Follow Up: Journalism in Malaysia

I apologise to delay this follow up post about my interesting experience with journalism in Malaysia. This is the reply given by their news editor:

I'm appalled at the media etiquette in Malaysia. Instead of apologising, he actually accused me of being an idiot? Fine, I accepted the fact I was an idiot not to have thought of idiots who would extract information from such an unreliable source. I won't take legal action since I've withdrawn my comment on the Facebook page where the journalist happily extracted it for her/his article without my consent. Honestly, using FB as a source of information for a national news article is like downgrading our knowledge of what truth is all about. Malaysians, beware of what you read!

Being Marlin of Finding Nemo

I had an interesting bantering with an old friends of mine from high school. I was a little taken aback on how some just couldn't see what many of my like-minded friends would have seen after this decade of globalisation. I, too, have come to a realisation how much my mentality had changed over the years, shaped by the travels and conversations with the global community due to my study requirement.

Source: http://soezooscope.files.wordpress.com/2013/04/nemo-1.jpg

Indeed, some people just can't see it at all. I don't blame them all together for not seeing it. Maybe less exposure to global community is equivalent to less understanding of global job market and its trend these days. Being in our comfort zone forever also brought us more disadvantages by blinding our eyes to see what's really the truth. I used to be in my comfort zone, until I decided to follow God's call to explore the deep waters and swim with the sharks. While writing this, I am reflecting on my life for the past 12 years since I left my family home to embrace my personal journey of young adulthood. And I would liken myself to Marlin in Finding Nemo for now. If not because of a changed circumstance, Marlin would not have embarked on a journey to find Nemo, and he wouldn't have met Dory, and every other sea creature who he spoke to and befriended. And he wouldn't be who he was by the time he returned home with Nemo (and Dory tagging along).

Let's go back to the bantering topic:

Source: Facebook page of JUICE Singapore

Quoting a friend's response to this picture: Why must fluency in Mandarin be important? Our national language is Bahasa Melayu, and the international language is English. Stupid racist people...

My response to this topic stands as my very personal opinion, and I don't wish to be quoted by any format of journalism, especially by The Star Malaysia. If I found my opinion being quoted by any journalist, I will take legal action this time. The Star Malaysia has a couple of journalists who aren't very ethical, so I am stating that I DON'T WANT to be quoted and I DO NOT GIVE CONSENT to be quoted by anyone.

Firstly, national language and internationally accepted languages are two different cases. For certain countries, their national language is also an internationally accepted language used for trading, e.g. English and Spanish. Thank God! Unfortunately, some countries would only have national language which is spoken mainly by that country, or maybe another two other neighbouring countries, e.g. Malay Language is mainly spoken in my home country, Malaysia, and other branches of Melanesia languages spoken in Indonesia and Brunei. Similar, yet different. It is natural to be fluent in the national language of our own countries, because we live in that environment since forever! If we're not, then perhaps we should take a look at how we perceive our own country. Honestly. One of the emerging economic giants is China. With a huge population, and the booming economy, Chinese from PRC are the global target of consumers. There is nothing racist about picking Mandarin as a foreign language.

Secondly, if I were to be an employer, my first thought when I need to employ new staffs is the ability to cater for both local communities and international working relations of my company. If I also have possibilities to collaborate with organisations in PRC, I'd look into employing people who could cater for the needs of my local community as well as my collaborators (or potential ones), which means ability to speak the language of my collaborators. If China is an emerging economic giant (which is already a fact readily accepted in the Western world), shouldn't I be equipping my organisation with employees who could readily speak Mandarin? I didn't see how important it was to be fluent in speaking Mandarin since I grew up speaking all three main languages in Malaysia fluently, until I started working as a marketing executive and my clients comprised of local community with a sprinkle of international walk-in customers. Despite the ability of local customers to speak English, but since their first language was either Mandarin or Malay, indeed, they prefer us to serve them with their preferred language. Many excellent service-based companies provide a preferred language option in their forms so that customers' needs could be fulfilled. There's nothing racist about requiring someone who speak Mandarin in the organisation. It only helps to improve the organisation's image of being global.

