As I write this, the nation celebrates the 50th year of the demise of an icon. In 2021, I wrote an essay titled “P Ramlee: The Getaran of the Modern Malay Hikayat Lives on.” But this does not seem to be of Malay journalism or whatever that journalism can relate to the nation’s past or present. The rhetoric goes on, without commitment. But P. Ramlee certainly was aware of the power of the press. In the decade of the 1950s, as narrated by Sasterawan Negara Abdullah Hussein, his biographer, the maestro established the Penerbitan P. Ramlee, publishing the perodical Gelanggang Filem. Between 1951 and 1961, Abdullah was a journalist for the magazine, writing on P. Ramlee.
One was later published in Pulau Pinang in 1966 titled Gagak di Rimba. Is journalism the gagak di rimba in the Malaysian historical, intellectual and political landscape? The rhetoric in recent times certainly says so. And the absence on any commitment to the journalism of the past, the luminaries who forged the nation since the 1830s if we take Abdullah Munsyi as the first journalist in Malaysia is glaring. True, we have the Tokoh Wartawan Negara Award, and the Kajai Awards. And we have mentioned many-many times in speeches the contributions of those in the likes of Syed Shaikh al-Hadi, Za’ba, Pak Sako and A. Samad Ismail.
The journalism of the past if different from today’s social media, they, including journalist would say. Those were the days of the newspapers. But who reads newspapers today, there is citizen journalism and the social media, it is technology and speed. Even when today’s journalists talk of journalism, as we have seen over the media in the weeks before and throughout the end of HAWANA 2023, the National Journalists’ Day celebration, not a single practitioner of the profession uttered the words ‘views’, ‘opinion’ ‘commentary’, ‘The leader’ or the essay as integral to the profession. All would focus on news, or news coverage in the online sense and social media. What have we lost?
Simply put, and this is a simplistic way of saying it – journalism is in the business of news and views. No member of the profession, interviewed on their profession, over the decades as far as I remember, ever mentioned ‘views.’ There also seems to be a misplaced concern for the online and social media. Journalism is manifested in all platforms – print, digital, etc. This has been for almost 200 years of its existence in Malaysia. To remind ourselves, journalism is not only through newspapers. And journalism not only centres on the news genre, but various news subgenres; and various opinion genres, ranging from leader writing, to commentaries, criticisms, columns and essays.
To ignore the Malay journalism in the first half of the last century is to marginalize the forging of the modern nation of Malaysia. Without journalists, newspapers and periodicals, there cannot be social, intellectual and political solidarity. The luminaries of Malay journalism must be appropriated, like officially declaring them as pejuang wartawan negara. Post 1970 journalism in Malaysia in a continuation of the genesis of Malay and Malay-language journalism. Journalism in Malaysia in the new millennium with all its portals appear to pretend to be autonomous from previous periods in the nation’s history. This is a fallacy.
There is no culture of cultaviating the past of journalism for the future. The national institutions must recontexrtualize and revitalize Malay journalism as the basis of Malaysian journalism. Among the steps to take are as follows: (1) establish Chairs on Journalism in the universities; (2) declare former journalists and editors as ‘Pejuang Nasional’ and (3) name/rename major roads in each town; and other institutions after a journalist/newspaper editor. There is a ‘Jalan Zaaba in Seremban, Lorong Zaaba in Taman Tun Dr. Ismail, Kuala Lumpur, and Lorong Zaaba in Tanjong Malim, situated at the end of the town. His name should be immortalized more prominently in Tanjung Malim for that was where, at the Maktab Perguruan Sultan Idris, from the mid 1920s, he developed and established his views intergral to Malay intellectual, cultural and political life. Zaaba wrote for periodicals like Pengasoh (1917 – ), Utusan Melayu (1939 – ) and Lembaga Melayu (1914-31).
