The Malaysian Insight

THE Community Communication Department (JKK), or J-Kom as it was known before this, is not going to be a propaganda unit for the federal government as the now-defunct Special Affairs Department (Jasa) was, its director-general Junaidi Abu Bakar said.

Junaidi, a former deputy vice chancellor for student affairs at Universiti Pendidikan Sultan Idris (UPSI), was appointed to the post on July 21, he told The Malaysian Insight in an interview.

“We are not a propaganda unit. When I came in there were only four staff, although some people claimed we had staff all over Malaysia, but there aren’t,” he said.

Junaidi rebuffed claims that JKK was established to replace Jasa, which operated during the Barisan Nasional (BN) era.

JKK will provide “information and education” on government policies to communities that include those in rural areas and those that are not Internet-savvy, he said.

“Our main job is community empowerment, training and education, not propaganda like Jasa used to do. There is no staff from Jasa in this department.

“We provide courses, information, and workshops to the community to teach them how to use the Internet or to tune in to live broadcasts and so on,” he said.

JKK was formed by the Perikatan Nasional (PN) government under Muhyiddin Yassin and first appeared as J-Kom in Budget 2021. Jasa had been abolished by the Pakatan Harapan government, prior to that.

PN’s communications and multimedia minister, Saifuddin Abdullah, said then that J-Kom was a rebranded Jasa. It was also given an RM85.5 million allocation in the budget, which caused an uproar from opposition MPs.

After the hue and cry, the allocation was reduced to RM40.5 million.

No direction yet

JKK, however, has not been fully operational because of the change in government. Last month, Ismail Sabri Yaakob replaced Muhyiddin as prime minister and formed his own cabinet.

“Every time the cabinet is dissolved, the department has to be re-gazetted under a ministry. Each ministry has their own agencies, which need cabinet approval.

“It’s not yet confirmed which ministry JKK will be placed under,” Junaidi said.

On paper, it was placed under the supervision of the Communications and Multimedia Ministry before Muhyiddin’s government fell, but, as of a month ago, it has been transferred to the Prime Minister’s Department (JPM), said Junaidi.

“Since I just moved to JPM a month ago, there are no major activities (for JKK) yet,” he added.

So far, it has conducted an information drive on the ‘Keluarga Malaysia’ concept, which was introduced by Ismail after he took over from Muhyiddin.

Besides that, JKK is also providing explanations on the Covid-19 pandemic and the soon-to-come endemic phase that the government wants to move the country to.

“People say we are cybertroopers but we are not. We create material, like videos, to explain government policies to communities.

“We simplify the policies (so people can understand), and we work on a small scale because JPM also has its own information department.”

Under the original terms, when it was presented in Budget 2021, J-Kom’s purpose was to “establish two-way communication between the government and the people to convey accurate, authentic and relevant information”, besides listening to the voices and feedback of the people, according to then minister Saifuddin.

He also said J-Kom was not the same as the Information Department as it was more “strategic” in nature, nor does it overlap with other information and communication-based agencies such as the official news agency Bernama, Radio Televisyen Malaysia (RTM) and the Malaysian National Film Development Corporation (Finas).

Junaidi said he is, by nature an academic, referring to his years at UPSI.

As such, he will not run JKK as a propaganda unit nor use it for politics.

“I’m not a politician, I’m an academic. For a propaganda unit, it takes politicians,” he said.

He stressed during the interview that JKK’s duties and roles are “more on education and training, not propaganda.”

However, he also admitted that the work at JKK isn’t very clearly cut out for him.

“Even now, I don’t know what the work is. Maybe next year the direction will be clearer… if they want to change the name or do something else. Other ministries already have their objectives.

“But, for the future (of JKK), I don’t know yet.”

Junaidi’s name is known in Umno circles, having been once considered as a Barisan Nasional candidate for the Kuala Krai parliamentary seat in Kelantan, in 2013. He was not fielded in the end and the candidate, Tuan Aziz Tuan Hamat, lost to PAS’ Mohd Hatta Ramli, who is now with Amanah.

In November 2017, Junaidi was made special research officer to then Umno information chief, Annuar Musa, who is now the communications minister in Ismail’s cabinet. – September 14, 2021.