KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 18 — The controversial Special Affairs Department (Jasa) which has been allocated more than RM80 million for next year is not a government unit that carries out cybertrooper work, an MP who previously worked with the department said today.
Sibuti MP Lukanisman Awang Sauni said he felt qualified to talk about Jasa’s ecosystem, as he was also a former officer with the department that was abolished under the Pakatan Harapan (PH) government but is now planned to be revived by the Perikatan Nasional government next year.
“I agree Jasa is a jabatan gerak saraf (propaganda department) created over the last 40 years and I also have a view about the creation of the new Jasa or Jasa 2.0. I followed the developments and also the application process to establish Jasa again after Jasa was put in hibernation, and then abolished.
“And the effect of the abolishment of Jasa has caused many Jasa friends to face a difficult life. There are some who became concrete finishers, some I met in Parliament are working as food servers, when they have degrees.
“And also there are Jasa officers that had worked for nearly 15 years who were terminated when they were just a few weeks away from getting a permanent job in the government sector,” he said in the Dewan Rakyat while debating Budget 2021.
Lukanisman said he believed the previous decision to abolish Jasa was due to unease over the work led by the previous director-general of Jasa whom he did not name, before then suggesting that the government appoint someone who is not from a political party as the director-general of Jasa if it plans to revive the department.
“Therefore I see if the government wants to establish a new Jasa, I ask that the new director-general of Jasa come from the administration and diplomatic officers, and not be a party member or who has certain interests. And I also hope that Jasa will consider using its funds allocated in Budget 2021 to help the public,” he said.
“I was truly affected by the comments, as were Jasa friends, since Jasa is no cybertrooper. I would not be an MP if I worked as a cybertrooper while I was in Jasa,” the federal lawmaker from Sarawak’s Parti Pesaka Bumiputera Bersatu (PBB) said, before saying that Jasa had once gone to Ba’kelalan in Sarawak to build a futsal court for the community there and had visited the entire country to collect information for the government.
“Jasa went around. I personally went from Kangar to Sabah to see and listen to, and then channel information to the government.
“And Jasa also has a division that is like Invoke, although after the change in the director-general, attention to political analysis was reduced. And Jasa is no cybertrooper,” he concluded, likely referring to data analytics firm Invoke.
While he did not define what he meant by the term cybertroopers, the phrase is typically used to refer to those who spread political propaganda online and through social media.
Jasa — best known as a propaganda unit from the era of the Barisan Nasional (BN) administration — was dissolved in May 2018 by the PH government that had pursued an austerity campaign to address the national debt inherited from the BN government.
Prior to that, the BN government had allocated RM30 million for the unit in its Budget 2018.
The government’s plans to revive Jasa next year has attracted criticism from Opposition MPs due to the size of the budget allocated which they said suggested misplaced priorities and funds which could be better spent to help Malaysians, as well as due to Jasa’s legacy as a propaganda unit.
The Communications and Multimedia Ministry’s planned allocations in the federal government’s estimated federal expenditure for 2021 shows a proposed RM4 million for Jasa (with RM2.4628 million of this RM4 million to go to emoluments or salaries of a planned 52 personnel) and a proposed amount of nearly RM81.55 million (including about RM4 million for emoluments and almost RM74 million for services and supplies) for the expansion of Jasa.