The following are names of journalists and editors/persons associated with the Bahasa Melayu Press before 1942, adapted from William R. Roff’s Bibliography of Malay and Arabic Periodicals published in the Straits Settlements and Peninsular Malay States 1876-1941 (London: Oxford University Press,1972).
| Abbas Mohd Taha, Haji | Fadlullah Suhaimi | Mohd. Eunos Abdullah |
| Abdul Aziz, Haji | Faraz Talib, Sayyid | Mohd. Eunos Raja Haji Ahmad, Raja |
| Abdul Aziz Hassani | Ghulam Kadar | Mohd, Ghazali Mohd. Arifin |
| Abdul Aziz bin Shaykh Rahmat, Haji | Al-Habshi, Abdullah Abdul Rahman | Mohd. Hashim Yunus |
| Abdul Ghani Abdullah | Al-Hadi, Sayyid Alwi Sayyid Shaykh | Mohd. Hassan Riau |
| Abdul Ghani Haji Hassan, Haji | Al-Hadi, Sayyid Shaykh Ahmad | Mohd. Husain Rafi’e, Shaykh |
| Abdul Ghani Mohd. Kassim | Hamed, Sayyid M.A.M.A.K. Chisty | Mohd. Hussein Abdul Rashid |
| Abdul Ghani Tahir | Harun Shah | Mohd. Idrus Haji Suleiman |
| Abdul Hamid Fadzil al-Muari, Haji | Hasan Abdullah | Mohd. Isa Abdullah |
| Abdul Hamid HassanAbdul Hamid Markam | Hashim al-Ruji | Mohd. Ismail Abdul Kadir |
| Abdul Hamid Miskin | Hassan Haji Abdul Manan | Mohd. Johari Anang |
| Abdul Hamid Mohd. | Hassan Hajab, Shaykh | Mohd. Kassim, M. |
| Abdul Hamid Haji Mohd. | Hassa Mohd. | Mohd. Kassim Bakry, Haji |
| Abdul Hamid Haji Taha | Hassan Haji Omar | Mohd. Haji Mohd. Said, Haji (Dato’ Bentara Jaya) |
| Abdul Hassan Burhan, Sayyid | Hassan Shahab, Sayyid | Mohd. Noh al-Azahari |
| Abdul Kadir Setia Raja, Haji | Husin Baba | Mohd. Noor Faiz, Haji |
| Adbul Kadir Ahmad (Abdul Kadir Adabi) | Ibni Hassan | Mohd. Noor Haji Mohd. Ismail al-Khalidi, Haji |
| Abdul Kadir b. Mohd. B. Yahya, Sayyid | Ibrahim Akibi, Haji | Mohd. Noordin Haji Ali |
| Abdul Karim Ismail | Ibrahim Aman, Haji | Mohd. Nur Abdul Rahman |
| Abdul Latif Hamidi | Ibrahim Haji Ya’akub | Mohd. Nur Ibrahim |
| Abdul Latiph Haji Abdul Majid, Haji | Ishak Lutfi Omar | Mohd. Nurdin Taja Deli, Raja |
| Abdul Majid Sabil | Ishak Haji Mohd, Haji | Mohd. Omar Haji Bakar |
| Abdul Majid Zainuddin, Haji | Ismail Haji Ali | Mohd. Rahman Ansari, Hafiz |
| Abdul Rahim Kajai | Ismail H.M. Said | Mohd. Rakawi Yusop |
| Abdul Rahman Abu Bakar, Shaykh | Ismail Ja’afar | Mohd. Rashid Haji Mustafa, Haji |
| Abdul Rahman Daud | Ismail Pekerma Tengku Pekerma Raja, Tengku | Mohd. Sa’ad Haji Muda (Sa’ad Shukri) |
| Abdul Rahman Jamaluddin | Ismaon Mohd. Yunus | Mohd. Said, Haji |
| Abdul Rahman Haji Kassim, Haji | Ja’afar Abdul Rahman | Mohd. Said Ali alMalakawi |
| Abdul Rahman al-Yobi | Ja’afar Jaji Mohd. Taib, Haji | Mohd. Said Dada Mohyiddin, Munshi |
| Abdul Wahab Abdul Rahman | Jamaluddin, A.M. | Mohd. Said Haji Awang, Haji |
| Abdul Wahab Abdullah | Jilani, Sayyid A.W. | Mohd. Salleh Alwi |