Thirdly, there are various definitions of "being fluent in so-and-so language". According to Oxford Dictionary:

fluent

Line breaks: flu¦ent

Pronunciation: /ˈfluːənt 

  

/

ADJECTIVE

1Able to express oneself easily and articulately:a fluent speaker and writer on technical subjects

1.1Able to speak or write a particular foreign language easily and accurately:she became fluent in French and German

1.2(Of a foreign language) spoken accurately and with facility:he spoke fluent Spanish

2Smoothly graceful and effortless:his style of play was fast and fluent

3Able to flow freely; fluid:a fluent discharge from the nose

It is a logic (unless you're some schizo dude who is illiterate), that the first definition is applicable to my statement here...

In this case, it is Mandarin. Sometimes, one is both a fluent speaker and writer in a subject (could be a technical subject, e.g. Science, or a language, e.g. Spanish). Or he/she could be only a fluent speaker, but read nothing of that language. For many years, I could only speak Mandarin fluently but read only very few words (e.g. my own name, the names of my immediate family members, big 大, small 小, middle 中, that's about it...). Of course, over the years, I found my special delight in learning languages, and now I could read Chinese (with slower speed) too. So, why not publish a job employment opportunity in a non-Chinese newspapers? Putting myself in the shoes of the employers, I would need workers who could converse fluently in the foreign languages of my collaborators to keep them happy and well-communicated with the things they need to know, and if the worker is unable to prepare the paperwork related to the project because of his/her inability to write in that language, I'm sure my company would have another worker whom I can distribute this task to. If I can afford it, I could send those paperwork (prepared firstly in English) to professional translators who would do the task properly and professionally. Honestly, no big deal if the company is established enough.

So now, if I recount my own language abilities, I speak and write fluently in English, Malay and Mandarin, able to hold rather fluent conversation in Cantonese. I picked up a bit of Spanish, Japanese and Korean along the way too. I guess I could consider myself a linguist. Perhaps one day I will improve the other three languages which I started to pick up as a young adult. I use my abilities to my own advantage, really. I know I could at least read scientific articles written by Chinese scientist published in Chinese journals because I could read it. I wouldn't worry buying a foreign product without English instructions because I can always decipher it as long as it is available in any of the other languages which I am fluent or semi-fluent in. Oh well...

My take home message for you guys out there are these:

• Why should you despise people who could converse fluently in another foreign language?
• Why should you place the "racist" label on those who require employees who are fluent in another foreign language?
• Are you sure you're not the one who is racist?

Source: http://cdn.memegenerator.net/instances/400x/43820342.jpg

It's not about calling potential employers "stupid racists" when they specifically looking for people who could speak these languages which would benefit their companies, it should be about US MAKING OURSELVES EMPLOYABLE if you are seeking for employment. C'mon, we're not living in stone age where the demand for workers is more than the job vacancies. You should know by now how competitive the job market is like out there.

Journalism in Malaysia

I have tonnes of friends, and some of them are worthy Malaysian journalists. However, this morning, I woke up with a message on my WhatsApp messenger informing me that my name and the comment I made on a viral video was quoted on The Star Malaysia news. A moment of fame, indeed, but I don't rejoice in it at all, because my consent was not asked. In fact, I was totally disgusted and horrified. You might think I made a big deal over a small matter, but looking at how degrading the morality of my own homeland is right now, it is time that we make a difference by being logical and objective about it. Protecting and defending what is wrong is so outdated and we should adapt a more transparent and radical attitude if we truly want to see change and transformation in the country. And oh, whining about those "issues" on Facebook statuses doesn't help much if we remain as the complaining citizens who do nothing else but to complain day and night.

