The word ‘gumption’ conjures for me an image of Popeye, pipe in mouth and chin stuck well out, goading Brutus to ‘go on you ***?#* sucker, give it the best you got!’.
We’ve heard quite a bit of this word and seen a little of it in action of late.
Minister Zaid talked about gumption at the Benar talk before the walk on 1st June.
“Do you take up issues that are not popular with the owners of the newspapers? Are you prepared to face the consequence of pursuing objective, factual issues? This has nothing to do with the laws. It’s about gumption. It is about commitment to professionalism. It is about your commitment to tell the people the truth. No distortion. No gloss. No spinning and things like that”, Zaid directed at the media people present that morning.
I felt that Zaid could have himself demonstrated that same gumption that he enjoined on the media folk by roundly condemning as oppressive the PPPA, ISA, OSA and Sedition Act. After all, he had, in his book released last year entitled ‘In good faith’, plainly said there that these laws must be repealed.
And last week, my friend, Veera, of the Star, in his column, ‘Along the Watch Tower’, wrote about Zaid’s speech and quite a bit about ‘gumption’ in ‘Caught in gumption traps’.
Veera’s response to some of what Zaid had said may well be reflective of the views of many of the media folk who were there that morning.
“The audience, I must say, was “underwhelmed” by the simplicity of the logic. Was that his best shot, we wondered?
Let’s make it equally simple for him. If even rich and powerful people at the highest levels of government dare not disagree with their leaders, can you honestly expect lowly-paid journalists to have the pluck to take on their big bosses or company owners? Duh.
In case the minister is not aware, many good journalists have fallen by the wayside or been left in the doldrums for going against the grain of “politically correct thinking” in their organisations. Their only consolation is they still have their integrity.
It was, however, Veera’s closing three paragraphs that most caught my attention, for two reasons.
“It would be no easy task to change deep-rooted notions on media control, despite this being an era where information is available at the click of a mouse. After all, the politicians and the ministers, too, have their own gumption traps to deal with.
The fight ahead looks like a tough one for all stakeholders – editors, National Union of Journalists (NUJ) members, bloggers and media-related civil society groups like the Centre for Independent Journalism (CIJ), Writers Alliance for Media Independence (Wami) and Benar, a cyber body championing free and fair media.
Perhaps the first step to take is to forge a sense of solidarity. There is no indignity in trying to get back our long-lost gumption through safety in numbers”.
First, the stakeholders in the matter of a free media.
Veera made no mention of you and I, the readers, the consumers. No mention was made of the rakyat who pay RM1.20 for their daily copy of the Star for their daily dosage of ‘news’.
Are we not the most important of all stakeholders?
And then Veera spoke of the first step towards that free media as he saw it.
Solidarity. Safety in numbers.
Which brings me to that little bit of gumption in action that we’ve seen just this week.
I refer to Justice Ian HC Chin’s revelation a few days ago about Dr M’s unholy attempts to interfere with the judiciary about 10 years ago.
To this, Rocky asked and remarked :
“What took the Judge so long?…A really long time to live in fear, Yang Arif.”
Bro Rocky, no fair! As we ask ‘why so long?’, bear in mind that the same question might be asked of you, I and many, if not all of us.
Justice Ian Chin spoke of events in 1997. In 1996, he would have witnessed first-hand how a nation stood by and did nothing as another brave judge, Justice Syed Ahmad Idid, was forced to resign whilst the list of judicial improprieties he had sought to expose were ‘NFA’ed as being baseless and unfounded.
What moral foundation do we now have to ask this man with gumption, ‘Why so long?’.
Malik Imtiaz, both in his blog and in his weekly column in Malay Mail, having referred first to the woeful state of the nation, then writes :
“We are not without blame. We were stakeholders in the Government we voted in, it is what we allowed it to become. We let ourselves be seduced by its pied-piper tune of race and religion, privilege, supremacy and power sharing, stability and prosperity. We clapped our hands gleefully as it stroked our collective ego, some would say lobotomized us, with Malaysia Boleh.
…We cheered as we were told that we were sending a Malaysian into space, even though it was costing us a great deal of money, directly and indirectly – there were submarines in the mix, after all – and even though we really did not need a man in space, particularly one who was interested in making teh tarik and playing congkak.
We cheered as the petro-ringgits were spent as if they were going out fashion on the trinkets for us, and the big ticket items for a small elite. We cheered as we were told, over and over again, that we were the finest at this and the greatest at that, even as standards across the board were declining rapidly. University ratings, corruption and rule of law indexes, we slid down all of them without discrimination. Did we care? Apparently not, like that Emperor with his new clothes we were more interested in the lies.
