KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 13 — DAP’s Lim Kit Siang claimed today that the Special Affairs Department (Jasa) headed by Datuk Puad Zarkashi failed to produce expectable results despite an allocation of RM100 million as evidenced by the outcome of the 14th general election in 2018.
The Iskandar Puteri MP cited how Puad — Jasa’s last director-general before it was disbanded — had spent the aforementioned budget to demonise DAP and “beautify” the 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) scandal.
“As D-G of Jasa from 2015 to 2018, Mohd Puad Zarkashi spent RM100 million of Jasa’s budget to demonise DAP as anti-Malay, anti-Islam, anti-Royalty and communist and went overseas to ‘beautify the 1MDB scandal’ particularly among Malaysian students overseas, but it was a big flop evident from the outcome of the 14th general election on May 9, 2018,” he said in a statement here.
He pointed out how hundreds of millions were then used to fund Umno cyber operations to launch a smear campaign against DAP the following two years after GE14, which he admitted was far more successful than Puad’s efforts during the latter’s tenure as D-G.
Lim then asked if the RM85.5 million allocated in Budget 2021 to revive Jasa will be used to counter Puad’s campaign of lies during the latter’s tenure and Umno cybertroopers’ campaign of misinformation to demonise DAP.
“The question is why Malaysian public monies should be used by Jasa to manufacture and spread lies and falsehoods?” he asked.
Last week, Puad had rejected the government’s allocation to reconstitute the unit as an extravagance at a time the country was battling Covid-19.
He also told Malay Mail spending so much to do so now would be tone-deaf on the government’s part despite agreeing with the idea of re-establishing the Barisan Nasional-era propaganda unit.