Source: http://i.kinja-img.com/gawker-media/image/upload/s--o1VmQnph--/17ks7uyvm3198jpg.jpg

I can be open about what I think and I stand to be corrected if I am wrong, but I do not appreciate being named in news article if it weren't something worth mentioning, though I have nothing to hide, really. I find the experience of unprofessional journalist who didn't even bother to request for consent to quote my comment and my name in a news article prepared for the public utterly horrifying. I wrote to the Chief Editor and all other editors whose emails I could get hold of in order to raise the alert in that company of such non-existence consent/permission request. Chances are, they signed it off for publication because they thought their journalist in question had asked for consent, or worse still, they are not aware that asking for consent is logical and people of Malaysia have rights to remain anonymous in this kind of news.

I'm utterly disgraced and disappointed with the ethics of some journalists in Malaysia at the moment. Or at least, on this particular newspaper and its attitude on the rights of those whom they quoted. My opinions about this company will remain critical for a while, until I see improvement on their news.

Here's a copy of the email I sent to the Chief Editor of The Star Newspapers:

Dear Chief Editor and editors of The Star Malaysia, 

          With regards to the subject mentioned, I would like to request for official apologies and sound action taken from your company for using a previous comment I made on Facebook about this video without having your journalist, L. Suganya, asking my consent to use my comment prior to publishing the article. This is utterly unethical for a journalist and a national news channel who would (hopefully) like to report true public opinion on a piece of national news to not have the policy of first requesting for consent from whom she/he is quoting from. Besides unethical, it is very unprofessional. To my utter surprise and horror, it was not myself who found out about this as I am not residing in Malaysia at the moment but I was informed by a friend of mine that my name was mentioned in a news article of The Star.

          I feel insecure to freely comment on anything from now on if there is such unethical and unprofessional people working in this line of profession. Asking for consent from anyone wouldn't take her/him more than a minute, since she/he would have the link to the profile page of another person. Consent matters because we have rights to remain anonymous in this kind of article. Unless your company thinks that any Malaysian who voiced their opinion doesn't have right to decide whether or not they want to be in the news. I strongly suggest that you'd consider revamping your idea of what the rights of the public is, if your company does have such idea about us. The morality of your newspaper is subjected to my critical view of how unprofessional can your journalists be when it comes to personal consent on quoting people, and the images you used for your report, etc.

          I do not want to lose hope in my own country's national paper, but with these kind of news published, I can't help but to wonder aloud to you, dear Chief Editor. I do hope such thing do not repeat itself again, giving a bad name to Malaysian press in the international community. You probably already know that Malaysian press doesn't have a very good name in the international community anyway.

          I do hope that wise action and proper scrutiny of your news articles are done prior to publishing any form of news.

          All the best. 

          Thank you for your attention.

As We Entered the Mid of July...

I sometimes seemed to have neglected this blog. I'll try to update more frequently, but looking forward for the times I couldn't do so because I'm deep into my PhD work. I've been sick for the past one week and it had been a torture to miss going to the department every morning. Initially I thought it was mere upper respiratory tract infection, then I'd be up and running within two three days. Unfortunately, after being in bed for three days, it worsened where my nose was blocked and cough sounded horrifying. GP to the rescue indeed! I saw the GP on Friday, and the initial diagnosis is throat infection which didn't need any antibiotics. I did double-check with her to ensure it wasn't due to my previous history of acute sinusitis. Her reaction changed totally when I mentioned I had acute sinusitis and she went through my medical history to eventually decide to prescribe me with antibiotics. My GP is on maternity leave, so this lady GP is taking over her patients for the next 6 months. I have no idea why she had such a big change in her decision, but she said that it could be that my sinuses are infected and the coloured phlegm came from the sinus rather than the throat since my lungs are clear. Praise God! If not I'd be still half-dead rather than half-alive.