Yes, we are all collectively to blame for the state of our nation.
Yet, late as it may have been, a great many, each on their own and without any sense of being part of a collective, found that gumption in themselves to say ‘enough is enough’, ‘this is my country, I want it back’ and unwittingly became part of the tsunami that 8308 turned out to be.
Veera, you cannot wait for the safety of numbers before you bring about change.
You need a few good men and women who will put truth, honour and professional integrity first before anything else.
You need a few good men and women for whom ‘My prayer and my sacrifice, my life and death are for God’ and ‘though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, i shall fear no evil for you are with me’ go beyond just the lips.
It’s about Wong Chun Wai calling the owners of the Star and saying ‘Sorry, no more spin-doctoring. That’s not in my contract of employment and not in my profession’s code of ethics’.
It’s about Wong Chun Wai calling a meeting of all his reporting staff and announcing ‘Tomorrow and forever more, we report the news as it is’.
And if Wong Chun Wai does not have the gumption to do these things, it’s about Veera and every journalist in the Star telling Wong Chun Wai ‘Report it as I write it or I walk. I want my integrity back’.
The People's Parliament 
Gan
June 12, 2008
Good take on this Haris.
I, too for one is also guilty of being lack of gumption.
Food for thought
June 12, 2008
Yes, with a few good man and a few good women championing the cause, I pray that this will create a ripple effect for better days ahead.
Over the past 20 odd years before the emergence of the new media in blogging and the internet, ordinary Malaysians have been indoctrinated with the BN/UMNO style of news reporting with the MSM playing an active role in ‘mis-reporting’ the truth. With the ISA, OSA and all the other draconian laws still in placed, this will be a slow burn process unless there is a change in the government.
raj raman 666
June 13, 2008
Something more interesting in the morning,i read Helen Ang stories with a bit of different stories (very soft) and yours POINT BLANK.
THROW THE BALL BACK MR.HARIS TO THE CRONIES-anyway you have the guts and skill even the writer/reporter dont have.
rajraman.nothing to loose to support you point blank.
just kacau anwar ibrahim ibrahim blogs yesterday but seems he like to hear good news only like chedet.still hanging in moderation.
Vaseau
June 13, 2008
Brilliantly put by Malik Imtiaz.
Yes we share the blame … but those who had the means to influence the direction this nation took (the writers, journalists, members of the Bar and Bench, and others who gleefully put on or accepted the label “intellectual”) must surely take greater responsibility for mindlessly echoing the ‘wisdom’ of our ‘supreme leader’ or maintaining a studious silence as institutions, systems and standards were systematically dismantled and degraded.
As the rabble (aided and abetted by the media which Sdr Rocky was part of) kept repeating the Malaysia Boleh chant, the nation was etherized. It has all but lost its ability to detect decline. Now as we face the precipice and disaster, we appear to have come to our senses . Can there be a reversal of our fortunes?
new future
June 13, 2008
We all bear the consequences as we voted in the BN govt.
Though people like me never once voted for them yet collectively we too bear the tragic end result!
Those who recently voted in the Umno/BN regime deserve what they face now – fuel increase, food increases, only the future can tell us what else we may suffer under the BN rule.
What they are doing is simply make an elite group – rich and powerful to control the country and leave it to their descendants!
Malays and other races are insignificant unless you are in their fold.
They will not give up control easily.
These people are trained and propped up by the ex premier Tun M.
God save us!
Helen Ang
June 13, 2008
Haris,
Your friend Veera is among the best of the lot. He’s deputy editor of Star’s New Media and among the few MSM editors who try to push the envelope and write truthfully. Ditto Star New Media editor A. Asohan — both attended Press Freedom Walk on June 1.
Saodah Elias gave our ‘Boycott the Newspapers!’ press conference coverage in MyStar (the paper’s Malay online section) when other MSM blacked us out — that our story was published was largely due to her personal initiative.
These Star individuals are miles better than the self-promoted paragons of journalism who for a decade have advocated working within the system, bringing about change from the inside, rallied support for the BN leadership, bashed New Media, discredited bloggers and then opportunistically parachuted into cyberspace to capitalise on election.
Paul Warren
June 13, 2008
Wow..Psalm 23…my favourite prayer when in real anxious moments.
Indeed UMNO has often reminded us that they are only doing our bidding as returning them with such huge majority to parliament is testament to that.
