COMMENT I am not a journalist, although some early feedback I received about my writing style was from the chairperson of my doctoral committee who said, “You write like a journalist.” When I asked, is there anything wrong with that, he replied in the negative. I suppose I use a storytelling form of writing, and I enjoy locating what I write in truth matters, defined as the objective reality of local matters.
Next, I was also ‘em-couraged’ by another good friend, a professor and an Old Putera (OP, a graduate of the Royal Military College) to seriously consider writing my views and opinions for public consumption in the mid-1990s. Yes, I spelt the word differently to make my point that leading with courage of convictions requires knowledge about truths and not simply some kind of emotional motivation. The ‘em’ emphasises putting in courage.
I followed Jomo KS’s advice and started writing regularly, first in the New Straits Times and then with Malaysiakini .
This book is really a compilation of my articles related to the so-called ‘Allah issue’ and other analogous issues to good governance in Malaysia.
My central thesis is that we – the Seventh Estate or the citizens of the nation state or the rakyat – must get involved in the politics of all decision-making if we are serious about wanting to evolve into a democratic society driven by knowledge and good values, one which accords full dignity and the opportunity to live a life of destiny in this country of our birth.
Actually we all need more than basic courage to write in any Malaysian mainstream media environment. We need not just brains and subject matter knowledge but must also fully understand all the skills of the politics of communication management.
Rather unfortunately, too, most journalists today do not know the difference between some of the very basic concepts which define today’s information era: data, information, knowledge and wisdom. Such a hierarchy of truth matters defines that all information acquired must lead to knowing more about the content being studied, and then accurately directing them towards problem-solving using local wisdom about reality.
In my many years of writing outside the mainstream media, I have met and spoken with many editors. Too often they too do not appear to know the difference between the same concepts defining the hierarchy of truth matters. Most text is often taken out of context, or not well located within the context to develop knowledge with the information. If information does not inform, then what else is it?
The result: the truths are bastardised or, worse still, simply not well-reported or abused as informative facts.
Media licensing
Many media licences are given by the government, but without transparency, and very often only to their cronies in the power hierarchy. Non-supporters of the government’s political philosophy are not given licences. The court decision about the Malaysiakini application is a case in point.
Those rejected are usually labelled ‘opposition supporters’. But this logic overlooks the fact that differences of opinion are an integral part and parcel of any democracy. These media licences are instead part of a framework of power and control of the media and regulations to stem the free flow of information in a modernising world. Non-mainstream media on the Internet are not licensed and still enjoy free space for expression under the Multimedia Super Corridor (MSC) Bill of Guarantees.
In most developed economies the media are considered the fourth estate or the fourth arm of governance after the legislative, executive and judicial arms. Such media have true freedom and adhere to standards of transparency, openness and accountability, and are held responsible for reporting truthfully based on facts and evidence, not just conjecture or guesswork.
Is the media the fifth estate in Malaysia?
In Malaysia, public servants decide who should and should not get a printing and publishing licence. In fact they extend this same authority even to ‘ban’ religious or faith words as well, which the federal constitution clearly states are within the jurisdiction of the respective religious authorities.
Therefore, on the ‘Allah’ case review Justice Lau Bee Lan’s High Court decision on the Herald ’s use of the word stands as an antithesis to this false assumption by the public service about their powers and authority. That decision has, for now, also been recently overturned by the Federal Court.
Nevertheless, in the Malaysiakini case, the judiciary decided in favour of the litigant against the so-called authority of the government of the day, and especially that of the home affairs minister, in interpreting rights and privileges of awarding printing and publishing licences.
The Kuala Lumpur High Court’s Appellate and Special Powers division has quashed the Home Ministry’s decision not to grant a publishing permit to Mkini Dotcom Sdn Bhd, which operates the Malaysiakini news portal.
Premised on the above two cases, I would argue that in Malaysia the public service, which I was part of for 32 years, is the real fourth estate. They have more authority and power to decide about the media and its licence to express views freely. The media therefore become the fifth estate, as now defined by a new fourth estate, even overruling one member of the original three arms of governance, the judiciary.
Malaysiakini has still not been granted a licence for its print version. So the media as the fifth estate remains, at least in Malaysia.
My conclusion is that it is time for more licences to be issued to non-partisan players in the market and it is time for many flowers to bloom in the Malaysian media, so that our vision and dream of becoming a developed society by 2020 can be realised. There is no developed country which does not have true and real freedom of the press.
The sixth and seventh estates
The only way forward for this country is for all of us, as citizens, to become active in our different non-governmental organisations and to articulate the values we hold and cherish. That is our freedom of expression.
We, the citizens, in our individual capacities are also the defining votes on the kind and quality of democracy we want to usher in this nation state. We cannot simply sit back and let others rule, especially when much of it is rule by law and not rule of law. We, as citizens, must begin to do our small bit in serving to lead if we want to usher in real and true democratic values in this nation we love. May democracy reign in Malaysia by 2020.
My columns
I have titled my first publication ‘Alamak! All in Gods Name’. It is dedicated to my friends of intake 1965 who call ourselves El Putera, standing for Enam Lima Putera. We are proud graduates of the then Federal Military College (and now the RMC). Sorry guys, but the college is no more what we knew it to be. It is today a shadow of what it used to be in every aspect of life.
But, quite honestly, before we seek to transform the RMC, maybe we need to first reform the national discourse about the meaning of citizenship. This is my simple and small contribution as I have pulled out of my more than 500 Malaysiakini columns some 40 which deal with the entire Allah debate and narrative.
What is telling to me about this discourse or conversation is that it is not even that yet. It is still in many minds and hearts, the use of the name of the almighty but to speak about those who are mighty in this small country of ours.
I therefore pun on the Malay word Alamak, which is really an exclamation based on two composite words, ‘Allah’ and ‘mother’, to capture our lack of discourse or how we reduce and make the almighty a means for us to achieve our methods of interpretation and fight over who can and cannot use the word. I can only assume that God Almighty looks down at us and can only smile at our silliness.
Please enjoy reading it and I look forward to feedback and some serious conversations while I continue to have life and breath. God bless.
These are excepts to the preface of ‘Alamak! All in God\’s Name’. Author KJ John cordially invites you to the book launch at 5pm on Tuesday April 7, 2015 at the Banquet Hall, Royal Lake Club, Kuala Lumpur.
