Earlier today, the Johor information department came under fire from social media users for a now-deleted cartoon it uploaded to its Twitter account that was captioned, “Focus on needs. Spend on what you can afford. #KeluargaMalaysia #JabatanPenerangan”.
In one panel, a husband is depicted complaining about the lockdown while his wife says their savings have nearly been depleted. The same couple is then seen having arrived in Langkawi on a flight, with the wife saying she was looking forward to going shopping.
While it received brickbats on social media for allegedly deriding Malaysians’ spending habits, or worse, mocking the hardship faced by the people, an official from the information department’s headquarters in Putrajaya told FMT that the cartoon was not aimed at rebuking its audience.
“It may have been direct, but we don’t feel the message was harsh or meant to mock anyone,” said an assistant director at the department’s cyber media unit.
“Of course, the cartoon is very subjective, but we are willing to take risks.
“That’s the risk that we took and now we need to handle it. But we stand by the message in the cartoon, that is, to focus on necessities.
“I’m not saying don’t travel. If you have the money and you can afford it, then go. But what we want is for Malaysians to focus on their needs and not their wants.”
The official said that such cartoons were a break from the norm for the department, which he said was now focused on “fresh” content after being accused of being “too boring”.
Stating that the department opted to use comics as they are a “different medium”, the official said that the content – which focuses on current issues – allowed the agency to experiment and gauge the public’s reaction to certain messages delivered via cartoon characters.
The creative team at the department’s cyber media unit has been coming up with ideas for comics which its in-house artist has been producing once a month since the start of this year – and it’s no surprise that most of it has been focused on the pandemic.
One cartoon depicts a monkey making fun of four men for not following Covid-19 SOPs while another shows a young boy chiding three women for not wearing face masks.
The latest cartoon, though, has been the most controversial.
Among those who criticised the cartoon was Muar MP Syed Saddiq Syed Abdul Rahman, who asked why the agency had to “make fun of the rakyat” and questioned the motive behind the illustration.
In the four hours that it was available on the department’s social media platforms, and then shared by the state branches, the official said it received 2,500 likes, 300 comments and 500 shares.
“We had non-stop notifications about the post, and we never expected anything like this.
“There were some mixed comments. Some understood the point we were trying to get across, while many others who didn’t understand reacted negatively.
“We took the post down because we wanted to limit the damage. But that does not mean we feel we are in the wrong,” the official said.
“We want our followers (on social media) to think deeper about certain subjects and why we put out the content we do. We hope to create greater understanding about issues like prudent spending.”