YOURSAY | PM’s not-so-secret special officer

YOURSAY | ‘What other ‘appointments’ by the PM have not been announced?’

Kamarul Zaman is PM's special officer since December, wanted 'low profile'

Vijay47: Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob, Pasir Salak MP Tajuddin Abdul Rahman, the special officer at the Prime Minister’s Office Kamarul Zaman Yusoff, and the Internationalising Bahasa Malaysia Symposium – three individuals and an irrelevant event that reflect the lost direction this unfortunate country is embarking upon.

The rest of the world is busy exploring fresh options and opportunities in a rapidly changing environment, and Malaysia is engaged in reconfirming its kampung mentality and acute insecurity.

After the famous Malay Dignity Congress, who is the Einstein who decided that Bahasa Malaysia is worthy of becoming an international language?

It is used by a handful of people and hardly encountered in Singapore, Beijing, New Delhi, London, Moscow, Cairo, or even Kabul and some clowns want to turn it international? Even the Chinese do not have crazy ideas of making Mandarin a language the sun never sets upon.

Yes, Ismail Sabri, you will make it to the history books. But for many unintended reasons.

Next, we come to Malaysian pillars of leadership in mediocrity, Tajuddin and Kamarul Zaman. Is this the best Ismail Sabri could dredge up to fulfil some positions?

Considering the standards they come equipped with, one would have expected the government to instead take firm measures to hide these two from public view, lest the world tars all Malaysians with the same brush.

Appointing Tajuddin as our ambassador to Indonesia may even be seen as an attempt to further insult our long-suffering neighbours. The less said about Kamarul Zaman, the University Utara Malaysia professor, the better.

Yeah, sure, when I grow up, I want to be Tajuddin or Kamarul Zaman or Ismail Sabri.

GanMu: Why is Kamarul Zaman’s name not listed on the Prime Minister’s Office directory? Why is Prime Minister’s Office hiding this from the public?

What other "appointments" by the prime minister have not been announced? Do they only announce them on a need-to-know basis?

Kuniyo: The appointment confirmed what Ismail Sabri’s priorities are. He has no idea how to deal with the rising cost of living, so he plays the 'Malay-centric' card to divert attention.

• Speak Bahasa Malaysia at international forums

• Write official letters in Bahasa Malaysia to overseas VIPs

• Make it compulsory for international students to study Bahasa Malaysia

• Presented the most racially-biased Budget in history

When he can't solve our livelihood problem, he projected himself as “pejuang bahasa dan bangsa” (champion of language and race) instead.

KK Semenyih: "Pundit"? That's a very big word. I hope Kamarul Zaman can live up to the true meaning of a “pundit”.

Anyway, attempting to make Bahasa Malaysia international is all well and good for our reputation, but it's not going to bring any economic benefits to the country and its people.

On the contrary, more hard-earned taxpayers' money will be spent to promote it internationally. It's not going to be cheap. Can we afford this at a time our economy is tanking, as evidenced by the plummeting ringgit?

I'm not saying everything we do should be economy-related, but at this point when we are struggling to come out of the damage caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, should we make this our priority?

Max Fury: A international Bahasa Malaysia symposium. Indeed, do we need that? How many millions of ringgit has the government allocated for this?

The money could have been better used for the needy who are now suffering due to high inflation.

Guglu: Isn’t it up to the prime minister whom he wants to appoint as his driver, window cleaner, gardener and political assistant? Furthermore, Kamarul Zaman has all the credentials.

But what I dislike about making Bahasa Malaysia an international language is that this is just a ploy to camouflage our lack of proficiency in English.

English is the international language. Even Mandarin and French cannot compete with it, let alone Bahasa Malaysia.

Newday: Prime Minister, your office is an embarrassment and a disgrace. On the quiet, you appoint a man with known extremist hate of liberal Muslims and non-Muslims.

This man prefers to lurk in the shadows and engage an army of lawyers at any perceived slight against him or Islam. He has zero credibility among the more informed members of society.

Your office promotes an event showing his name as representing the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO). This gets serious scrutiny. The promotional post was withdrawn and replaced with a promo showing him as director of the conference with no connection to the PMO.

Given what he has said - that he has been on the PMO payroll since December - yet, his name does not show up on the list of officers.

This is the PMO, not some dodgy government-linked company. If the PMO can conceal this, then what else are you concealing?

The meagre trust in the prime minister and his office is now totally diminished.

Vent: A clown of a so-called academician has been made special officer, while a racist thug will soon be spouting unmentionables in Indonesia.

As if four special envoys aren't enough of a financial strain on this country's fast-dwindling financial resources, we now have three special advisers plus one?

Ismail Sabri may be a dolt of a prime minister and leader but he most certainly sure knows how to hedge his bets; a craft he learned well given his long tutelage in Umno.

The Analyser: This is the sort of thing that happens when a “government” with no direction and no firm agenda comes into power.

Instead of governing for the people (to whom they have no allegiance), they embark on frivolously unproductive ventures which they think will enhance their power base.

But instead, all they are doing is deepening the racial divide and making Malaysia a less pleasant place to live… for everyone. - Mkini