MALAYSIA’S POOR QUALITY JOURNALISM, A NATIONAL DISGRACE!

…1MALAYSIA NEEDS A 1MALAYSIA JOURNALISM AND NOT YESTERDAY’S OLD MALAYA JOURNALISM WHICH IS WHAT IT IS NOW: REPLACE MOST OF THE EDITORS AND GET RID OF THE COLUMNISTS AND GET NEW ONES.

By Mansor Puteh

When British journalist with the independent of London, Robert Fisk came to speak at the institute of advanced Islamic studies (IAIS) in Petaling Jaya recently, he described the newspapers in the country as deplorable.

But he was not quoted by any of the reporters who continued to ignore his statement.

If it was made by any other Malaysian, chances are he would have been banned from the newspapers for anything he does, unless if it is a crime so they can immediately highlight it on the front-page.

Replace most of the editors and get rid of the columnists and get new ones.

One is not a columnist for writing a regular column in the papers, but if one gets to also gets invitation to speak in public, in the country and abroad, on issues that one writes about.

GOODBYE, OLD MALAYSIAN JOURNALISM; HELLO NEW MALAYSIAN JOURNALISM.

OR, BETTER STILL, JAHANAM TO OLD MALAYSIAN JOURNALISM; AND ASALAMULAIKUM TO NEW MALAYSIAN JOURNALISM.

Malaysian journalism is basically pseudo-American, pseudo-Hong Kong and pseudo-India journalism at its best.

The editors and journalists are mostly people who are poorly trained. They can write well, but that’s still not enough for them to get a career in teaching once they retire from journalism. 

Malaysian journalists are mostly propagandists for those countries.

It’s sad that they do not seem to realize this. They are too busy being propagandists and lackeys for those countries that they feel proud even if they are not paid for doing the job.

American, Hong Kong and Indian propaganda had gone into them and it is part of their system. And they feel fine with it being propagandists.

The bad part is that none of them will ever be recognized for what they have been doing and they will never be given any award by the Presidents of the respective countries. 

How does Malaysian journalism have been so infiltrated by those foreign elements?

And it is also ironic too, that what they write about America, Hong Kong and India has not gone down well with the readers and public in Malaysia. They have allowed them to see how bad Americans, Hong Kongers and Indians are.

They are not seeing the good side of America, Hong Kong and India, just the bad parts.

The problem with the editors of the papers and Malaysia is that they had not lived for a long period of time in those countries to know what the nice and good things they have are.

Only one or two of the journalists who have studied in America, but they went there blind, so they are no better than those who did not go anywhere outside of the country to study.

In the end, Malaysian Journalism is stuck in the old style, and they are not serving the country. They serve the advertisers and those foreign countries more.

The reason why I am writing this is because I doubt it if the KDN and the editors of the papers know what’s wrong with journalism in the country, because they do not wish to blame themselves for its shoddiness.

Even if they do, they don’t care, since they are in their small comfort zones.

Maybe they are secret agents operating in the country whose only mission – which is unpaid of course – is to sow dissent by publishing the garbage on the happenings and gossips from these countries.

So the readers and public in Malaysia know those gossip-creators more than they know their own leaders and even history to care for. They have Malaysia a very confusing country, with the people equally confused with the real issues and those which are highlighted by the media.

Worse, they have made many Malaysians to feel inferior. Many feel if they do not like English football, they are stupid. And if they do not know any Malay film, they think they are intelligent.

These people are not humans or Malaysians, but Zombies created by the media and advertising agency. Their favorite football clubs are those in England or South America, and not the local state ones.

And they think it is their duty to create more jobs for the foreign entertainers and sportsmen than their own kind here in Malaysia, by supporting them.

They are willing to pay hundreds of ringgit to see some American woman perform in semi-nude because they think it is a cultured thing to do. It is not. They are being taken back to the primitive era. 

Malaysian journalism definitely needs a revamp; 1Malaysia needs a 1Malaysia Journalism or it will fail the new concept as much as it will also fail the present Najib government, as they had done with the old Badawi government.

