COMMENT | Does PN need RM85.5m to demonise the DAP?

“It proves Jasa is effective in countering DAP’s claims and an effective machinery in disseminating information of the government of the day.”

- Umno supreme council member Puad Zarkashi (July 2020)

COMMENT | I have no idea why the Perikatan Nasional (PN) government needs to inject RM85 million (and change) into what sounds to me like a slush fund, to “disseminate information” to the rakyat. To be honest, propaganda in this country, more often than not, is not focused on policy but rather the twin obsessions of the Malay establishment that is race and religion.

I always had a problem with the Special Affairs Department (Jasa). My problem was that it was so ineffective, that even when it was funded by Umno/BN it was flushing money down the toilet. Jasa obviously did nothing for former prime minister Najib Razak's regime and when it was revived earlier this year, it did nothing for the PN regime.

When mainstream Malay politics is defined by the demonisation of the DAP (which Malay power structures view as a proxy for the Chinese community ), you really do not need a propaganda arm. Propaganda is used in a hidden manner, not when the demonisation is in plain sight. This is why this sounds more like a slush fund than any real mechanism of the state...