BANGI, June 22 ― The National Anti-Drug Agency (AADK) has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Seniman, a group of Malay artistes, making them “icons” of its anti-drug campaign.
The agency’s director general Datuk Seri Zulkifli Abdullah said the MoU aims to leverage on the group’s clout to raise awareness and disseminate anti-drug messages among their followers, said to be in the millions.
Seniman’s current leadership is seen to be pro-Najib Razak especially after the group lodged a police report over a Singapore comedy segment where the participants poked fun at the former premier two years ago, mostly about his involvement with the 1Malaysia Development Berhad financial scandal.
“We want to make them icons because they have massive social influence and a huge following,” Zulkifli, a former high-ranking cop, told reporters after signing the MoU and hosting the agency’s Hari Raya open house here yesterday.
“With this we hope they can capitalise (on their clout) to spread messages about how dangerous drugs are, because they are seen as clean role models.”
Zulkifli shortly after corrected his statement to say that some Malay artistes are known to be drug users, but have since rehabilitated.
“Maybe one day we can make them icons who succeeded in becoming clean.”
In 2017, Seniman filed a police report to urge police investigation into the comedy event that its secretary-general Hafiz Nafiah described as an affront to Malaysia’s sovereignty. Free speech activists claimed the complaint was an act to butress Najib, an allegation it denied.
Hafiz, who signed the MoU on behalf of Seniman today, said its collaboration with the AADK dated back to years ago.
“We’ve done this before only that the programme was inconsistent,” he told reporters.
“So now with the MoU we can formalise our cooperation and be more consistent. That way we can be more effective.”
Enforcement agencies have long believed in celebrity endorsements as an effective messaging tool for many of its public awareness campaigns, but it is unclear if the strategy ever worked.
This is because none of the agencies have actually analysed the results systematically, rendering it difficult to qualify or quantify its success.
When Malay Mail asked if the AADK had data to support its claim that past programmes involving collaborations with celebrities or “social influencers” had been successful in reducing reduction, Zulkifli said no.
But he insisted on the initiative’s effectiveness, citing “testimonies” from “people” who said they stood up to peer pressure to use drugs because of the messages spread by celebrities they adore.
“It’s hard to quantify… but it is effective because I’ve heard people say they stay away from drugs because they listened to the artistes’ advice,” the AADK director general said.
Over the years, advocates of drug policy reform have called for greater scrutiny over how taxpayers money is spent as more damning proof surfaced to suggest the government’s “war on drugs” has failed.
They said the high number of incarceration involving repeat offenders and relapse cases alone should be enough to prompt a relook into how the authorities approach the drug addiction conundrum.
Zulkifli said the MoU will see AADK allocate money to finance the collaboration with Seniman. He did not state how much but confirmed that the programme, which will include training and large scale targeted messaging, will require funding.
“That one we wait later when the finances come in then we can reveal,” he told Malay Mail.
The government spent over half a billion ringgit to jail minor drug offenders just in 2017 alone and over RM200 million more to arrest and house addicts in state-run rehabilitation centres the same year, experts said.
The staggering amount underlined the huge cost taxpayers bear annually in what experts said was a failed war against drugs that has spanned decades, prompting more calls for policymakers to reconsider its approach to anti-narcotic laws.
