Bernama turns 50 and is here to stay

I Thas been a hectic time for Bernama, the national news agency, these past few weeks as it celebrates its Golden Jubilee or 50 years of existence. By any standard, half a century is a long time indeed for any organisation, let alone a news organisation which has been reporting ceaselessly on the affairs of a nation and its people and beyond the shores.

Malaysia has had 10 general elections under six prime ministers since Bernama flashed out its first news item from a rented bungalow manned by a skeletal staff at Jalan Tun Razak.

Since then, it must have churned out hundreds of thousand of news items and visuals to feed the need of its clients in the print, or traditional media, as well as other forms of information for non-media clients.

In those early days well before the advent of the computer, the teleprinter or telex was the mainstay of a news agency’s office while the typewriter was a vital tool for its journalists.

The media industry and journalism have come a long way as far as information technology is concerned especially in terms of the speed of delivering news to the masses, now available by digital means at the click of a smart gadget.

Bernama was on the drawing board towards the tail-end of Indonesia’s Confrontation, better known as Konfrontasi, with Malaysia which was sparked by President Sukarno.

He was vehemently opposed to Malaya, Sabah, Sarawak and Singapore merging to form the Federation of Malaysia, which he deemed as neo-colonialist or a new form of colonial power which countries in Southeast Asia had just before that time freed themselves from.

The Philippines was also opposed to the federation due to its territorial claim on Sabah.

I know the Gen Y reading this column hardly know what Konfrontasi was all about – just as they don’t know how a teleprinter looks like – as it happened well before they were born.

It was a harrowing time for our brave soldiers on the frontline especially in Sarawak where I come from. The state at that time had to also face the armed communist threat just as Malaya did during the Emergency.

While reading through archive materials on events leading to the formation of Bernama, I came across a statement by Prime Minister Tunku Abdul Rahman who said that Malaysia needed a news agency to counter Indonesia’s propaganda waged by its news agency, Antara, especially on the international front.

This is an interesting footnote of history because for decades after the end of Konfrontasi, both Bernama and Antara, which is 30 years older than Bernama, have had the closest of ties and have been in the forefront of efforts to forge closer rapport among other news agencies internationally.

Bernama has been playing its role effectively as a provider of news and information to its clients and more importantly, credible news, sticking as religiously as possible to the ethics of journalism.

In this era of social media sprouting like mushrooms bombarding the public with their brand of reporting, there has been a constant flow of fake news which spreads like wildfire meant to cause public alarm and anxiety.

Do not simply believe outrageous news items that you read online but check it out with Bernama or other well-established news providers.

Meanwhile, the newspaper or the print media industry is in the doldrums worldwide and it’s an understatement to say that the industry’s future is a big question mark.

It’s simply because news is now available real-time at our finger tips and the necessity to hold a newspaper in your hands to catch up with news is diminishing.

What about the future of news agencies, one might ask?

In the case of Bernama, it is very much in its interest as well as that of the entire media industry to reinvent the wheel and to adopt and adapt to the increasingly challenging trends.

The media landscape itself has undergone a remarkable transformation but whatever platform news is being dished out from, the need for content shall remain and as a content provider, I would like to believe that news agencies shall continue to remain relevant.

Yes, the comfort zones are no longer there and the earlier the industry reacts to the new ecosystem, the better the chances of staying above water.

One role that Bernama is proud of all these years has been that of a “news bridge” connecting the two regions of Malaysia separated by the South China Sea.

Since the early days, the news agency has been the mainstay of the print media and radio stations in Sabah and Sarawak for their supply of national news from mainland Malaysia and vice versa.

This is important to newspapers in both states because it saves them the high cost of having to set up their own presence in the nation’s capital or elsewhere in the country.

By the same token, media houses in Peninsular Malaysia, too, get their reliable source of news about the two states from Bernama and in the process the agency can be seen as a key player in enhancing national integration.

I have had a ringside view of all these for more than 40 years as a reporter in the thick of things on both sides of the geographical divide.

Bernama’s Golden Jubilee celebration culminated on Tuesday with a glittering dinner at Dewan Perdana Felda in Kuala Lumpur in the presence of some 1,500 guests.

I took the opportunity in my capacity not so much as Bernama chairman but more as someone who has spent my entire working life in the news agency, to propose to the authorities to rename the road leading to Wisma Bernama, the 15-storey Bernama headquarters, from the nondescript Jalan 1/65A to Jalan Bernama.

If Kuala Lumpur City Hall approves the name change, it will be the best gift for all the staff of Bernama, past, present and the future.

Unlike other gifts, this one doesn’t cost a sen but is priceless.

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