Multiracial J Kom S First Programme To Be On Communication For The Disabled Minister

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Seeking to distance the revived Special Affairs Department (Jasa) from its past as a political propaganda unit, Communications and Multimedia Minister Saifuddin Abdullah said their first programme will be on communication for the disabled.
He stressed that the department, which has been rebranded as the Community Communications Department (J-Kom) was not a political one.
"(J-kom) will not be political, that is very important. It will be multiracial and will be set up according to districts instead of parliamentary constituencies.
"This is more suitable for a government agency," he told the press in a joint-interview on Wednesday to mark the one year since the Perikatan Nasional government came to power.
The minister said J-Kom had yet to begin operations but will be advertising its vacancies soon.
"The first thing you will hear from J-Kom is about communications for the disabled.
"For example, we don't have enough certified sign language translators.
"We want every district to have one [...] so that whenever there is a government function, there will be a sign language interpreter," he said.
He added that the interpreters need not be full-time J-Kom staff but should at least be trained by the department.
He said one complaint he has been getting is that sign language interpreters on TV have too small a space allocated to them.
"If you can't hear what someone is saying, you can turn up the volume but if you can't see the sign interpreter you can't zoom in," he said.
Saifuddin said RTM and Bernama TV have been taking steps to rectify this and allocate more screen space for the sign language interpreters.

Major controversy

He also said that J-Kom will have a disabled communications unit which will be headed and led by disabled people.
"We are shortlisting candidates," he said.
He added that the unit will serve the whole Communications and Multimedia Ministry.
J-Kom was the subject of a major controversy when it was allocated RM85.5 million under Budget 2021 under its previous identity, Jasa.
This was four-fold the allocation given to Jasa during the BN era.
Prior to Budget 2021 being debated in the Dewan Rakyat last year, critics including former prime minister Najib Abdul Razak said the new budget for the department was excessive.
After much outcry, the budget for the rebranded J-Kom was slashed to RM40.5 million.
Saifuddin had told the Dewan Rakyat then that J-Kom's focus would be on grassroots communications.
“The objective of J-Kom is to create two-way communication between the government and the people by delivering accurate and intelligent government information to the rakyat and seeking their feedback.
“The method used will be to develop a community, especially at the grassroots level, to practice a culture of knowledge, have digital skills and appreciate the meaning and focus of patriotism through community empowerment,” he had said. - Mkini

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