The Special Affairs Department (Jasa) is now providing a news digest service for smartphone users, featuring the latest in pro-Umno news.

Jasa is a department under the Communications and Multimedia Ministry.

The service, known as "Jasa Update", is offered through the WhatsApp messaging service. To subscribe, one has to contact a phone number to indicate their interest.

Subscribers will receive four digests a day, featuring articles produced by Umno-friendly websites such as Agenda Daily, Utusan Malaysia, KL Express and the BN Backbenchers Council mouthpiece BNBBC.com.

"Jasa Update will provide general reading material, i.e. the latest news items, in four digests (morning, afternoon, evening and final editions) on weekdays and thrice a day (morning, afternoon and final editions) on weekends.

"Jasa Update will also provide reports on the latest issues, infographics and videos of issues curated for broadcast by us," those opting for the service are told upon subscription.

They will also receive press statements from Jasa director-general Mohd Puad Zarkashi, who is also an Umno supreme council member, directly via WhatsApp message.

For example, yesterday Jasa Update delivered a statement from Puad condemning Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia (Bersatu) president Muhyiddin Yassin for accusing Umno of demanding "blind loyalty" to the party president.

Other headlines deemed worthy of the Jasa Update news digests yesterday included:

  • 'Dr M duduk dengan DAP, ini response to MP BN' (Dr M sits with DAP, this is BN MPs' response);
     
  • Shafie tubuhkan Warisan kerana kecewa - Rahman Dahlan (Shafie formed Warisan because he was frustrated, says Rahman Dahlan); and
     
  • Tak ada rancangan… nak namakan bakal PM pun tak mampu (No plans… can't even name their future PM).

Jasa volunteers were seen registering new subscribers at the Umno general assembly in Kuala Lumpur last week. Those who subscribed at the event received a pencil case and stationery.

Recently, Jasa came under the spotlight for organising a briefing for Malaysian students in Melbourne on the 1MDB controversy and kicking out a journalist with The Wall Street Journal from the venue.

Jasa strategic communications director Tun Faisal Ismail said the journalist gatecrashed the event, which was only open to students.

Tun Faisal, a former Umno Youth leader, has also hosted closed-door information sessions on 1MDB featuring the company's president, Arul Kanda Kandasamy, at various public universities in Malaysia.

An information booklet denouncing the US Department of Justice's lawsuit to seize assets believed to have been bought using funds from 1MDB were also distributed at these information sessions.

The same booklet was also distributed at last week’s Umno general assembly.