So who are we to complain.
But really the gumption that really matters is the one needed at the ballot box. They can dismiss and continue with their party on anything otherwise.
Just go through the events of the Brickendenbury fiasco. From Day 1 when Nadeswaran exposed it, it should have been shafted by any reasonable person. Yet there was not a single person with any ounce of gumption to shaft it. It needed the council of a local municipality who were not on any of the puppet masters strings to say no to them. Mind you, yet, they continued to pursue it with hopes of appealing the verdict and so on. Who the bloody hell did they think they were that their wish should be the command of anyone and everyone?
This happens in Malaysia only because we are very kind to our politicians. If this had been New Zealand this is how I might have heard it over Newstalkzb, a talk back radio “Who the bloody hell does the Minister of Sport think that she can rough shod her damned dreams upon a foreign municipality? If this was not stupid and idiotic I cannot tell you what else is. What makes me puke is the elegant silence maintained by the Prime minister who probably is still coming to terms with trying to find Brickendenbury on the map”
Now, if only our press can have that kind of gumption, we the citizens might have a hope from weaning ourselves out of being morons ourselves for not having the gumption of just voting the bloody hell UMNO out of this world.
Helen Ang
June 13, 2008
MY POINT IS:
The reason I’d cited Veera, Asohan & Odah is they’re in the online stream and that’s the most flexible area amenable to reform; credit to these guys for having a real awareness.
Similarly cyberspace is seen as pivotal, hence Umno Youth coming on board in blog and en bloc. And that why undisclosed financial backers are bringing in new websites.
KK
June 13, 2008
For people like Rocky Bru to ask why Chin took so long to reveal what had happened some time ago indicates a kind of intellectual dishonesty and selective amnesia about the kind of Mahathir government it was. Of course, Mahathir was too smart to do the dirty deeds himself, other than issuing “veiled threats” that could get embroiled into A said and B said, not to mention “I don’t recall”. After all, did PM Mahathir not have his legions of BN flunkies, cronies or what have you all eager and willing to do the deeds for him in order to get notice for the promotion, the lucrative contract, whatever?
zorro
June 13, 2008
Haris, that is a tough call to WCW and Veera and gang to make, BUT IT IS STILL THE ONLY PROFESSIONAL THING TO DO.
Mr Smith
June 13, 2008
What gumption? Every institution, every BN leaders, every newspaper journalist, every electronic media chief and every director general, every vice chancellor was a coward.
Tell me, who could stand up to Mahathir and survive? If only you knew how he physically and financially destroyed those who stood up to him.
Only the Opposition leaders stood up high and were incarcerated under the ISA.
As for me, a small man, all I could do then was to cast my vote for he Opposition in every general election – eight times in all. What else culd I do?
Mr Smith,
you did well
shiver
June 13, 2008
haris
forget about wong chun wai. did u see his latest article on YB Khalid’s billboard on his blog?
no difference than reading in the shitty star paper.
you think that man got hope? remember that article he wrote just before the march 8 elections on how BN must be voted back?
that man is evil.
Warna-Warna Rama-Rama
June 13, 2008
Rocky’s Bru’s very subtle support for Dr. Mahathir has already been highlighted in his blog a number of times. There is dishonesty in how he paints Dr. Mahathir in righteous tones; events pertaining to the dark side of Dr. Mahathir are either disregarded or downplayed in his blog, or he reports it but in a tone that is disparaging of those who show what Dr. Mahathir’s true colours are. I used to like Rocky’s Bru (prior to the political tsunami), but post-tsunami, Rocky’s political position is becoming clearer and it is not an admirable one.
Dr. Mahathir for his part has, of course, been careful to cover up his tracks, as pointed out by commenter KK (11:57 am), and has conjured a glorious image of himself during his tenure through the mainstream media, which is why so many Malaysians support him without question (see the quality of the commenters in his ‘Che Det’ blog). They do not see or refuse to see the full picture.
su
June 13, 2008
I can understand why Veera would want “safety in numbers”. Sometimes it is difficult to want people to do the right thing, if they feel that the right thing will cause them to lose out. However, Veera must know that nothing will ever be done if there are no leaders to guide any movement. To have solidarity, to truly push for something, first someone must be willing to stick his/her neck out for the cause, and truly believe in it. Things don’t just HAPPEN. Change can’t just HAPPEN. Someone must MAKE it happen. Even to come together as a group, someone must approach a second person, a third person, a fourth person, and so on and so forth.
