government is currently force-feeding us with, the “Negaraku” campaign. They introduced a song called “Aku Negaraku” and forced schoolchildren to sing it during assembly.

That’s not all. They are currently airing the song more than 10 times a day in all mainstream media outlets (television and radio), forcing government servants to sing their songs and wear dorky-looking Negaraku pins.

Plus, all logos in all official and non-official documents, pictures, banners and basically everything that comes out of a government office must contain the Negaraku logo.

The evolution of 1Malaysia Negaraku

To add insult to injury, on Aug 23, 2017, the prime minister made an announcement that the Negaraku logo will be embedded into the 1Malaysia logo to make the 1Malaysia Negaraku logo.

Now everything must be changed. At first with the “1Malaysia” campaign, it was the number “1” with our Jalur Gemilang wrapped around it.

After that it was the “Janji Ditepati” and “I Love PM” campaigns (both of these campaigns were originally BN campaigns for the 13th general election, but were considered later as a part of a national patriotism campaign, so we will not take them into account).

Later it was the “Negaraku” campaign where the “1” is gone and there is a square Jalur Gemilang with the wording “Negaraku” under it.

Suddenly, the “1” came back, and they put a smaller Jalur Gemilang that is wrapped like a belt on the “1”. They just lazily put the combination of both campaigns and named it “1Malaysia Negaraku”.

Are these the same people who made the tagline “Endless Possibilities” for our tourism campaign in 2013 and later realised that both the Mongolians and the Israelis had already used it in their campaigns?

I don’t know much about business or economics, let alone “Najibnomics”, but I think it is just a waste of money.

Let me break it down for you guys and girls out there. Design needs money, making cheesy songs needs money, mainstream media airtime needs lots and lots of money, and asking government departments to change logos also needs money.

So how much money is being spent on these useless campaigns? And again I would ask, where did all the money come from?

I would love to believe that the money may have come from some rich Arab donors, or from the prime minister’s old friend from a faraway land whose name is difficult for some of us to pronounce, or just maybe it came from aliens from outer space, but as a thinking Malaysian, I know that all of these tales are not true.

Dear prime minister, Malaysians do not need campaigns, we do not need government-sanctioned songs.

I know you want the people to get the feel-good factor during your premiership, but forcing Malaysians to “feel good” through these campaigns is not the way to do it.

We need good governance, we need economic stability, we need lower petrol and diesel prices, and we need a leader that we can trust. If you cannot give us what we really need, regardless of however much money you have spent in your campaigns, the rakyat will never support you.

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AHMAD SOFFIAN MOHD SHARIFF is executive secretary, Shah Alam Welfare Assiociation.- Mkini