TR EMERITUS

By Janet Steele from Malaysiakini Author Janet Steele, who spent weeks in Malaysiakini office in Bangsar Utama last year, finds out what makes journalists in this online daily tick. This is her third of a five-part series. In his landmark study of American news, sociologist Herbert Gans suggested that although the majority of journalists tend to be suspicious of ideology, they themselves subscribe to an ideology of objectivity, or the conscious practice of "value exclusion". Although journalists at Malaysiakini differ from their American counterparts in that they are more explicitly motivated by a desire to bring about change, they share a similar sense of professionalism, non-partisanship, and understanding of what it is that makes Malaysiakini "independent". Former Singaporean journalist and media scholar Cherian George has called the kind of journalism practiced at Malaysiakini "contentious". A subset of alternative media, Internet news outlets in Singapore and Malaysia are: "...contentious in that they directly and explicitly challenge the authority of elites in setting the national agenda and in forging consensus... These websites are engaged in more than just a struggle against government domination. They also embody competing normative notions of journalism and its role in democracy [and] subscribe to a more morally-engaged and less disinterested mode of journalism than their mainstream counterparts." Despite this moral engagement, the journalistic values that are most prized at Malaysiakini are accuracy, independence, and balance. As K Kabilan, Malaysiakini's soft-spoken number two editor puts it, "we want to be different from the rest. We want to be responsible, show credibility. No spin for anyone." Although I have never heard a Malaysiakini reporter or editor use the word "objective," they frequently use the word "independent", by which they mean factual, non-partisan, and outside of government control. As Gan explains: "The media landscape in Malaysia is highly politicised. After all, most of the mainstream media organisations are either directly owned or indirectly linked to ruling parties. At the other spectrum are newspapers produced by the opposition parties. "Malaysians have not come across a truly independent media until Malaysiakini came into the picture. That is why the government has tried time and again to dismiss us as an opposition voice. Over the years, we have proven otherwise. This is something which the government does not know how to deal with." Kabilan (left) echoes Gan's understanding of independence as non-partisan, saying "when I tell a [journalist] that there is going to be a story on a Barisan Nasional person, and I know that the journalist has very strong personal views, I know that I can trust that [journalist] to do his or her job. I'm going to get balanced, fair copy. I can trust these journalists to do their jobs as professionals." At Malaysiakini, independence also means applying the same critical standards to the opposition parties that they apply to the ruling coalition. In an election post-mortem meeting on March 19, 2008, Kabilan discussed the changing political landscape and warned reporters, "just as we are critical of Umno, be critical of the opposition. If we give credit to the opposition, also give credit to Umno." Padmaja Padman, another senior member of Malaysiakini's editorial team, echoed this concern, saying "now that we have promoted these people, we have to hold them accountable in the same way." Much of Malaysiakini's understanding of doing what Gan calls "practicing good journalism" boils down to giving space to competing points of view and getting quotes from the "other side". As Kabilan says, "we may not agree with you, but your space is there." Padmaja has a similar view, noting that during the election even Malaysiakini could have made more of an effort to push for the other side of the story. "If you're pulling down somebody, you must make the minimum attempt to get his response, and on the same day, or otherwise it may not happen, or it certainly won't get the same priority." Taboo issues of race, religion Although the "presentation of conflicting possibilities" is fundamental to what news people generally mean when they use the term objectivity, Malaysiakini's equation of independence with non-partisanship and "covering both sides" is rooted in the specifics of Malaysian political culture, in which the government has de facto control of the press, and laws prevent journalists from reporting on "sensitive" issues such ethnicity and religion that might result in ethnic disturbances. As Gan noted above, each of Malaysia's mainstream news organisations is either owned by or affiliated with a particular segment of the ruling coalition. The Star, for example, Malaysia's largest English-language daily, is owned by the MCA, a partner in the Barisan National. The New Straits Times Press group, which publishes both the English-language New Straits Times and two Malay broadsheets, Utusan Malaysia and Berita Harian, is owned by an Umno-linked company. Most of the Tamil papers are under the control of the MIC. There is so much self-censorship in the mainstream press that journalists don't even bother to submit stories they know will get spiked. Nash Rahman, the editor of Malaysiakini's Malay language section, says that Malaysiakini is different in that "there is no self-censorship". According to Nash (right), who was once chief news editor of Berita Harian, "in the mainstream media, reporters keep things to themselves because the editors will throw it away, or they will get scolded. Here