A friend of ours will be going on a pilgrimage to the Camino de Santiago de Compostela, so I plotted and planned with his girlfriend (also our friend) to give him a surprise farewell. I suddenly had the whim of wanting to bake, so I searched and found the butter cake recipe on Rasa Malaysia website. Made a few tweaks, including changing the usage of only AP flour to a 1:1 ratio of AP flour to self-raising flour, melted the butter slightly using the microwave for less than a minute then mixed with caster sugar by hand (since I didn't have an electric mixer), and accidentally added the milk before I mixed in the flour instead of after.. It all went well and my friends loved the fluffiness of the cake, which I slathered with Nutella on top to cover the imperfections.

Speaking of surprises... This was one of the tinier ones.. Ewa and I planned that somehow they would come over and I shall take the cake out. Simple surprise. Matteo and another friend were to come earlier to my place, and they were supposed to "happen to be there" when Ewa and Pol turned up. It happened so the other friend couldn't make it, so it was just Matteo. It all worked out well. Everyone was happy and Pol was delighted to have the cake.

So all the best in his pilgrimage of the Way of St. James! Mission accomplished.

Looking forward to watch finals of World Cup 2014 later, and yeah, to go back to work on Monday!!!

From left: Yours truly, Pol and Matteo; far right Ewa.

Chronicles of the Wimpy Scientist: Big Brains or Big Data??

Chronicles of the Wimpy Scientist: Big Brains or Big Data??: My team and I have worked for the past few months to gather the best speakers and promote this upcoming conference (Friday, 27 June 2014...

Korean Lunch

Overcoming the fear to tell the "Man Above" of my thoughts though he doesn't quite share my passion to look into a more industrial-forensic-ish route of PhD project deserves a reward. For a while, I forgot the need to reward myself when I achieve a milestone, no matter how insignificant it seems to others. I need to start this once again. A proper sorting out of my messed up life I'd say. I ain't proud of the condition of my room. My coach used to tell me that the condition of my room/place I live tells the condition of my heart. Rather messed up state of heart I'd say. So, work out from the inside to the outside.

Step 1: Reward myself for facing him despite the fear. Walked into the Korean restaurant I passed by many times. Got a good lunch. Yay.

More steps to follow.

Homeless Drunk

As I'm invigilating in the college for an undergrad who is sitting for his final paper, I began thinking about what I experienced yesterday.

I had a long day. Upon saying goodbye to Pete who was flying home to Malta, I dropped by Sainsbury's for a much-needed food shopping. After that, I walked to the nearest bus stop to wait for the bus home. Usually there would be many people waiting for bus, but yesterday there was just me (and my groceries).

Then came a man, who from afar, I could hear him cursing at the passersby, angry and drunk. I was afraid but I remained there. Before he reached the bus stop, I muttered a prayer to Jesus asking Him to send the angels to protect me from harm. When he came near, and looked at me, suddenly he coughed so much so I offered him some apple juice which I bought from the store.

I knew how dangerous it was for me to speak to a homeless drunk who definitely didn't smell like fresh flowers but of stale beer, but the offer of fruit juice actually calmed him down from angrily shouting man to a very very sad person. I thought he wanted money so I told him I didn't have spare change, only fruit juice to offer, but he said he didn't want any. He kept reaching out his hand to me. When some people passed by and tried to shoo him away, he gave the excuse that he was waiting for a bus to them. Thank God for these people who were worried for my safety. For some reason unknown to myself, I reached out for his hand and gave a handshake while saying "God bless you!" My heart was filled with sadness when I looked at him. I asked if he has a place to stay and he said sometimes he sleeps at the park but last night he'd be seeing some friends. I asked about his family and he said he has a mother whom he hasn't seen for years. I told him to go for a visit. I had a feeling that nobody had spoken to him for a long time.

When my bus came and I said goodbye, I did wonder for a moment if I had represented Christ properly. I saw Jesus' sorrowful eyes in this man. I pray that this homeless guy will try to stay sober in future.