My Little Diary

1st May, 2011: Ya Allah, I wish........ (I cannot type it here) Ya Allah, I hope........ (It's something personal) Ya Allah, I want...... (I'm too shy to share it all with you). This is just my little diary. My big, full volume diary can only be accessed by The Creator.

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Saturday, October 23, 2010

Malay Newspapers Versus English Newspapers

While I was having dinner with my roommates just now, my eyes glanced at something my mind has been craving for, 'resting peacefully' on the floor.

A newspaper.

After fajar prayer this morning, I did read some newspapers, but those newspaper were not feeding my intellectual hunger well. Instead of healthily sharpening my mind, those news in the Malay newspaper were  bugging me.

I stopped eating and reached out for the English newspaper. Repositioning myself, my eyes started to scan the pages. "This one is a lot more cognitively-fulfilling," I told myself.

The fact that the English newspaper reporters are doing their job well in term of publishing good information and messages throughout their printed articles is making me somehow disappointed. I would love to see the same thing happens (or should I say reappear?) in Malay newspapers.

I love learning other languages but it doesn't mean that I should leave my native language for good.

But then, much of the published work of Malay authors are not (or less) intellectually entertaining. In general, books* in Malay (movies as well) are not based on solid, well-researched knowledge or facts.
*Somehow, recently I've been observing a positive gliding tide in the Malay book industry in Malaysia. More books with good quality are being produced, especially on religious and motivational subjects.

I've been observing this since I was in high school.

While my friends were delighted at the sight of Malay love novels, I was more interested in a different genre, different language. English fictions on young, intelligent  investigators as well as novels by Sidney Sheldon were far more appealing for me. Whatever new things I learn in the works of these English authors, they were true and practical for my daily life. That's how they make me stay loyal to them.

The framework Sidney Sheldon laid out in his chapters were all well-grounded through his own research, which was carried out before the book write-up. He is fully aware that every field has its own language and there are also things which only members of the field knew of, unexposed to the public.

Reading such books help me experience something new without the need to pack my luggage and leave the house. Sometimes I went to Paris visiting the famous Louvre Museum while at some other times, I went to see how young lawyers started their career in the court of New York City.

I went to those places, on educational visits, for free.

Not to underestimate the tremendous influence newspapers possess, the same quality should be embedded throughout those printed news. This is especially true when speaking of current Malay newspapers. Ironically, every time I read one, I can hardly find a good, educating article.

I'm tired of news on rapists, drunks and lovers having relationship problems.

Sometimes it seems as if Malaysia is running out of good news or topics to be discussed and published. Are we?

Don't they, those reporters, know how newspaper shapes their readers' mind? I felt extremely sick reading a news about a bomoh (shaman or witch doctor) who successfully solved marriage problems using minyak pengasih (love potion). What did this reporter have in his mind? Such a sickening ignorant. He deliberately sparked interest and encouraged magic practice among his readers, which is a gravely sinful act according to the Islamic law.

I found lots of useful articles and mind-opening news in the English newsprint. I get to know a bit about the issue of billboard industry, the impossible-to-sustain multi-level marketing schemes, the practical process of new word selection (to be included in the dictionary), some facts on World War II, diet guide as well as parenting skills. Isn't that good?

Reading the English newspaper gave me fresh new feeling.

p/s: Message to the Malay newspaper reporters. Please write something more educative, informative and positive, not destructive nor negative.

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