PETALING JAYA: Klang MP Charles Santiago has criticised a budget allocation to a federal propaganda unit, and said funds should have gone to micro businesses that are at a “breaking point”.
Santiago said specific support should have gone to protect small- and medium-sized enterprises from closing shop, while jobless workers could have been provided longer social protection.
He said the business community would have welcomed a longer loan moratorium.
“Focus should have been on promoting renewable energy, food security, environmental protection, digitalisation and a major push on social protection.
“All of these sectors would have created new jobs and new entrepreneurs in the country,” he said in a Facebook post.
Santiago said the government missed out on an opportunity to come up with a budget to reset the country’s economy and close the inequality gap.
The 2021 budget tabled today set aside RM81 million for the Special Affairs Department (Jasa), which has been regarded as a propaganda arm of the federal government.
There was criticism of the allocation on social media, with one user saying he wasn’t sure what was the point of Jasa “besides cybertrooping”.
“Will the government even bother to answer how they are spending that RM81 million?” he said.
Another critic, one Faizal Hamssin, noted that only RM24 million was set aside for mental health issues. - FMT
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