I doubt if the Malaysian Press Institute (MPI) is also aware of this. They comprise of members from the press, so this issue is not pressing for them to deal with considering how they would be hitting their own heads with the computers.

They need an ‘outsider’ to tell them how Old Malaysian Journalism had rotted beyond recognition. It does not serve the country and society anymore but are becoming as thought they are agents for foreign countries, particularly America.

Yet, America has never formally acknowledged that they are to be recognized as their unofficial propagandists. Hong Kong and India, too, has not bothered to do so.

It’s because the Malaysian papers have been so influenced by their covert propaganda and had also infiltrated into their media organizations in subtle ways that admitting it would not be a good idea.

The best way to change the attitude of the publishers and editors of Malaysian papers is to do it subtly so that they themselves will readily admit that they are doing a good job.

But alas, they are doing a damned good job for America, Hong Kong and India, so much so that the ministry of home affairs or Kementerian Dalam Negeri which gives the KDN publishing permits which are renewal every year is also not aware that they had also been made fools of by these media organizations who want to renew their permits so that they can continue to be propagandists for the foreign countries.

And if there is social, cultural, political and religious discontent and disputes, blame it on the KDN. They are the ones who are ‘encouraging’ the media in Malaysia to be so shaped.

The KDN should put a stop to this charade and ban all the papers and force them to look inwards and be of more service to Malaysia and Malaysians and not become agents of foreign countries. This is Old Malayan Journalism. It is also Old Malaysian Journalism.

What Malaysia needs is New Malaysian Journalism.

Isn’t this too difficult for everybody in Malaysia to ask of the KDN to do? Who is the minister of this ministry? Why isn’t he looking at the matter now? Maybe he has also been confused by what’s happening in Malaysian Journalism not to be fully aware of what they are doing as long as his activities and comments are published; so Malaysian journalism is good for the others and the country, too.   

The old Badawi government failed because the Old Badawi Journalism had failed him.

I don’t blame Pak Lah as he is affectionately called because he is such a moderate and considerate person; it’s just that those whom he had trusted were not so efficient, who led to his downfall.

Pak Lah did not know how to use journalism to his advantage, other than to report his speeches and activities.

There’s more to journalism than this, Pak Lah. It’s also how it ignores his adversaries. And who are they whom should have long been sidelined by the media? He didn’t know. But mostly he didn’t care, because he was not a vicious person that some others were and still are.   

I know because I was also a journalist with a local daily once for exactly 13 months and 13 days.

This short period of time I was in journalism gave me a good idea of the workings of the newspapers and magazines in the country.

That their staff in the top echelons of the papers are not real journalists but businessmen; they have other interests and no wonder when they are out of journalism they could still survive without writing anything, except to sign checks.

It’s time they turn around and look at themselves for the first time. They have been looking at almost everything else and blaming the others.

Just take a good look at their columnists and see what garbage they are writing most of the time.

Are they columnists? No. They are staff of the papers whose columns die when they are no more with their respective papers. Just how many of them had gone down the road with their retirement, after being appointed to the cushy posts with their papers, mostly because they were said to be able to do the bidding for their masters.

What I find pathetic about Malaysian journalism is that they are not original; most of what they publish is from reports filed by foreign agencies.

The only solution that the country has to better its journalism is for the KDN to withdraw the printing permits that they had given to the newspapers and magazines, unless if they can ensure that they won’t publish stories which are unnecessary and have columns purely to promote America, Hong Kong and India.

All the regular columnists must be given the boot; they have not been writing with any sense. What they have written is mostly nonsense.

These editors and columnists should not fear; if they think they are good, chances are they could find easy employment as editors and columnists for papers in America, Hong Kong and even India, since they have more qualification to work for them, after being the lackeys of those countries for so long.

GOODBYE, OLD MALAYSIAN JOURNALISM, HELLO NEW MALAYSIAN JOURNALISM.

OR, BETTER STILL, JAHANAM TO OLD MALAYSIAN JOURNALISM; AND ASALAMULAIKUM TO NEW MALAYSIAN JOURNALISM.