By Shannon Teoh
June 15, 2011
KUALA LUMPUR, June 15 — With Barisan Nasional (BN) and Pakatan Rakyat (PR) both demanding an explanation for the tourism ministry’s RM1.8 million Facebook campaign, Datuk Seri Dr Ng Yen Yen denied any wrongdoing today and accused DAP of twisting the truth.
“The opposition just goes around saying it’s for Facebook. They are twisting the issue.
“The Facebook pages do not cost a single sen. This is a social media advertising, promotions and branding campaign and also data collection,” the MCA vice president told reporters today.
However, her contention that the Facebook pages were free appeared to contradict her ministry’s detailed account of the cost for each page.
Yesterday, Deputy Tourism Minister James Dawos Mamit had replied in Parliament to Anthony Loke (DAP-Rasah) that each Facebook page had cost RM293,072.
Dr Ng also added today that the RM1.8 million would cover the cost of six different campaigns across seven months and includes the cost of contests and advertising on Google and Facebook.
“It is important for us to reach the high-spending market.
‘‘We use Facebook as the vehicle because you can run campaigns there. Twitter is not visual,” she explained.
DAP Youth chief Loke had said that unless Ng explained the reason behind the “exorbitant” costs for the “social media branding” exercise by her ministry, he will lodge a report with the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC).
Citrawarna 1 Malaysia, the most popular page, has so far attracted 20,292 Facebook fans since it was launched on May 21.
The ministry had said that the RM1.8 million included costs for designing, flash programming and coding, testing and debugging, uploading and launching the application, system server deployment and campaign management.