Lucrative PR contract

New faces, blog in PM’s renewed 1 Malaysia push

By Shazwan Mustafa Kamal

September 17, 2010

Najib unveiled a new design to his blog in conjunction with yesterday’s Malaysia Day celebrations.

KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 17 — Veteran journalists Datuk Khalid Mohamed and Abdul Jalil Abdul Hamid, formerly of Reuters, are joining the Prime Minister’s Office communications unit next month, beefing up its 1 Malaysia team that includes international public relations strategists, APCO Worldwide. Datuk Seri Najib Razak also unveiled a new design for his personal blog, www.1malaysia.com.my, yesterday to commemorate the first Malaysia Day public holiday celebrations since the country was formed by combining Malaya, Sabah, Sarawak and Singapore on September 16, 1963. Singapore later expelled from Malaysia on August 8, 1965.
The Malaysian Insider understands that Khalid will play a strategic role in the team, particularly for communications with an uneasy Malay ground due to his 32 years in the Umno-owned Utusan Malaysia, 10 of which was spent as its chief editor until his retirement in July 2008.
“I can confirm that he will be on board the Prime Minister’s public relations team. I am not sure what exactly is his role, but he is definitely on board,” said a source in the Prime Minister’s Department.
The source, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, told The Malaysian Insider that Khalid’s entry in the public relations team was made official sometime last month, but did not disclose the purpose or function of the team.
“I don’t know how important Khalid’s role is; as far as I know, he is an add-on to the PM’s existing public relations team led by Datuk Tengku Sharifuddin Tengku Ahmad,” said the source.

Najib has further bolstered his public relations team with the addition of two veteran journalists.

Khalid and Tengku Sharifuddin, who has been with Najib for a decade, did not answer calls from The Malaysian Insider over the matter. Apart from them, Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s former press secretary, Datuk Jalaluddin Bahaudin, and former Nanyang Siang Pau deputy editor-in-chief Joan Lai Siew Choo also joined Najib’s communication team on September 16, 2009 as media advisor and press secretary respectively. It is understood that Abdul Jalil was seconded from the Securities Commission (SC), which he joined as its senior general manager in the Corporate Affairs Department in 2009. He started his career in the Bernama news agency in the early 1980s before joining Reuters a decade later. He has worked in Reuters’s offices in Singapore and London, specialising in commodities, equities and political news.
He recently handled crisis management for the SC after several business reporters complained about their treatment when questioned in late June over the Kenmark Industrial Co Bhd probe of its share transactions. Jalil’s predecessor in the SC, former New Straits Times and Business Times editor, Datuk Hardev Kaur, is now special officer to Najib in the finance ministry.
It is learnt that Najib is concerned about the Malay grassroots, where conservatives and right-wing activists have slammed his New Economic Model (NEM). He has told his Umno colleagues to “prepare the ground” and explain his policies but recently decided to rope in more experts to spell out his message.
The new appointments also come on the back of a recent uproar from Pakatan Rakyat (PR) lawmakers over escalated operational costs in the PM Department this year.
The Najib administration had revealed on July 15 in Parliament that it had allocated RM3.956 billion this year alone to finance operations in the Prime Minister’s Department.
At the time, Minister in the Prime Minister’s department Datuk Seri Nazri Aziz said in a written reply to DAP MP Nga Kor Ming that the increase in operational costs were due to the “creation of new agencies” within the department as well as the addition of posts in a few existing agencies.
The number of civil servants in the Prime Minister’s department has increased from 21,045 in 2003 to 43,544 in 2010.
Six new agencies in the PM’s department this year include the Implementation and Coordination Unit (Pemandu), and the National Economic Advisory Council (NEAC). Six existing agencies which include the National Security Council (MKN) and Islamic Development Department (Jakim) have also seen increases in manpower.

The high profile additions will likely provide new fodder for Pakatan Rakyat’s campaign against Najib’s departmental spending.

The latest addition to prime minister’s public relations team will likely dram more flak from the federal opposition, who have waged a campaign against Najib for engaging the services of APCO Worldwide to boost his administration’s flagging international popularity. The Malaysian Insider had reported on July 6 that the Najib administration had renewed its contract with APCO for another year, despite the firm’s alleged links with Israeli intelligence operatives.
PR lawmakers have made the public relations consultancy’s work for the government a major focus point, as any link with Israelis is taboo in Muslim majority nations.
It is understood that APCO has hired more local consultants for the new contract, which sources in the Prime Minister’s Department say is not as lucrative as the RM76.8 million paid for the first year from July 15, 2009 to June 4, 2010 in exchange for its public relations services to boost Malaysia’s image internationally.
The government’s hiring of APCO dominated the previous parliamentary sitting where Pakatan Rakyat (PR) de facto leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim had accused the global consultancy of having Zionist ties.
Anwar claimed that several prominent Israeli army officers were working as high-ranking APCO officials. APCO was also forced to deny its links with One Israel and said that the 1 Malaysia initiative was conceived prior to the company’s appointment.
Najib announced the 1 Malaysia concept when taking office on April 3 last year, pledging to listen to the people and declaring that “the era where the government knows best is over.”
He is due to speak later today at the Yayasan 1 Malaysia’s one day seminar entitled “Living in a Multi-Ethnic society” at the Securities Commission building in Bukit Kiara in the city.