A Prime Minister's miscalculation

If APCO was paid RM77 million in one-year to build Prime minister Najib Abdul Razak’s image, then it cannot be doing a good job and Najib should demand a refund. The company can’t be of any use because Najib is receiving an extraordinary amount of flak and has to go on the defensive almost on a weekly basis.

Najib’s costly mistake in hiring APCO to help formulate policies and communications has backfired.

Najib even has to enlist the help of fellow Cabinet colleagues to help prop up his image, but with the sterling choice of candidates at his disposal, these men are making his image worse.

An 18-year-old media studies student can probably do a better job promoting Najib’s image, than APCO. And it will be cheaper. Free, if it is made part of the college project.

In fact, why has Najib to spend so many millions on a foreign PR company? Has he no faith in ‘brand Malaysia’? Does he not trust Malaysians to do a good job? 1Malaysia is beginning to look like 1BigCon.

It is understood that news about APCO’s involvement with the Najib administration first surfaced on July 28, 2009.

Opposition leader, Anwar Ibrahim has tried to ask Najib about APCO’s role in his government: “Can the PM come forward and tell Parliament in no uncertain terms that neither APCO or any of its affiliates, associates or personalities or individuals or organisations linked with them is involved in the 1 Malaysia project?”

All that has happened is a lot of government sidestepping.

According to Anwar, APCO’s first document signifying Najib’s link with APCO was an agreement signed by the government on Aug 4, 2007 which authorised APCO to “repair” the government’s image.

He said, “It (the agreement) bears the signature of the press secretary to the prime minister, that is Tengku Datuk Sariffudin Tengku Ahmad, which shows how close APCO is to the prime minister while in normal practice, government agreements are signed by government officers only”.

APCO was reported to have been introduced to the PM by his adviser Omar Mustapha, who is a partner in Ethos Consultancy.

The “similarities” between 1 Israel and 1 Malaysia are uncanny.

1Israel’s campaign focused on health, and even included a 1Israel health fund. 1Malaysia too apparently focuses on health and has a 1Malaysia fund as well as 1 Malaysia clinic.

The 1Israel motto is ‘people first’. 1Malaysia is ‘people first, performance now.’

Najib dismissed allegations that the 1Malaysia concept had been plagiarised from another country and described it as a “big lie”. He said that he alone was responsible for dreaming up the 1Malaysia concept after he helmed the country's administration.

He said, “The 1Malaysia concept was not copied from another country. It is my own creation. Other countries may have a one this and a one that but nowhere in this world is there a 1Malaysia: People First, Performance Now.”

Najib warned that the government moved on the basis of reality and not any dream.

If Najib has nothing to fear, why did his Cabinet colleagues and the Speaker of the House orchestrate the spectacle during Parliament’s last sitting?

If Najib has nothing to hide, then why did he prevent Anwar from the right to defend himself? Why was Anwar and three other opposition MPs slapped with a six-month suspension from Parliament last Thursday?

The fall-out from preventing Anwar the chance to defend himself has resulted in the UMNO-APCO relation circulating the web. People can just read these revelations and come to their own conclusions. - Malaysia Chronicle