Malaysians Irked By “Useless” Messages, Ministry To Review Gov SMS Broadcast SOP
Recently, Malaysians received two messages praising the unity government and it left many confused about its purpose.
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Malaysians have been receiving random SMS broadcasts praising the unity government for the past few days and it has irked some of them.
The first message spoke of how the unity government is a solution based on the law and Federal Constitution.
The second message blast said the unity government is represented by Members of Parliaments of various races, religions, and regions with various expertise and experiences.
Most people were already annoyed by the message broadcasts since the lockdown days because the messages were often pointless.
They felt like the current messages, under a different government, are still similarly useless.
Some have asked if the government could stop sending them these messages and called out Minister of Communications and Digital Fahmi Fadzil for not improving the messaging broadcast.
A netizen pointed out that Fahmi had criticised the previous government for sending similarly unhelpful messages during the pandemic.
can we stop the kerajaan perpaduan sms. it's so random and idek what the point is.
— Cult of Appa 🙏👑 (@appapams) January 4, 2023
It is really tiring having to deals with spam & scam daily, not once but 3x a day.
— Ruth George (@RuthjoyeGeorge) January 4, 2023
Actually what is the government doing by joining the spammer to send nonsense sms to us?
Minister is silent, agency is silent, why? @MCMC_RASMI @fahmi_fadzil
Hi YB @fahmi_fadzil , can we stop this spam nonsense that was started by the old gov? We’re okay if we get messages for flood warnings or health advisory etc, but not propaganda. pic.twitter.com/TOIrz2X4eI
— Zakwan Razak (@ZacRazak) January 4, 2023
@fahmi_fadzil isu SMS Kerajaan perpaduan ni berapa yang dibelanja? Apa tahap keberkesanannya? Apa fungsi? 🤪 pic.twitter.com/XLKR9PTsek
— mak kau hijau (@makkauhijaulahh) January 3, 2023
Due to numerous complaints, the Communications and Digital Ministry said it’ll review the standard operating procedure for its SMS broadcast.
Its deputy minister Teo Nie Ching said they were aware of the issues and will try to carry out improvements regarding the matter.
Pakatan Harapan MPs had criticised the previous government for sending similar text messages to the public, New Straits Times reported.
It has been alleged that the official SMS channel ‘GOV’ was used to spread propaganda instead of making public service announcements on initiatives by ministries and government agencies.
Previously, the GOV channel was used during the pandemic to inform people about the bank loan moratorium and warn people of scams.
There have also been calls since last year for Fahmi Fadzil to improve the public relations between the government and the people, and to address misinformation online.
Solving this current messaging hiccup could be the first step to managing the communications strategy.
This still stands. Just give us the passwords to @pakatanharapan_ 's social media on all platforms. We know what to do.
— Izzati Rosdi (@xatyrosdi) December 29, 2022
Ni dah macam internal sabotage dah.@fahmi_fadzil https://t.co/zZyKQj05J9
Are you seriously uploading a screenshot from WhatsApp?
— Abdul Wahub 👑 (@abd_wahub) January 3, 2022
Not putting any sources? No discussion on the efforts made by the previous PH gov to pull in investors back then?
This is why Najib's PR team is running circles around you guys.
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