SHAH ALAM, Dec 7 ― Two Parti Amanah Negara (Amanah) delegates criticised the government today over the absence of coverage for the party's national convention which commenced yesterday.
Penang delegate Mohd Saifullah Abd Nasir asked why the party, now a party belonging to the ruling government, Pakatan Harapan, did not have its national convention broadcasted live.
Instead, he said the Umno Annual General Assembly which is held from December 4 to 7 had enjoyed live television broadcast.
“We are Malaysia Baharu today, and we see that the Opposition bloc is given 'freedom'. The Umno annual general assembly is being broadcasted live on all main news channels, but where is the live broadcast of our party's national convention?” he asked when debating on the party president's policy speech.
He also urged the government to fully utilise the power it possessed.
“Whatever power the government has, we must maximise this power.
“As what the former Dewan Rakyat Speaker said 'if you have power, you must be powerful, if not, you are a bloody fool',” he said.
Earlier, the Perlis delegate Roslan Ahmad also called the government to channel more attention on reaching out to “fence seaters” who have yet to pledge their support for either both sides of the political divide.
Roslan made a comparison of how the government is not fully utilising national television channels to reach out to people on the ground.
“There is too much focus digitising content. The Minister of Communications and Multimedia (Gobind Singh) has misplaced his focus.
“This was how we learned when we were kids. The minister should maximise the usage of national television channels,” said Roslan referring to broadcast stations like RTM1, RTM2 and TV3.
He also criticised the party newspaper, Mingguan Amanah, deeming it “non-effective”, especially if used to influence people's perception of the party.
“Fence seaters will not read these forms of information channel.
“We can criticise the Opposition all day and night, but we will still be stuck and our messages will not get out if our communication channels are limited,” he said.