| Abdul Wahab Zain | al-Juneid, Sayyid Abdullah Omar | Mohd. Samin Taib |
| Abdullah Jaafar | Al-Juneid, Sayyid Mohd. | Mohd. Shahid Haji Abdullah |
| Abdullah Mahi | Jusoh Abdullah | Mohd. Sharif Dayah |
| Abdullah Mohd. Taib | Kadar Sahib, S.P.S.K. | Mohd Haji Sulang |
| Ahmad Haji Abdul Rahman | Kamal-ud-Din, Kwaja | Mohd. Tahir Jalaluddin, Shaykh |
| Ahmad, Tengku Temenggong (Johore) | Karamah Baladran, Shaykh | Mohd. Taib Haji Mohd. Hashim |
| Ahmad Boestamam | Kassim Salleh | Mohd. Taib Mohd. Saman, Haji |
| Ahmad Dahlan Langkat, Haji | Mahmud Abdul Kadir al-Hindi | Mohd. Tamim Sutan Deman |
| Ahmad Hussain Dahlan, Sayyid | Mahmud Ahmad | Mohd. Yaacob Baginda |
| Ahmad Isa Banjari | Mahmud Haji Wan Daud, Haji Wan | Mohd. Yaakub Raja Bilah, Haji |
| Ahmad Ismail | Mahmud Khatib Haji Mohd. Said | Mohd. Yasin Ma’amur |
| Ahmad Nawawi Mohd. Ali | Mansor Raja Abdul Kadir, Raja | Mohd. Yunus Abdul Hamid |
| Ahmad Noor Abdul Shukor | Marican, K. Sultan | Mohd. Yunus Ahmad, Raja |
| Ahmad Nur Abdul Shukur | Mohd. Dato’ Muda | Mohd. Yusop Salleh |
| Ahmad bin Shaykh (Sayyid) | Mohd. Abdul Aleem Saheb Siddiqi al-Qadiri, Maulana Shah | Mohd. Yusup Kechil |
| Ahmad bin Haji Taib | Mohd Adnan Mohd Arifin | Mohd. Yusup Abu Bakar |
| Albar, Sayyid Alwi Omar | Mohd. Agil Yahya, Sayyid | Mohd. Yusup Kechik |
| Ali al-Zahari, Sayyid | Mohd. Ali, Maulvi | Mohd. Zain Haji Ibrahim |
| Ali, Munshi N.M. | Mohd. Ali Abduh | Nasir, Tengku Sayyid |
| Alsagoff, Sayyid Hussein Ali | Mohd. Ali Ahmad al-Johari | Noh Ali, Haji |
| Alsagoff, Sayyid Mohd Zain | Mohd. Ali Ghulam al-Hindi, Munshi | Noh Ali Bafdzal |
| Alsagoff, S.A.O. | Mohd. Ali Harun al-Hindi | Noordin Sulong |
| Alsagoff, Sayyid Taha Abu Bakar | Mohd. Ali Mohd. al-Rawi | Omar Khan |
| Alwi Abdul Kadir al-Hindi | Mohd. Alias | Onn Ja’afar |
| Aminah Abdul Jalil | Mohd Che’ Ambi | Osman Raja Ja’afar, Raja |
| Anang, K. | Mohd. Amin | Othman Ali, Megat |
| Anda Haji Abdul Jama’, Haji | Mohd. Amin Nayan | Othman Hassan |
| Ariffin Haji Alias | Mohd. Amin Taib | Othman Kalam |
| Ashaari Mohd. Isa | Mohd. Arad Haji Ali, Haji | Othman Mohd. Akib |
| al-Attas, Sayyid Abdullah | Mohd. Arifin Ishak | Othman Mohd. Ali |
| al-Attas, Sayyid Zin Hasan | Mohd. Asa’ad Haji Muda (Sa’ad Shukri) | Othman Mohd. Noor, Raja |
| Ba Faqih, Sayyid Ahmad Omar | Mohd. Awi Anang | Othman Haji Mohd, Said, Haji |
| Bahanan Yusop | Mohd. Damih Ibrahim | Othman Shaykh, Sayyid |
| Daharoz, A.K. | Mohd. Daud Abdul Ghani, Haji | Suleiman Ahmad |
| Daud Suleiman | Mohd. Daud Haji Mohd. Salleh | Yusoff Ishak |
| Dibab Haji Mohd. Salleh | Mohd. Dom Hassan | Zin Suleiman, Hajah |
These names should be formally honoured and recognized and inscribed in the list of Pejuang Kewartawanan Negara.
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