COMMENT | All of us know that the current government loves doing big and flashy events that superficially show its political prowess.

However, what we don’t know is the amount of the rakyat’s money being spent to promote all the campaigns and related events that are being carried out nationwide.

Semi-political campaigns such as “1Malaysia”, “Janji Ditepati”, “I Love PM”, “Negaraku” and the newest edition “1Malaysia Negaraku” do not really fit into the patriotic category, as all of them are basically BN’s way of showing the rakyat that they are still relevant.

Of course, most Malaysians can see clearly through BN’s façade, but the fact of the matter remains that money is needed to fund all of these campaigns.

In the current economic situation where the rakyat is burdened with GST, unstable petrol and diesel prices and the ever-increasing cost of living, it seems that the government is happily spending money to promote campaigns that would not benefit any Malaysian.

When I was a kid, government campaigns really meant something. I still remember the 90s, when the government was campaigning for all Malaysians to be literate in information technology (IT). There were songs created by famous composers and sung by the biggest stars.

At the end of the day, we all knew that the government was preparing us for the new millennia, where computers would play a crucial role in our daily lives. Kudos to former premier Dr Mahathir Mohamad and former deputy prime minister Anwar Ibrahim, the dynamic duo, for making the 90s a memorable era.

Nowadays, every time I switch on the television, my eyes will be blinded by the cheesiest government-sanctioned video clips and songs, which are also sung by stars (but I doubt they were made by good composers) carrying slogans for campaigns that have no benefits nor providing any meaning for us Malaysians.

I mean, just look at what the government is currently force-feeding us with, the “Negaraku” campaign. They introduced a song called “Aku Negaraku” and forced schoolchildren to sing it during assembly...