Star : Pak Samad: Build up trust
Uncle Yap
22 Feb 2006
Pak Samad: Build up trust
By FLORENCE A. SAMY
PETALING JAYA: Keep good ties with the leaders but there is no need to
be overcautious, so says veteran journalist Tan Sri Abdul Samad Ismail
to newspapers.
And the law requiring a permit to print a newspaper should no longer
be necessary, said the newsman fondly known as Pak Samad.
“It's not necessary to have the Act (Printing Presses & Publications
Act 1984) anymore,” he said at his house yesterday. “No one in his
sane mind will condemn the Government.
“You should just write what you think is fit to be published. Don't
wait for the Government to signal first.
“I never listen to government signals, but then again I was close to
the top leaders. The media must establish trust and confidence with
the top leaders so that they don't suspect you of doing anything
against them.”
Samad, 82, said newspapers practised self-censorship, sometimes too
much for their own good.
“Sometimes people are afraid of their own shadows. They build phantoms
of their own and impose their own rules but sometimes it is
unfounded.”
“In my experience, I bantai aje (I just write) but I was also close to
the top people and helped them as well.”
He said there was no such thing as press freedom, then and now.
“There is press freedom to publish but there is no press freedom to
write anything according to your whims and fancies without the
consideration of public order,” he said.
Samad's illustrious career in journalism began when he joined Utusan
Melayu in Singapore in 1941. Between 1941 and 1944, he was the
assistant editor of Utusan Warta Malaya (Berita Malai). He was made
editor in 1945.
In 1946, he rejoined Utusan Melayu as assistant editor and was
appointed its deputy editor from 1953 to 1958. He became a Berita
Harian editor in 1958.
He was later the managing editor and deputy editor-in-chief with the
New Straits Times until 1976 when he was detained under the Internal
Security Act.
Upon his release, he was made editorial adviser of the New Straits
Times Press Bhd in the 1980s and became editorial consultant in 2000
for a year.
Information Minister Datuk Zainuddin Maidin, who paid a courtesy call
on Samad at his house yesterday, said he wanted to thank the veteran
journalist for his contributions to the field.
“He made Utusan Melayu (Utusan Malaysia) into a distinguished
journalistic institute. Although I have never worked directly with
him, the fighting spirit that he pioneered is in me and has helped
shape my personality and thinking when looking at problems facing the
nation,” said the former Utusan Malaysia editor-in-chief.
Zainuddin said after independence, Samad removed elements of
colonisation from the Straits Times to make it an English newspaper
responsible for expanding the Malaysian nationalistic way of thinking.
“Regardless of what people think about Pak Samad's political stand, he
is still a renowned journalist and nationalist with great
contributions,” he said.
*************From Uncle Yap**************
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