Scrap Jasa's huge budget and use funds to promote unity

 

MP SPEAKS | Scrap the RM85.5 million for reviving the Special Affairs Department (Jasa) and put the money for a special agency to promote national unity and bring Malaysians, regardless of race, religion, region or politics together as one united people to fight the Covid-19 pandemic

This is the first step to make the Budget 2021 presented by Finance Minister Tengku Zafrul Abdul Aziz in Parliament last Friday into a "unity budget" in the face of Covid-19 epidemic and not one which made use of the Yang di-Pertuan Agong's call for the budget to be passed as a blank cheque to achieve narrow self-interests and political mileage instead of serving national interests.

In the last two days, more than 30,000 people (at the time of publication) have signed an online petition calling for the RM85.5 million plan to revive Jasa to be aborted amid the tough economic times resulting from the Covid-19 pandemic.

I have signed the online petition, and I call on all Malaysians, regardless of race, religion, region or even politics to support the online petition to make it the most successful online petition in the history of Malaysia. This is to ensure that the 2021 Budget is a unity budget for Malaysians facing the Covid-19 pandemic.

The Pakatan Harapan government dissolved Jasa because it was the chief liar and propagandist instrument of former prime minister Najib Abdul Razak's government, and the department director-general was more powerful than an ordinary cabinet minister.

In fact, the DG of Jasa was a super-minister, whose salary was more than the communications and multimedia minister to which Jasa reported. Jasa's DG was responsible only to the prime minister and not the communications and multimedia minister.

During the Najib administration, Jasa was most unpatriotic and irresponsible in opposing the five nation-building principles of Rukun Negara. It was the chief government agency perpetuating the falsehood that the 1MDB financial scandal was "fake news", and demonising DAP as anti-Malay, anti-Islam, anti-royalty and even as "communist" to distract Malaysians from the issues of 1MDB and kleptocracy.

I am really shocked that the Perikatan Nasional government has not only decided to revive Jasa, the chief demonisation agency of the Najib administration, but to allocate it with a huge budget of RM85.5 million ringgit next year, which is almost thrice the allocation of RM30 million in the final year of the Najib administration.

It would appear that the PN government has come full circle and is now in the same mould of the rejected Umno-Barisan Nasional government before May 9, 2018.

Would Najib Razak support the call to abort the revival of Jasa?

In his victory speech, the 46th President-elect of the United States Joe Biden promised the end of Trump's "era of grim demonisation". It will be most unfortunate if, at this time, Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin is doing the very opposite in launching a new Trumpian "era of grim demonisation" in Malaysia with the revival of Jasa in the Budget 2021.

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LIM KIT SIANG is the DAP MP for Iskandar Puteri. - Mkini

The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of MMKtT.