Malaysiakini a testament to need for true journalism
YOURSAY | ‘Steven, take your foot off the pedal but stay in the vehicle’.
Steven Gan steps down as Malaysiakini editor-in-chief
David Dass: Thank you Steven Gan and Premesh Chandran. You created something special and leave a great legacy. It is sometimes difficult if not impossible to measure the impact of independent voices like Malaysiakini.
But like ripples in a lake caused by the throw of a stone, the independent voices of Malaysians will be heard and eventually make an impact.
Best wishes to both of you. Look after your health. And as others have said - you may take your foot off the pedal but stay in the vehicle! The steadying hand of wisdom is always useful.
Magnanimous46: Thanks, Steven Gan. Starting from its humble beginning, you and your team have taken Malaysiakini to a position of envy in the media industry that will not be easily equalled by many.
You have given us a voice to give encouragement and praise or rebuke and condemnation where it is due and more importantly as the voice of the right-thinking in an environment of political chicanery of corruption, abuse, racism, and bigotry that has ruined the nation and brought it to stagnation, bringing untold hardship to those in the medium and lower income sector.
Personally, I have great respect for you as a patriotic person of principle prepared to put yourself on the line and face the wrath of the powers that be with your editorial policy of speaking truth to power.
In fact, I admired your journalistic qualities as early as the early 1990s in your effort at reviving The Sun newspaper where, if not mistaken, you were peddling one-for-one subscriptions.
Being in human resources, I remember placing 10 subscriptions for our senior management not only in support of The Sun but also because of your principled editorial stand even then.
Flag bearer R Nadeswaran was then Utusan’s leader doing what he does best - even then flushing out the crooks. It is also this noble journalistic ethics that pervades Malaysiakini that encouraged me to join the Malaysiakini family on my retirement in 2006. I have not looked back ever since. It has grown on me.
Thank you, sir, most of all for the monumental role of Malaysiakini that I attribute to the positive changes that have steadily grown in our political landscape over the past decade. I trust the former CEO Premesh Chandran and you will be there on the board as a guiding light for your new team.
JW: To me, you are easily the best journalist in Malaysia of all time. You know what real journalism is about, and you have kept faith in it.
By doing that, you have managed to get many Malaysians to approach news and the whole journalism enterprise in a direction that was much needed when Malaysiakini started and still is much needed today.
And the success of Malaysiakini today is a testament that people do need and want real journalism, the kind you and your team have doggedly provided.
No amount of thanks can cover all that you, Gan, have brought to journalism and to Malaysia.
Back in the late 1990s, when Gan and Premesh started Malaysiakini, the Malaysian media were called mainstream media, which was nothing more than BN-government or BN-PM-said-so journalism.
The few journalists who knew better like Gan typically had to leave Malaysia for other countries to hold on to their faith in true journalism. It was truly wonderful that Gan still wanted to return to Malaysia to practice the craft, and, happily for him and all Malaysians, Gan and his team have succeeded very well.
But, so far, the success has not swollen Gan’s head and got him to stray from true journalism given the commercialism and the PR-paid kind of journalism that has come to characterise whatever remains of the mainstream media that has become more corporate said-so journalism than government-said-so lately.
It is very encouraging to hear Gan say: “There are many capable men and women in Malaysiakini whom I have full confidence in taking the organisation to the next level.” This, surely, is a testament to his ability to pass on his idea of true journalism.
This is no easy feat given that, as an academic, I have come across far too many students who have had no issue with corporations, driven by commercialism, calling the shots in news reporting over the last 10 years or so.
And mainstream corporate news media have hardly any qualms to run stories straight out of PR news releases. And so, it is great to hear Gan is not just passing the torch of true journalism to the younger generations, but he also has confidence in them to take it to the next level.
I wish you, Gan, all the very best in the next journey of your life when you step down from your current role in Malaysiakini. May your future be showered with as many successes as you have had with Malaysiakini. All the best.
Guglu: Thank you, Gan. When I first subscribed to Malaysiakini, I thought I was entering a lion’s den. I would be mauled by other commentators and heavily censored by its editors.
Scarecrow, Traveloka WINNING, and I are not typical Malaysiakini readers. Our views are always the opposite of others, and not in line with Malaysiakini’s leaning. But in general, Malaysiakini has been fair to us, protective even, censoring those who cursed and swore at us.
We all love this country and want it to be successful, even though we are looking at it from different prisms. We have different views not because we hate each other but because we want to present the best options, according to our views, to solve the country’s problems.
Malaysiakini has given us the space to do that, to let out our anger and disappointment, and to celebrate our success. Thanks.
Vijay47: “It was declared a traitor by one prime minister and sued by another. It faced debilitating cyber-attacks, got kicked out of press conferences many times, and was raided by the police at least five times.”
Quite an enviable record, Steven!
Yes, you and Malaysiakini were a right royal pain in many a politician’s bottom yet the one they all turned to for coverage since they knew that being featured in Malaysiakini gave them some measure of credibility.
Best wishes to you, Steven – The King is dead, Long Live the King. Malaysiakini without Steven Gan is like nasi lemak without ikan bilis sambal. But the taste lives on!
YOURSAY | ‘Steven, take your foot off the pedal but stay in the vehicle’.
Steven Gan steps down as Malaysiakini editor-in-chief
David Dass: Thank you Steven Gan and Premesh Chandran. You created something special and leave a great legacy. It is sometimes difficult if not impossible to measure the impact of independent voices like Malaysiakini.
But like ripples in a lake caused by the throw of a stone, the independent voices of Malaysians will be heard and eventually make an impact.
