45 years and counting….

YEAR 2023 is a special year for me. It marks the 45th anniversary of my career as a journalist and partaker of the often demanding news media industry. With that accomplishment, I think I have qualified as a newspaper person, having left my footprints in all departments of a full-fledged newspaper, and in recent years, its digital platforms as well.

It has been a long, long ride with countless grinding hours to arrive at this milestone. The journey has been sobering, enriching, interesting, yet challenging.

For reaching that almost half a century mark, indulge me as I recollect some of the experiences encountered and the lessons learnt along the way.

I have always been the one who turned on the newsroom lights as my day started early – at 7am – even if I was on the road or at work-based locations such as in Sibu, Kuching and Kota Kinabalu.

However, most of the time I did not turn off the newsroom lights till late into the night except for some days in Kota Kinabalu. For that, I have, in my humble opinion, earned the accolade from the book – ‘Journalism – My Way’ – authored by my journalism mentor, Cedric Pulford.

“Phyllis was a famously hard worker. After early morning gym where she persuaded me to join her, there being no other takers from among her colleagues, she worked through until late in the evening. It was especially tempting to do this because she occupied an apartment in the same company-owned building as the newspaper,” he wrote.

I began my newspaper career as an editorial translator, transcribing news in Chinese into English for publication. In the 1970s, we did not have the luxury of a ‘Google Translate’ app to help you along, or Internet to reference and confirm names of people, places, events and dates. But I think I was accurate as in all my years of translating.

Alas, bloopers are part and parcel of translating news; thankfully I did not make any, except for one particular ‘disaster’ – a costly one.

I ‘misspelt’ the name of a prominent businessman using an ‘A’ instead of ‘U’ in the spelling.

The mix-up gave a distasteful meaning to his name and he was so peeved that he cancelled all his advertising bookings.

I am still not sure if it was my mistake or the typist’s. At that time, we did not have personal computers. The typists typed on type-setters from the scripts of reporters and translators.

From the incident, I learnt that mistakes can be devastating. It spurred me to be more thorough in my work and did my research to know my subject well. It may not win you friends, but it certainly earns you respect.

Another lesson learnt was to be prepared to be castigated for what you wrote even though your reports were factual and true.

No one should think of becoming a journalist with their mind fixated on winning the popularity stakes. In reporting news, you are bound to step on toes – both big and small.

And in a culture where saving face is a societal norm, stepping on toes is disastrous.

Journalists are often targets of hate mails or malicious phone calls. It can be unnerving but you, somehow, learn to live with them.

Despite all my trials and tribulations, I have immensely enjoyed my career. Where else would you get the opportunity to be let into dark secrets, or write about events of great joy – or hurt.

You are also free to ask intimate questions without being thought of as invading someone’s privacy.

With such privileges, I learnt that the pen is, indeed, mightier than the sword. But I am also fully aware that it is a huge responsibility to be given the trust to tell someone’s story.

I loved travelling to the interior of Sarawak. I initiated the Borneo Post Adventure Team (BAT) and worked for years together with some like-minded colleagues. We traversed the length and breadth of Sarawak.

I had lived the lives of people deprived of basic necessities – clean water and electricity.

In one of the two-week trips, I wrote a travelogue every day at 6am, recollecting the previous day’s encounters and the conversations I had with some of the rural folks I met.

Accessing the Internet to file stories from the backcountry where connectivity is poor can be a test of patience, but the sense of mission to tell the stories from the boonies evoked much enthusiasm and zest.

I may have written thousands of words, but they were still short in describing the lives of the rural folks, especially their joys and their fears.

I cherish all the story-tellers who helped fill my reports with interesting narratives of life in the outback and acknowledge their simple expectation that their stories be read and noted.

Likewise, I treasure readers who take the time to tell me they like something bearing my byline. I won some awards, but the one I prize most highly is the difference I made to the lives of people whose stories I had the opportunity to tell.

I reserve a small corner in my office for some welcome notes from appreciative readers.

The paper you hold in your hands or the copy you read online is the result of a daily miracle borne out of teamwork from the newsroom, the advertising department to the executive offices and the printing factory. We would roll up our sleeves and do it all over again the next day and the next.

If you are doing mental arithmetic about my age and asking when should I call it a day, remember these words of wisdom from 60-year-old Michelle Yeoh who won an Oscar for Best Actress in the film ‘Everything Everywhere All At Once’, at the 2023 Academy Awards.

“Ladies, don’t let anyone ever tell you that you are past your prime,” she said in her acceptance speech to the thunderous applause of a packed stellar audience.

And I would humbly add, if I may: “God has not finished in me. He is still working. Yes, even with 45 years’ experience in journalism, not every day is the same. There are always new things to learn.”

I will leave you all with what has essentially become my mantra: we are not in the business of making people happy. We are in the business of relaying truths to our readers – a daunting sacrifice we make for the sake of promoting an informed society.

Till then, Happy 45th birthday to The Borneo Post.

 

Phyllis Wong presently oversees the operations of The Borneo Post and its sister newspaper, Utusan Borneo. She was a columnist and wrote features in The Borneo Post. She was awarded Tokoh Kewartawaran (Journalism Laureate) Kenyalang Shell in 2013 and received a special jury award from Malaysian Press Institute in 2016. She has also won the Shell Kenyalang Journalism Awards and received recognition for her writings on education in Singapore from the Singapore Tourism Board.