Different Points Of View

By Syed Akbar Ali



On Sunday July 5th ’09 I appeared on ntv7’s “Point of View” talk show.



The one hour program discussed the Prime Minister’s first 100 days in office. The producer cum host of the show was Florence Looi.



The other guest was Leslie Lau of Malaysian Insider. During the show Florence did ask Leslie and me to rate the Prime Minister’s performance. She asked if we would give him an A, B, C or D?



Leslie, who was not happy with the new PM, asked if it could go lower than that. He finally suggested a ‘D’ rating for the PM.



I felt that it was not proper to rate the PM in that manner. My answer was that he would need time to show more results. If you watched the talk show, you would have seen and heard that I did not answer that question.



Yesterday there was some news on Malaysiakini about Florence Looi, ntv7 and that particular segment of ‘Point Of View’ in which I appeared. Here is a clipped version from Malaysiakini (my comments follow):



TV host 'reassigned' over Najib scorecard


"All her guest did was to give premier Najib Abdul Razak a 'C' or 'D' rating for his first 100 days in office. It was enough to see ntv7 talk-show host Florence Looi being issued a warning letter and an immediate transfer to the news desk of the private television station. Looi, who hosts the popular 'Point of View' current affairs programme, was said to have 'breached editorial policy', according to ntv7 sources. The two guests on the talk-show, aired on July 5, were author Syed Akhbar Ali and consulting editor Leslie Lau of news portal Malaysian Insider. It was the latter's remarks that landed Looi in trouble. The sources said she was verbally told that she should not have asked her guests to rate Najib's performance. As Looi is the host-cum-producer of the programme, she was the only one who received the warning letter. Looi, who is assistant assignment editor, has since been reassigned to cover news, ostensibly because of a shortage of human resources at the news desk. This incident might well seal the fate of 'Point of View', which has just concluded its second season. There has been no announcement yet as to whether there will be a third season. However, the sources believe that, even if the programme is continued, a new host will be appointed."



Well they got my name spelt wrong again. Its “Akbar” not ‘Akhbar’ ! If this report from Malaysiakini is true it is sad too. During chit chat at the studio, Florence did say that it was the last show for the season and she was doubtful if the show would continue on the air.



Florence also pointed out during the show that a poll conducted by the Merdeka Center had showed that the PM’s rating had improved slightly by one percentage point to 45%. My reply was that it was indicative of a turn around situation and I hoped that his popularity would improve, not because of anything but the people perceiving that the Government is beginning to deliver.



Well just a couple of days after the show aired on Sunday 5th July, another Merdeka Center poll showed that Dato Najib’s popularity had hit 65%. (so much that now Mr Lim Kit Siang says that this upsurge in popularity may prompt Najib to call for a snap General Election).



Back to Florence Looi’s question on rating the PM with an A, B, C or D, well the American’s sometimes say ‘on a scale of 1 to 10, how would you rate someone’. More than a choice of words it’s also a choice of language.



On my Blog I like calling Slumberjack an idiot. He was and he still is. Its my Blog and I can flavour it any way I want. But on national tv, it would be most inappropriate (no matter how true) to say or insinuate by means of a loaded question that Slumberjack is indeed an idiot. The expected decorum is different.



Many years ago there was a young Indian boy who read the English news on TV (cant recall which station) – but for a short time only. One day MAS (the airline) introduced new uniforms for the flight crew. Soon after that, by pure coincidence, a drunken passenger groped one of the MAS flight girls. The incident was reported on the English news. Unfortunately after reading out the news, the Indian boy added a quip ‘it must be because of their new uniforms’. Soon after he disappeared from reading the news. That was a bungle too. In other countries such boo boos can draw law suits.



But it is the foreign media like CNN who can be particularly rude. When Gloria Macapagal Arroyo first became President they interviewed her on CNN. The anchor (also Filipino) asked her to list her top five priorities as the new President. This is a patronizing style of framing a question – something you would ask a child – like what is your favorite colour, favorite food, top five music bands etc. Not the type of question you would put across to the President. But true enough, Arroyo showed her inexperience by starting to list out her “top five” priorities.



Later Arroyo and some of her Cabinet members also obliged Time Magazine (?) by wearing Men In Black sunglasses and black jackets which appeared on the cover.



In another instant, CNN interviewed the Indian Prime Minister after the terrorist attack on the Indian Parliament in New Delhi. The CNN anchor kept badgering him that ‘the Indian people would like to know’. The PM shot back that India has a completely free Press and the Indian people were quite fully informed



Then just like CNN, BBC, CBS, Washington Post, New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, Malaysiakini, Malaysian Insider, Harakah, Straits Times Singapore, The Rocket, Star, New Straits Times etc or any other media, a lot of media in this country is definitely “turf” driven. It belongs to someone and it certainly represents a certain point of view.




In the recent huff & puff in PAS over the “Unity talks with UMNO issue” certain articles were pulled from Harakah and discussion on the matter was controlled.



If I give Nik Aziz an ‘F’ for anything and everything, I don’t think the Harakah would carry it either. I think media practitioners should all know this quite well by now. Know your turf.