More than RM600,000 spent on printing books on 1MDB, 'Red Shirt' rally

More than RM600,000 have been spent by the Department of Special Affairs (JASA) to print books explaining about 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) and the 'Red Shirt' rally last year.

Communications and Multimedia Minister, Datuk Seri Salleh Said Keruak said the book on 1MDB and the booklet on the rally were published to explain the two issues with facts.

"This was because the two issues had been politicised so much that it had a severe impact on the country's security and safety aspects," he told the Dewan Rakyat today.

He said this in his written reply to Teo Kok Seong (DAP-Rasah) who queried on the amount of books published on 1MDB and the Red Shirt rally as well as the printing cost.

The book "1MDB: Siapa Kata Tidak Dijawab?" (1MDB: Who Says It's Not Answered?) had been printed 125,000 copies in three languages.

The bulk of the printing was done in the Malay language – 100,000 copies – while 15,000 copies were in Tamil language and the remaining 10,000 in English.

The printing cost for each book was RM4.85 per copy, totalling to RM606,250.

For the booklet on the Red Shirt rally, a total 2,000 copies were printed at RM6 per copy, with the total printing cost amounting to RM12,000.