Did you know that our Prime Minister sent 5 million sms greetings this year? The Star reported that:
The Prime Minister’s gesture of sending out five million text messages (SMS) to the mobile phone network subscribers have been warmly received....Whilst I laud the Prime Minister's kind and thoughtful gesture to reach out to Malaysians, I wonder who is paying for the bill for the five million sms messages which should cost RM25 000 assuming each sms costs 5 cents.
DiGi Telecommunications Sdn Bhd corporate affairs division director Zaiton Idrus said it was a good personal touch from the PM.
Maxis Bhd’s corporate affairs vice-president Mariam Bevi Batcha said: “We laud the effort made by the PM. The SMS greeting proves that communication allows us to touch each other’s lives no matter who we are.”
Is it from public funds or sponsored by telco companies or is it from the PM's own pocket? While the thoughtfulness is commendable, money spent this way only makes telco companies happy.
That amount of money can be spent in more beneficial ways such as in using the money to reach out to the poor, orphans, single parents, the disadvantaged or victims of some tragedy or those in need or for some charity.
A press release to all newspapers, online portals and even to bloggers is free of charge and would reach not just Malaysians at home but also those overseas.
Still, it is commendable that PM Najib made such a gesture and I believe he is the first PM to do so. As reported by The Star, many laud his thoughtful move while The Malaysian Insider reported that Datuk Seri Najib Razak said his personal Chinese New Year message sent over the past week was to show the government’s appreciation to the community.
Many Malaysians with email accounts were surprised with a Chinese New Year greeting from the prime minister’s personal 1Malaysia.com.my blog while others received the festive greeting via SMS through the telco companies.
As for me, I did not receive both the email and the sms for I had made a request to my telco NOT to send me any spam messages from anyone but my family members all received the smses.
Times are bad now and we had better exercise more wisdom in the way we spend our money. Personally, I only send such greetings in response to other greetings sent to me by friends.
Anyway, take care and have a nice evening!
Donplaypuks® Same question I posed in M Chronicles. At 5 cents a sms, that's $250,000 smackeroos for 5 million messages, not $25,000!
Who pays? You and me or Najib from his own pocket? If it's the former it's highly hypocritical and a massive rip-off!
dpp
we are all of 1 Race, the Human Race