they report on everything and the confidence level is high." Malaysiakini's editorial desk has three news sections (English, Malay, and Chinese) and a Tamil section that to this point has been primarily responsible for translations. Yet despite the structural similarities to the organisation of the mainstream media, the way in which the sections interact is completely different. Kabilan describes his experience at the New Straits Times as being camaraderie on the surface, but not deep down. "It's very different at Malaysiakini. I don't see grouping ethnically." Bahasa Malaysia section editor Nash Rahman adds that at Malaysiakini interaction is based on trust, not on adhering to a partisan line. "Malaysiakini is very open," he says. "Steven trusts Kai Ping [the Chinese editor] , even though he cannot read Chinese. Steven could be in a position where he has to defend something that was published in the Chinese section - something that he might not be able to understand. That is trust." At the time of the March 2008 general elections, Malaysiakini's editorial desk consisted of 29 people. On the print side, there were nine editors and 12 journalists. In addition there were five video journalists and editors, a senior graphic designer and an online librarian. The group is remarkably multiracial, with 13 Chinese (45%), 10 Malay (34%) and six Indian (21%). If we just consider those seven senior editors and producers who attend the daily editors meeting, the split is two Chinese, three Indians and two Malays. The organisational structure of Malaysiakini is interesting for several reasons, including the way in which it can be seen as a conscious extension of Gan's and Chandran's student activism. Whereas Gan has always identified himself primarily a journalist, Chandran sees himself as an activist who uses journalism as a "vehicle for democracy". "I look at things more practically," he says. "Now we have to go and prove it. Prove it! Prove it! Does it work? It was my physics-like model." As a student, Gan was a strong supporter of collectivism. "With Steven, it's kind of like a religious practice," Chandran says, "and Malaysiakini is his sphere. He did the same thing at The Sun... It's all in his personal sphere of influence. He never advocates it publicly; it's more of a self-belief." If part of Gan's unspoken belief system is that you change your world by changing your sphere, he has managed to implement much of this at Malaysiakini. It is a democratic, ethnically diverse organisation in which power is decentralised and people make decisions together. As Kabilan says, "everyone has a say, even with regard to the colour of the paint on the walls." Thus what makes Malaysiakini different from other news organisations is not the diversity of the newsroom per se, but rather the collective effort to deal directly with "sensitive" issues such as ethnicity, race and religion, and to do so within an environment of mutual respect. When I asked Gan about race, he said, "I think it is very difficult for Malaysians to think outside their own ethnic identification... [It's apparent] when you fill out a form, in everything that you do. I know that people will argue that we shouldn't emphasise race in our reports, but if we try to report in a way that race doesn't matter, that is dishonest. "Sometimes covering topics as controversial as the New Economic Policy (which gives economic privileges to ethnic Malays) or the issue of religious apostasy can make people at Malaysiakini feel uncomfortable." Gan describes one young Malay reporter who at first said he didn't want to cover issues of Islam. Gan recalls having told him, "Look, you are a journalist. There is no way out. You have to do these stories. It's your job." About the Author: JANET STEELE is an associate professor of Journalism at the School of Media and Public Affairs at George Washington University. Her most recent book 'Wars Within' focuses on Tempo magazine and its relationship to the politics and culture of New Order Indonesia. She is a frequent visitor to Southeast Asia, and writes a weekly newspaper column called 'Email dari Amerika' for Surya daily in Surabaya, East Java. EDITORS' NOTE: Malaysiakini is celebrating its 10th year anniversary on Saturday, Nov 28 with a gala dinner at the Sime Darby Convention Centre in Bukit Kiara. Be there! Seats available from RM100. Click here for more information.  Read More →

Written by our Correspondent Health Minister Khaw Boon Wan had dismissed the likelihood of worker fatigue as a cause for the medication blunder at Kandang Kerbau Hospital which has taken the entire nation by storm. Two cancer patients, Mrs Poh and Mrs Ng were given chemotherapy drugs over a few hours instead of days via a calibrated infusion pump. The pharmacists involved in delivering the drug had apparently mistook the pump for another one which is supposed to infuse the drug over a few days. When asked whether disciplinary action would be taken against the two pharmacists, Mr Khaw quickly jumped to their defense, saying that investigations are still ongoing and they are personally "very traumatized" by the mistake. Mr Khaw laid the blame on the similarity in appearance of the two pumps which were mixed up, and said that he would be providing feedback to the manufacturers. He said: 'The pumps look almost exactly the same...This is very dangerous when there are two pieces of equipment and one is millilitre per hour, and one is millilitre per day - you are causing unnecessary risk to the users of this device.' The key thing, he emphasised, is to learn from this incident and prevent similar mistakes