National issues in August

The 1MDB trial which was scheduled on August 19 has been postponed to next Monday (August 26). Federal Court Judge Datuk Seri Gopal Sri Ram said the decision was made to give way for the current ongoing SRC International trial to be completed first. Both trials have former Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak as the accused.

From media intelligence, it is noticeable that in August the 1MDB issue was overshadowed by other national issues like Zakir Naik, Khat syllabus and Dong Zong.

In the first two weeks of August, the Khat syllabus implementation took over the media. Whereas, from August 15 to August 20, Zakir Naik was the dominating national issue.

1MDB had high media exposure on August 9 due to former Second Finance Minister Datuk Seri Ahmad Husni Hanadzlah’s testimony. Meanwhile, on August 19, it was due to the trial’s postponement.

Although the presence of the 1MDB scandal in the media was not consistent compared to the months before, it still garnered a high number of headlines whenever there was an update on the scandal.