It’s the ripple effect. Someone has to start first. If Verra wants to wait until they have enough numbers in solidarity, till doomsday we shall wait, and nothing will ever get done.
mekyam
June 13, 2008
Dear Harris,
I think Justice Syed Ahmad Idid had both gumption and integrity. In spades!
On the other hand what Justice Ian Chin had, some people might call gall and opportunism.
If custodians of the law such as Judges and Justices can plead lack of gumption to stand up to institutional injustices and wrongdoings because they fear for their paychecks and positions, then where do we ordinary folks turn to for protection against being wronged, for assurance in getting fairness and impartiality in our dealings with the government and with each other?
So forgive me if I don’t see why Rocky and others need to check their moral foundations before daring to ask the likes of Justice Chin “why so long?”. Surely we lay peopole couldn’t be expected to be measured by the same yardstick as someone who took oath of high office to uphold and dispense the law? Otherwise all of us on the street can presume to adjudicate without spending a day in law school and going through the rigours of magistrature.
Actually I have a different question to ask the Justice. Why just now? Why, at a time when the idea is to restore the people’s faith in the Judiciary, did he see fit to eventually find the gumption to reveal his moral cowardice of 11 years ago?
What does he hope to achieve? Does he seriously think he is helping the cause of the Judiciary, if that was his intention? Honestly, other than giving ammunition to those indulging their hatred of Dr Mahathir, all Justice Chin did is disillusioned the people further by confirming to them that the rot in the Judiciary is more than suspected. We now have proof from the horse’s mouth, so to speak, that those officials in whom we would entrust our life, property and freedom not only have feet of clay, but are devoid of spines and balls and are self-serving to boot.
Our government shoots itself in the foot everyday. So it would be too much to expect an upright move. Our policemen are like gangsters and our judges apparently can be easily cowered. It looks like we Malaysians are quite on our own… Poor us!
mddanial
June 13, 2008
“Veera, you cannot wait for the safety of numbers before you bring about change.
You need a few good men and women who will put truth, honour and professional integrity first before anything else.”
I am very proud of you, Bro.
I have done that myself while I was in MAS. With few (no, just a couple of) good men, we managed to shake Management esp. Munir Majid.
We could win if we decided to expose everything but we chose to fight another battle since the war aint over yet now that his curator days are numbered !!!!
scout
June 13, 2008
I have to admit, I (you can categorize me as gen-Y) was brainwashed in school and used to believe everything I read from the newspapers. I was indoctrinated to believe that anyone who opposes the government (i.e. BN) is inherently evil.
But, you are right, we are to be blamed for the state that we are in because we did not take it upon ourselves to effect change.
Rampant corruption for instance, is not something new. How many of us know that it is wrong to bribe a policeman but yet will be more than willing to offer a bribe when caught making an illegal turn or going over the speed limit? How many of us willingly “pay” just to get things done faster?
I haven’t been in those situations before but I can assure you, I will never “pay” them, come what may.
What I’m saying is that each of us can and should play our part to bring about change.
Here’s a favorite quote of mine, which I think sums this up pretty well: “The one thing that doesn’t abide by majority rule is a person’s conscience.”
SAJ
June 13, 2008
Haris,
Good one….
I think you need to add “guts” to ‘gumption’.
Then things might move!
Cheers
Jaya
fudzail
June 13, 2008
Are we lost in transition of political landscape?
The more dirts from the past uncovered, it could be better for tomorrow!
We in Dubai had an opportunity to listen on the latest issues from visiting politicians here –
http://1426.blogspot.com/2008/06/anwar-khalid-husam-thrilled-dubai-crowd.html
sklee
June 13, 2008
Justice Syed Ahmad Idid was both courageous and rash.Justice Ian Chin has the gumption and integrity to reveal now what he did not revealed then regarding what he perceived as interference in the Judiciary then.It is for Dr. Mahathir to answer to the alleged threat.
Pemikir Rasional
June 13, 2008
To Mekyam 3:10 pm:
There is what we call the right time to voice out something in order to bring justice.
If Ian Chin had voiced out back then, long ago, nothing would have come of it.
Everything would have been buried.
A good way to punish a powerful wrongdoer/tyrant is to wait till the right opportunity comes when the tyrant can be rightly tried and found if he was guilty and punished.
Now, after many, many years, is that very moment.
When the people have woken up. When the atmosphere is such where these things can be spoken about more openly.
Where Dr. Mahathir and the man in the street are equals to debate this issue without fear of being unfairly suppressed or punished.
I hope you understand this, Mekyam.