from occurring. It was not revealed how long the pumps have been in use or if the pharmacists are given adequate training in how to prime them. Though he urged KKH to "treat the patients and their families with fairness", Mr Khaw did not offer any sympathies or apologies to the victims. KKH called a press conference last Saturday to explain how the mistake occurred to the public. Its CEO Prof Ivy Ng, who is incidentally the wife of Education Minister Dr Ng Eng Hen had remained silent on the matter so far. Singapore has one of the best healthcare systems in the world and Mr Khaw was praised by Senior Minister Goh Chok Tong as being the "best" health minister Singapore ever got. Such medication mistakes are actually not uncommon in Singapore public hospitals where junior doctors and nurses often have to work for long hours with little or no rest. They are usually not leaked out to the press. It was reported that a relative of one of the patient informed the Straits Times on the matter whose health correspondent subsequently wrote an article on it. One of the patient, Mrs Ng, had been discharged from the hospital. According to KKH, the medication she was given can be given as an infusion over 15 minutes. The other patient, Mrs Poh is still warded under observation. She is out of danger yet. Mr Khaw added that if the harm done to the patient was not 'irreversible', 'we can heave a sigh of relief'. It is not known if the patients are contemplating taking legal action against KKH for the blunder.  Read More →

Written by our Correspondent Former ISD detainee Dr Lim Hock Siew had spoken out against the high pay of Singapore's leaders in a first public speech made after his release from detention in 1982. Dr Lim, a founding member of Singapore's ruling PAP, was incarcerated for 19 years without trial from 1963 to 1982 on "suspicions" of being a "communist". Singapore's longest political prisoner is Mr Chia Thye Poh, who spent 32 years behind bars, longer than Nelson Mandela and Aung San Suu Syi. Dr Lim was speaking a the book launch of the "Fajar Generation", a book relating the history of the University Socialist Club and the politics of post-war Malaya and Singapore. Dr Lim first described the ordeals he had been through as a political detainee, including being placed in solitary confinement in the most "hideous" prison in Singapore - the Central Police Station: “That was a place not fit to keep animals let alone human beings. The place was so dark, so stinky and so ill-ventilated that you cannot stand inside for more than 24 hours but I was locked in there for 24 hours a day and the whole place was infested with bugs. I had a lot of bugs for company, no reading material and the light was so dim that I could hardly see the crease of my hand.” Dr Lim said he did not relent to the demands of his captors to renounce politics and show "repentance" not because of pride, but because of principles. He had tried to challenge and overturn the government's decision to detain him on several occasions to no avail. When he was released from detention briefly due to a technical error, he was re-arrested a minute later by the Special Branch. Dr Lim retire from politics altogether upon his release in 1982. Very few young Singaporeans have heard about him or his colleagues in the opposition Barisan Sosialist. The Barisan Sosialist was formed in 1962 as a breakaway faction of the PAP. It would have won the next elections and formed the government had not for a wave of arrests under "Operation Coldstore" in 1963 which decimated their ranks and saw key leaders like Dr Lim detained without trial. The weakened Barisan Sosialist was led by another medical doctor Dr Lee Siew Choh, who made the fatal error of boycotting the general elections in 1968 which allowed the PAP to make a clean sweep. There would be no opposition MPs in parliament 13 years later in 1981 when the late opposition scion J.B. Jeyaretnam won a seat in the Anson by-election. Barisan Sosialist was merged with the Workers' Party in 1988. Towards the end of his speech, Dr Lim took a dig at the PAP leaders for rewarding themselves with exorbitant salaries to keep their "integrity": "In Singapore we have a situation where the government leaders said they have integrity that has to be sustained by the highest pay in the world but yet they demand from political opponents and detainees an integrity that has to be sustained by the longest imprisonment in the world. These two types of integrity – to compare them is to compare heaven and earth. Why should anybody has to sacrifice so much just to sustain his integrity and his beliefs? And the government have to reward themselves with so much high pay. This is the immorality of the political situation in Singapore today." Singapore's leaders are the highest paid in the world. Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong was paid more than 5 times the annual salary of U.S. President Barack Obama. Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew claimed lately that he would have earned "much more" had he not been a minister. Dr Lim would have gladly served the people of Singapore for a pittance. It is a pity that he spent the best years of his life in imprisonment, sometimes under solitary confinement. Singapore Law Minister told an American audience two weeks ago that the ISA is not abused in Singapore and there are "proper" procedures in place to safeguard the welfare and rights of the detainees. They would have a radical change of impression had they listened to Dr Lim's speech last Saturday. Watch a video recording of Dr Lim's speech here  Read More →