NST turns 180, the Tun reaches a century, and Media Council, 50 years in the making, names founding members

Kuala Lumpur, 15 July: Most of the founding members of the Malaysian Media Council, who were officially named today, were very little when the first call to set up the body was made 50 years ago. It has been a long journey.

The 12 appointees on the founding MMC board represent three categories: 1. Media Owners: Phyllis Wong (Utusan Borneo), James Sarda (Sabah Publishing House), Premesh Chandran (Malaysiakini), and Ashwad Ismail (Astro); 2. Media Professionals: Teh Athira (NUJ), Radzi Razak (Gerakan Media Merdeka), Ronnie Teo (Kuching Journalists Association) and Muthameez Manan (Tamil Media Assocation); and 3. Public Interest Representatives: Gayathry Venkiteswaran (University of Nothingham, Malaysia), Celine Lim (SAVE Rivers), Terence Ooi (Wiki Impact) and Azmyl Yunor (Sunway University). 

The government may have two reps on board but Fahmni Fadzil, the Comms minister, has assured the government does not intend to influence the running of the Council in any way. Mmm … (MMM, by the way, is the Council’s Malay abbreviation, to mean Majlis Media Malaysia). 

Kudos to Fahmi for succeeding where all his successors had failed. But let’s not forget, we owe a debt of gratitude to the pioneers who had made the call for the Council starting from 1973. I hope the first AGM in November will identify these pioneers and pay tribute to them. 

I was involved in some discussions previous governments had held with editors and journalists on the proposed Council but I was never a major player. A Kadir Jasin was. Arwah Pak Non, especially. Possibly, my single most important contribution to the process, if I may say so myself, was to shoot down a proposal to have a former Judge to lead the MMC. 

I’ve always taken the position that the Media Council should be led by a journalist. 

Read also my previous postings on the Council: Blog Alliance opposes media council (11 Nov 2008); Why, a journalist should lead the Media Council, of course! (29 May 2019). 

 

** Tun Mahathir Mohamad turned a hundred on 10 July. My Abah would have hit a century, too, if he had stayed alive. He died young, in his 70s. Happy birthday, Tun, moga sihat sihat sihat dan dilindungiNya selalu. All of us owe some form of gratitude or other to the Old Man and the policies, programs and prosperity he brought this nation, especially during his 22-year tenure. 

 

*** The New Straits Times was already 139 years old when I joined the Business Times, then the only financial daily in this country, in 1984. Today it celebrated its 180th anniversary and I savoured the day by buying a copy of the newspaper at Bangsar Village. So many great memories with so many great people, some are dead and some are living (leaving?). 

I was at Balai Berita for 21 years and was editor of two of its newspapers - BT (1998 to 2001) and the Malay Mail (2001-2006). I was also engaged in a five-year legal battle with NST and its five top executives from 2007 (it was a world’s first between a media company and a blogger, so we somehow created history together there!) but even then I’ve maintained great ties with many journalists and editors from that great place.

May the Old Lady of Jalan Riong rule for many years to come …