Monday, 29 September 2008

TIMELY MOVE TO GET SAMAD ISMAIL PRESS FOUNDATION MOVING


A 1971 photograph, showing a young A. samad Said (striped shirt and now Dato')presiding over a team of sub-editors at Berita Harian editorial office, Balai Berita.

2008/09/29

Plan to set up A. Samad Ismail Press Foundation
BERNAMA

KUALA LUMPUR, MON:

The Press Forum of Asia (PFA) is planning to set up the A. Samad Ismail Press Foundation and Academy in honour of the late Tan Sri Abdul Samad Ismail, the doyen of Malaysian journalism.

PFA’s representative Datuk Ahmad Abdul Talib said the body, among others, would study the achievement and direction of the media industry todate and the impact on society and government.

“The study will be carried out by PFA members, media industry leaders and organisations,” he told a news conference on the setting up of the foundation and academy, here today.

He also said that PFA needed the cooperation from media organisations to put in place a strong structure for the proposed organisation.

Ahmad said that through the A. Samad Ismail Press Foundation and Academy, serving journalists would be able to widen their knowledge on the ever-changing and challenging industry.

“The academy will also conduct short-term courses on current issues,” he said, adding that members of the media could share their views and ideas on the foundation by contacting him through email at “ahmad@ahmadtalib.org” or

“ahmadt51@gmail.com”. Abdul Samad or better known as “Pak Samad”, the national journalism laureate and freedom fighter, died on Sept 4 at the age of 84.

He began his journalism career as a reporter with Utusan Melayu in 1940, and is synonymous with the history of the profession in the country. (NST Online 29 Sept 08)

Comment
Timely indeed. There are abled journalists, ex-journalists and academicians who will support the move. Presumably the Malaysian Press Institute should also initiate such move.I, for one, was lucky enough to have served under him in late 1971. He was the Editor of Berita Harian, with A. Samad Said as the Chief Sub and second-in-command. And then there were Shukor Harun, Mali, Salim Kajai, Chew and Shukor Rahman, working together around a horse shoe-shaped table.

I could not help but remember how journalist Zainuddin Bendahara came knocking at my door in Taman Universiti, Petaling Jaya, one evening, conveying Samad Ismalil's message requesting me to see him the next for an interview. This was in return to my phone call to the editor a few days back, requesting for an interview for a position as a reporter with Berita Harian.
Posted by at

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)

LinkWithin

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...

MUST-READ BLOGS

REFLECTIONS

SO THEY SAY...

"A.F.Yassin dalam cerpenya "Dendam" berjaya menghidupkan ceritanya dalam bahasa yang berjiwa; sesuai dengan pertentangan-pertentangan yang dialami oleh Salim atau oleh Yanti sendiri. "Plotnya bersifat sorot pergi sebagai satu gaya untuk mengembangkan kisah pada satu detik tetapi menghimbau kisah itu kepada kisah lampau dan juga kisah akan datang. Latarnya di Indonesia. Cerpen ini hidup kerana tidak dibiar berkisar di luar persoalan. Olahan cerpen bepusar keseluruhannya pada watak Yanti..." (Dato' Shahnon Ahmad, Mingguan Malaysia, 14 November 1976.)



" The former editor of a publishing house, A.F.Yassin, recently put out Sembang Sastera: Bersama Orang Persuratan (Fajar Bakti, 1998,310 pages), in which he talks to 64 Malay writers and literary activists of varying stature, who muse on their lives and what they have been up to. Chatty. Frank, nostalgic, irreverent, these conversations are light, in response to A.F.Yassin’s equally casual probing. His target is largely a small and shrinking group of people aged around 60 and above, loyal supporters of the Jawi-scripted Utusan Zaman, in which most of these Sembang-Sembang first appeared.



"Now that these Sembang-Sembang have been romanised, and packed in a handsome hardcover book, more readers , especially literary researchers, local and foreign, can be expected to benefit from them. Of course, the information ranges from the revealing to the trivial, but the book is pertinent as it provides insight on what went on in the world of Malay letters.



"…Sembang Satera is invaluable, especially to students of contemporary Malay literature, because it provides a cauldron of tidbits, with which to spice up the perennially long-overdue assignment.” - (Zakaria Ali, "Notes on Local Literature, fortnightly with Zakaria Ali, New Straits Times, 27 January, 1999."



"Yassin merupakan penulis yang berilmu dalam dua bidang dan seterusnya melibatkan diri dalam tiga dimensi. Bidang-bidang keilmuan dan keahliannya ialah komunikasi dan sastera, sementara kegiatannya dalam bidang penulisan kreatif dan deskriptif dan serentak dengan itu, turut kreatif dalam penghasilan dan penerbitan buku sesuai dengan profesion terkininya." (Asri Affandi, Mingguan Malaysia, 27 Disember 1987.)



"A.F.Yassin dalam bukunya Etika dan Wartawan berpendapat, pemberitaan akhbar di negara ini boleh dikatakan hanya berpandu kepada etika sejagat dan norma serta kebiasaan hidup masyarakat majmuk. Ketiadaan kod etika kewartawanan juga seperti yang ditekan oleh A. Samad Said telah menjadikan akhbar mengamalkan dasar swaying with the wind, bukan merupakan agent of change, serta cenderung menyuarakan dasar dan strategi pihak penerbit suratkabar itu sendiri." (Harakah, 31 Mei 1993.)

Tidak tahu kenapa dia meninggalkan lapangan guru dalam tahun 1962 kemudian sanggup pula menjadi seorang Juruteknik di sebuah kilang tekstil di Johor Bahru. Apakah dia memikirkan kurangnya anak Bumiputra berminat dalam lapangan teknikal atau kerana mula nampak bintangnya lebih mengerdip jika dia meninggalkan lapangan guru?

Yang ternyata sewaktu berada di Textile Corporation of Malaya Berhad Johor Bahru, dia telah dapat mengikuti latihan teknikal di Nagoya, Jepun selama enam bulan dalam tahun 1969. Di Jepun dia baru dapat melihat perbezaan zikap dan tingkah laku manusia pekerja Jepun dengan bangsanya sendiri. Setelah menimba pengalaman di Jepun, tercetus pula keinginannya untuk menulis rencana bersirinya di Utusan Malaysia, Utusan Zaman dan Mingguan Malaysia. Semuanya menceritakan pengalamannya di Jepun.

Kemampuan menulis telah meransangnya menapak ke bidang kerja yang lain. Dia menjadi Penyunting Berita Harian dalam tahun 1971. Semasa di New Straits Times Press (M) Bhd., dia banyak pula menghasilkan cerpen. Dia terus melanjutkan penulisan fiksyen apabila dilantik menjadi Penolong Editor dan kemudiannya meningkat sebagai Editor majalah Dewan Masyarakat.

Melihat kemampuannya menulis artikel dan cerpen di tengah-tengah kesibukannya sebagi seorang Editor, jelaslah kepada kita bahawa seorang editor yang sibuk tidak semestinya tidak boleh menulis. Pokoknya dia tidak mengenal erti kelelahan dan kesibukan bila dia diransang untuk menulis. ("Karyawan Bulan Ini", Dewan Sastera, Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka, Kuala Lumpur, Mac 1983).