Why New Bernama Chair S Appointment Feels Like Betrayal

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Newspapers, those worthy of their calling, print and share news and stories. Here is one such story from 1896: the kidnapping of Dr Sun Yat Sen in London.
It is a story remembered by millions of Chinese in both the PRC and Taiwan, where he is still revered and honoured as the Father of the Chinese People.
Sun was a kindly man, a Christian and a trained doctor. His revolutionary work to overthrow the Manchu Qing Dynasty and rejuvenate China by uplifting the common people brought him to the attention of the Qing officials.
He fled to avoid capture and after many an arduous journey, found himself in London in 1896.
He caught up with his old friends, including one Sir James Cantlie, a doctor and missionary who trained him to qualify as a doctor in Canton. Cantlie and his kindly wife helped Sun find lodgings and provided him with all means of assistance to help him settle down.
His lodgings were not far from where the Qing Embassy was housed.
One morning, as he was walking towards the home of the Cantlies, he was tricked and shoved into the Qing Legation by three agents: the first agent engaged him in conversation, the second invited him for some “yamcha”, and the third muscled him past the door of the Qing Embassy.
Poor Sun was kidnapped and locked away!
The Qing officials planned to ship him back to China to face torture and eventual execution. Cantlie got word of the plot and contacted his friends at The Times newspaper but they showed a disgraceful lack of interest, saying they did not want any incident with China and that the Chinese sort out themselves. Sound familiar?
Cantlie, ever the ‘Good Samaritan’, lobbied Whitehall, and contacted Scotland Yard and the Foreign Office of the Empire that ruled the waves. He even applied to a judge for a writ of habeas corpus, but all to no avail. Meanwhile, the prisoner was getting desperate by the hour. But Cantlie had one last trick up his sleeve.
He contacted The Globe, a fierce rival of The Times. Their headlines screamed: “Startling Story! Conspirator Kidnapped in London! Imprisonment in the Chinese Embassy!”.
Accompanied by an inspector and a Foreign Office official, Cantlie knocked on the embassy door. To save face, Sun was thrown out of the back door.
The course of world history was altered by a newspaper whose editorial team had a moral conscience on top of knowing a real story from a fake one.
Of course, the newspaper industry is a business but it has a duty to all of us, the readership. Without us, they would be like dogs barking at the moon.
Power of newspapers
In more recent times, newspapers, including those of the so-called “banana republics” of Central America, have issued copies with a blank cover page to protest being bullied into printing news that is an affront to truth and decency. The blank page also shows their moral fibre and their regard and respect for their readership.
Clearly, newspapers have the power to alter history, if not steer it in the direction of truth and decency. Their fair (not necessarily the whole truth) reportage elicits views, opinions, insights, suggestions, and comments from readers. In short, they allow a nation to talk freely and respectfully to itself like no other medium.
But in the wrong hands, this powerful medium becomes a tool of shameful propaganda that allows an unjust government to talk down to us or allow vested interests to pull the wool over our eyes. Or worse still, cover the ruinous wrong-doings of the rich and the powerful without being checked.
I am talking of The Star and those of its ilk.
At a certain point, The Star itself became the story. Imagine! Their pandering and their duplicity became so obvious to the point they became the butt of many jokes and wisecracks including this: the only truth you can find in The Star is found in their obituary columns.
Yes, you cannot spin or spiel Death. But everything else boleh lah - elections, 1MDB, GLCs, the opposition, Parliament, race relations, religious tolerance, education… you name it.
No surprise that its readership has been decimated to the point of being nothing more than a social magazine masquerading as a newspaper.
They have long ceased to be the voice of conscience, the call for decency, the appeal for fairness, and the cry for justice. And that is because they chose to consciously and skillfully become an expert at that sordid business of “playing the game”.
Given all this, it’s outrageous to appoint former Star Media Group CEO Wong Chun Wai as the chairperson of Bernama.
Fahmi Fadzil, the communications and digital minister, is a young first-term minister. I suspect he has been manipulated by those who know what “playing the game” is all about.
Newly appointed Bernama chairperson Wong Chun WaiThose who stood in the rain and sun, who marched the hot streets with Bersih, and braved arrest supporting Reformasi in every possible way deserve better, Fahmi!
The newly appointed chairperson of Bernama should take a good hard look at his conscience for accepting this position. Most Malaysians will want him to resign so that someone who is better qualified from the mainstream or alternative media can take his place. - Mkini
MURALE PILLAI is a former planter and now runs a logistics firm.
The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of MMKtT.

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