Best wishes to both of you. Look after your health. And as others have said - you may take your foot off the pedal but stay in the vehicle! The steadying hand of wisdom is always useful.
Magnanimous46: Thanks, Steven Gan. Starting from its humble beginning, you and your team have taken Malaysiakini to a position of envy in the media industry that will not be easily equalled by many.
You have given us a voice to give encouragement and praise or rebuke and condemnation where it is due and more importantly as the voice of the right-thinking in an environment of political chicanery of corruption, abuse, racism, and bigotry that has ruined the nation and brought it to stagnation, bringing untold hardship to those in the medium and lower income sector.
Personally, I have great respect for you as a patriotic person of principle prepared to put yourself on the line and face the wrath of the powers that be with your editorial policy of speaking truth to power.
In fact, I admired your journalistic qualities as early as the early 1990s in your effort at reviving The Sun newspaper where, if not mistaken, you were peddling one-for-one subscriptions.
Being in human resources, I remember placing 10 subscriptions for our senior management not only in support of The Sun but also because of your principled editorial stand even then.
Flag bearer R Nadeswaran was then Utusan’s leader doing what he does best - even then flushing out the crooks. It is also this noble journalistic ethics that pervades Malaysiakini that encouraged me to join the Malaysiakini family on my retirement in 2006. I have not looked back ever since. It has grown on me.
Thank you, sir, most of all for the monumental role of Malaysiakini that I attribute to the positive changes that have steadily grown in our political landscape over the past decade. I trust the former CEO Premesh Chandran and you will be there on the board as a guiding light for your new team.
JW: To me, you are easily the best journalist in Malaysia of all time. You know what real journalism is about, and you have kept faith in it.
By doing that, you have managed to get many Malaysians to approach news and the whole journalism enterprise in a direction that was much needed when Malaysiakini started and still is much needed today.
And the success of Malaysiakini today is a testament that people do need and want real journalism, the kind you and your team have doggedly provided.
No amount of thanks can cover all that you, Gan, have brought to journalism and to Malaysia.
Back in the late 1990s, when Gan and Premesh started Malaysiakini, the Malaysian media were called mainstream media, which was nothing more than BN-government or BN-PM-said-so journalism.
The few journalists who knew better like Gan typically had to leave Malaysia for other countries to hold on to their faith in true journalism. It was truly wonderful that Gan still wanted to return to Malaysia to practice the craft, and, happily for him and all Malaysians, Gan and his team have succeeded very well.
But, so far, the success has not swollen Gan’s head and got him to stray from true journalism given the commercialism and the PR-paid kind of journalism that has come to characterise whatever remains of the mainstream media that has become more corporate said-so journalism than government-said-so lately.
It is very encouraging to hear Gan say: “There are many capable men and women in Malaysiakini whom I have full confidence in taking the organisation to the next level.” This, surely, is a testament to his ability to pass on his idea of true journalism.
This is no easy feat given that, as an academic, I have come across far too many students who have had no issue with corporations, driven by commercialism, calling the shots in news reporting over the last 10 years or so.
And mainstream corporate news media have hardly any qualms to run stories straight out of PR news releases. And so, it is great to hear Gan is not just passing the torch of true journalism to the younger generations, but he also has confidence in them to take it to the next level.
I wish you, Gan, all the very best in the next journey of your life when you step down from your current role in Malaysiakini. May your future be showered with as many successes as you have had with Malaysiakini. All the best.
Guglu: Thank you, Gan. When I first subscribed to Malaysiakini, I thought I was entering a lion’s den. I would be mauled by other commentators and heavily censored by its editors.
Scarecrow, Traveloka WINNING, and I are not typical Malaysiakini readers. Our views are always the opposite of others, and not in line with Malaysiakini’s leaning. But in general, Malaysiakini has been fair to us, protective even, censoring those who cursed and swore at us.
We all love this country and want it to be successful, even though we are looking at it from different prisms. We have different views not because we hate each other but because we want to present the best options, according to our views, to solve the country’s problems.
Malaysiakini has given us the space to do that, to let out our anger and disappointment, and to celebrate our success. Thanks.
Vijay47: “It was declared a traitor by one prime minister and sued by another. It faced debilitating cyber-attacks, got kicked out of press conferences many times, and was raided by the police at least five times.”
Quite an enviable record, Steven!
Yes, you and Malaysiakini were a right royal pain in many a politician’s bottom yet the one they all turned to for coverage since they knew that being featured in Malaysiakini gave them some measure of credibility.
Best wishes to you, Steven – The King is dead, Long Live the King. Malaysiakini without Steven Gan is like nasi lemak without ikan bilis sambal. But the taste lives on!
There r NO true sayers in the 4th estate. Especially in the demoNcratic West.
ReplyDeleteFor been labelled as authoritarian, the Eastern socialist states' tight media control, for all their goods & bad, they r just the manifestations of their openly declared centralized governing system.
Yet, there r the hypocritical Western media bend on telling lies after lies just to - 1st, satisfying their indoctrinated superficial humanistic values. 2nd, bending to the will of their financial/political masters for continuing survival. They r doing that in openly known masqueraded parade of news freedom!
Malaysiakini is one of those cultivated western inclined propaganda mouthpiece. It has NO choice as it's major findings r coming from that notorious NED. Remaining truly neutral & impartial r totally against to NED core established motive.
The passing era of the two founding members is a long known secret that these two person have long toiled between true personal principle & survival of their hard found idea.
What kind of a new Malaysiakini after their leaving will be an educated guess.
Ain't they in the same league as Jacinda Ardern - leave bcoz the pressures r too great & harsh to face with personal ethical considrations against tremendous external influences pressing down on the wellfare of the moderate country she has led?
History will tell & judge!