Najib wasted RM63,000 to spam Malaysians at 5 sen per email address

(Chinese statement below)

Press statement by Teresa Kok, MP for Seputeh in Kuala Lumpur on 9 March 2011

 

Najib must explain why he wasted RM63,000 of taxpayer’s money to spam 1.25 million Malaysians with “Salam 1Malaysia” at the jaw dropping  cost of 5 sen per email address

 

I am stunned to learn that Prime Minister Najib Razak wasted RM63,000 of taxpayers’ money to spam 1.25 million Malaysians with one same “Salam 1Malaysia” email at the jaw dropping cost of 5 sen per email address.

In the Prime Minister’s Office written reply to MP for Batu Gajah yesterday, “Ucapan peribadi YAB Perdana Menteri telah dihantar kepada sejuta dua ratus lima ribu lima ratus dua puluh lapan (1,255,528) penerima rakyat Malaysia… Kos yang dikenakan adalah berjumlah Ringgit Malaysia Lima sen (RM0.05) setiap satu email.”

For all his purported use of Twitter and Facebook, Najib is neither IT-savvy nor cost-savvy. If he was, he would have recognised the insanity of paying the exorbitant price of 5 sen per email when the cost of sending email is negligible.

Furthermore, the cost of email transmission does not multiply with every email address added.

This senseless spending is disgraceful but hardly shocking given the numerous cases of overpriced purchases, excessive spending and unfair contracts committed to by the government with Najib as both the Finance Minister and Prime Minister, conveniently enough for him.

I remind him that the budget that Najib the Finance Minister allocates to Najib the Prime Minister are not his personal funds, but the hard-earned money of Malaysian taxpayers, intended for public services, which he must manage prudently to serve the needs of all Malaysians, not selected companies.

This disclosure brings to question which company profited from this lucrative “Salam 1Malaysia” spamming project which had no open tender process. Upon clicking on the URL of the “Unsubscribe” link in the said email, it appears that Najib awarded the contract to Lyris, Inc, a marketing technology company based in California, USA instead of any Malaysian company.

I encourage all right-thinking Malaysians to click “Unsubscribe” on Najib’s unsolicited “Salam 1 Malaysia” mailing list to save our taxpayers’ money and to send a strong message of protest against the excessive spending on his trite, hollow and insincere 1Malaysia message.

Teresa Kok
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针对首相纳吉浪费63000公款向全国125万网民发送垃圾电邮。
民主行动党士布爹区国会议员郭素沁今天发表文告表示她对这件事感到非常震惊并认为纳吉所作所为是浪费纳税人的钱。

根据首相办公室在昨天向华都牙也区国会议员冯宝君做出的书面答复，纳吉一共发出一百二十五万五千五百二十八封祝贺电邮（1255528），每发出一封电邮需要5仙。
郭素沁认为纳吉的做法是一种浪费和毫无意义的。纳吉不应该滥用拨款做出个人的政治宣传。

“我在此提醒纳吉，他所用的拨款不是他个人的资金，而是马来西亚纳税人的血汗钱。这些钱应该用在人民的身上，而不是浪费在聘请私人公司为他做政治宣传。”

郭素沁揭露，这个发送祝贺电邮的项目并没有公开招标，其中一间负责发送祝贺电邮的公司还是一件设在美国的外国公司。

郭素沁呼吁全国关心国家网民取消订阅纳吉的一个马来西亚网站，以减少往后的日子纳吉再次浪费纳税人的钱。向纳吉表达马来西亚人不满纳吉滥用款项做出抗议。

郭素沁