KUALA LUMPUR – PKR man and former Paya Jaras assemblyman Dr Mohd Khairuddin Othman is the new director-general of the Community Communications Department (J-Kom), effective today.
His appointment was announced on Facebook by Communications Ministry secretary-general Fauzi Isa, who welcomed him to the post.
Khairuddin succeeds Datuk Dr Mohammad Agus Yusoff who resigned last November amid a scandal involving allegedly lewd remarks made in a video call with a junior J-Kom staffer.
Khairuddin, formerly with PAS, won the Paya Jaras state seat in Selangor twice in the 2013 and 2018 general elections.
He won the first time on a PAS ticket, but contested under PKR in 2018, beating PAS and Barisan Nasional (BN) rivals in a three-cornered fight.
He stood for Pakatan Harapan (PH) in the state election in August last year but lost to the Perikatan Nasional (PN) candidate.
From 2018 to last year, Khairuddin was the Selangor exco for youth, sports and human capital.
The J-Kom director-general’s post has been vacant since November following Agus’ resignation, which he said was due to new job opportunities.
The former academic and political analyst is also under police investigation over the leaked clip of his video call and for alleged sexual harassment of the junior J-Kom staff, Abdul Wahab Abdul Kadir Jailani.
J-Kom was formerly known as the special affairs department (Jasa), an information dissemination unit of the government, until its rebranding in 2020. – March 1, 2024