YOURSAY | ‘It is not the only problem with the Budget.’

Saifuddin caught off guard by huge Jasa budget - report

Newday: Communications and Multimedia Deputy Minister Zahidi Zainul Abidin, the third last paragraph in this news report says it all.

Reforming Jasa (Special Affairs Department) has nothing to do with disseminating accurate information, it is all about all your 1,000 cybertroopers being out of work due to Pakatan Harapan pulling the plug.

These very same people disseminated fake information through Jasa under then prime minister Najib Abdul Razak. Najib has not changed his ways and no doubt the 1,000 have not changed their hardcore ways either.

The 1,000 were employed with a significantly lower budget during Najib’s time. There is still no real explanation why the budget has ballooned so much this time. Maybe 1,000 more?

Zahidi, you have done your boss (Communications and Multimedia Minister Saifuddin Abdullah), a great disservice in your statement. I am sure he would recall the Jasa conversation as the unit is so controversial.

Yet you make all sorts of shallow reasons as to why he could not remember. The deep state in government has been nicely exposed by you.

MS: Saifuddin either lied about being shocked by the indecent allocation of RM85.5 million or is totally imbecilic in allowing his deputy to undermine him and the ministry.

Either way, it proves that the communication between the communication minister and his semi-literate ITM diploma holder of a deputy is shoddy at best.

It also proves the degree of crookedness in the budgeting process as well as the gross incompetence of Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin and his gang in allowing this mismanaged process to succeed without it raising red flags.

And finally, but not least, it proves that despite what the Agong advised repeatedly, it is politicking of the dirtiest kind which Muhyiddin and his co-conspirators in Bersatu are indulging in - which is why this self-serving Bersatu budget should not be supported.

Plain Simple: It seems like the minister and his deputy share the same small brain. One defending the department's existence and the other defending the 1,000 odd staff who lost their job which they should not be hired in the first place.

Opposition MPs, please reject this budget outright because it is not to the interest of the people and remember it's the people that politicians should fight for, not political power like this bunch of PN politicians.

Rentap: Saifuddin, you are better than this. You did the right thing when you left Umno for PKR but the wrong thing by following former PKR deputy president Azmin Ali into PN.

It’s alright, people make mistakes but you need to make amends. If you are truly shocked that Jasa is being parked under your ministry and do not want to be saddled as the man who helped oversee the revival of reviled BN-era tactics, resign.

Resign and show your PN colleagues that you are made of sterner stuff and that you have principles. Rejoin the fold in Harapan. Explain what you have done and how you were misled and forced into a corner and now they are piling pressure on you to be part of their corruption.

You were always seen as someone who would bring much-needed changes. Look at how they have used you and how the public has swung against you.

Resign and show them all, that you will not tolerate what PN expects of you and more. Believe it or not, that will put you above the whole current crop of BN/PN and Harapan politicians who are all just fighting to grab what they can. Be better than this.

Mohd Bakri 3: Do you know, Mr Minister, how many businesses can be run for that amount? Let's take a local three to four-star hotel.

Imagine if you contribute RM200,000 per hotel per month for payroll for five months, that's only RM1 million per hotel. This means you can save 80 hotels.

Imagine how many people work in those hotels. Imagine their families. Imagine their friends. Imagine the good publicity that goes around.

Vision2020: Jasa is created as a propaganda operative to 'misinformed' the ordinary rakyat to demonish and 'dehumanise' opposition parties as 'beasts' in order to justify their PN's illegitimate greed of power, position and money just like Umno and PAS 'honed' by the old 'fox' unashamedly resorting to the toxic politics of race and religion to enrich kleptocracy and 'Mahathirism' crony policies.

Cyclonus: Rehiring 1,000 people? Buying door knobs would be more useful.

How about hiring more healthcare professionals and buying equipment for the frontliners? Install more utility and Internet infrastructure in remote areas? Maintenance budget for all installed utilities? Enforcement to safeguard water resource? The list goes on.

Come on PN, better to correct something untenable rather than trying to defend it and looking like US President Donald Trump.

Coward: I think this is a red herring. They have no intention of funding it with such a large sum but they put it in only to take it out later just to say they have made a concession and accepted Harapan's suggestion.

Harapan should call it as it is, an unacceptable waste of public resource that must be removed without any concession from the opposition.

Sulaiman Che Long: Jasa allocation is a decoy for opposition to knock off so that the billions in Budget 2021 that are not transparent get passed.

And the government will say, see we listen to the opposition. The decoy is created there for a purpose. These Umno scheming politicians are well capable of that.

Rod of Justice 2020: Do not fall for the Jasa’s red herring. It is not the only problem with Budget 2021.

Do not be distracted or allowed it to be used to arm-twist other equally important problems with the Budget. All items on the Budget must be given serious scrutiny.

YOURSAY | Again, racial card used to defend Jasa

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