Traditionally Malaysia considers Indonesia as one of its closest neighbors. However, the recent spate of demonstrations and protests in front of our embassy in Jakarta by a small group of Indonesians claimed to be from the nationalist People's Defence of Democracy (BENDERA) did not augur well in the state of our bilateral relations.

It seems it is the same group that threatened to attack us with sticks and stones over the alleged mistreatment of Indonesian maids and over the 'tarian pendek' which they considered this an act of stealing by Malaysia from them. This time it is over the alleged detention of three of their maritime and fishery officials by the Malaysian authorities. Seven Malaysian fishermen were also reported to have been detained by the Indonesian authorities on August 16. But the detainees of both sides have since been released.

The demonstrators even openly told the Indonesian media that they would 'sweep' Malaysians in town, and shave them before sending them back. This statement sounds very arrogant. And obviously we fear for the safety of Malaysians there.

I share the sentiments of most Malaysians to feel hurt to see the Indonesians whom we regard as Muslim bothers are doing this in the holy month of Ramadan ( this should be the month of forgiveness) and at a time we are celebrating our 53rd anniversary of Independence. The act of storming our embassy and throwing human faeces into its compound, and stomping on our flag, the Jalur Gemilang, is uncalled for, and should not have come from those whom we regard as friends. Short of saying ungrateful, these protesters forgot that there are more than one million Indonesians seeking their livelihood in Malaysia, legally as well as illegally.

The good thing about we Malaysians is that we have been keeping cool and exercising restraints. We have been noble in not reacting or retaliating. Our media too have reacted responsibly, without going to the extent of instigating or provoking Malaysians to retaliate or to take extreme actions. I notice our Foreign Minister, Datuk Anifah Aman too has been very cautious and calculative in his statements when advising Malaysians not to visit Indonesia if situation escalates. He did this so as not to jeopardize the good relationship that Malaysia enjoys with Indonesia. Officially too the Ministry did not issue a travel advisory as such.

We are happy to note that the Malaysian government has called on the Indonesian authorities to take stern actions to control the demonstrators and to protect the security of our embassy as well as the safety of Malaysians there as contained under the Vienna Convention.

However, I am not surprised that there are calls from some quarters in Malaysia for Indonesia to apologize over the incidents.

Public relations is still considered a young profession for a developing country like Malaysia, compared to other long established ones like law, engineering, medical, accountancy and architecture, nevertheless efforts are not spared to raise the profession to a status that all practitioners should be proud of. Getting practitioners to be professionally accredited is one such measure.

Last Saturday, 28 August 2010, I was on a panel of the Institute of Public Relations Malaysia (IPRM) together with Dato' Shaikh Sulaiman and Puan Rasila Hamzah (both of them are public relations consultants) to decide on the conferment of the Accredited Public Relations Practitioner (APR) status for three public relations personalities. They are Dr. Ramanathan Sankaran, a former UiTM (Universiti Teknologi MARA) lecturer and now a public relations consultant,  Dr. Jamilah Ahmad, a lecturer with Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM), Penang and Puan Nur Saidatul, a lecturer from UiTM.

Candidates seeking for accreditation status are required under the Institute's procedures for accreditation to appear before a panel to present their case and defend their credentials. 

The IPRM has taken in its stride since the year 2000 to give voluntary accreditation to practitioners who are professionally qualified to carry with their name the title "APR" once they have fulfilled the set criteria and upon approval by the panel set up by the Institute.  The first batch of APRs received their status from the patron in August 2005 and I was fortunate to be one of those. The panel members to sit on the committee to decide on the APR status should be an APR holder and must have earned a fellowship (FIPR) of the Institute. As for me, I am also currently sitting on the Council, holding the portfolio of Honorary Secretary.

The first presentation by Dr. Sankaran was on the topic of  "Crisis Communication" where he emphasized the importance for organizations to have crisis communication plan in place to address crisis situation at any time. Crisis Communication is an important aspect of public relations job to restore public confidence and rebuild the image of organizations as result of crisis situation whether man-made, or caused by mechanical faults, or following an act of God.

His other presentation was his research and assessment on how Malaysia has progressed this far in meeting the UN Millennium Development Goals (MDG) by the year 2015, in relations to poverty eradication, empowerment of women, children, economic progress, environmental care and partnership for development. Citing statistics from United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) the presentation highlighted some of Malaysia's achievement on human capital development, the status of women and children, and economic progress as evidenced from its Gross National Income. According to his assessment, compared to its neighbours in the Asian region,  Malaysia is doing quite well in meeting the objectives set by the world body.

Dr. Sankaran was in fact my former lecturer (he taught me editorial writing) when I was studying at UiTM back in the seventies. He is currently holding the chair for IPRM, Johore chapter, and a country representative at the Asian Media Information and Communication Centre (AMIC), based in Singapore. He also identifies himself with the Wawasan Open University, where he works closely with Mr. U.K. Menon, the university's deputy vice chancellor, who was also my communication law lecturer back then in UiTM..

I have high regards for my guru Dr. Sankaran, who despite his age at almost 70 now,  is still very active and in wanting to spend his time to raise the standard of public relations practices.  He is at present a public relations consultant with Media Plus Consultancy, based in Johor Bahru.

The presentation by Dr. Jamilah Ahmad was in relations to her involvement in event management and her research project, particularly on the environment and the green projects in Penang. During her presentation she highlighted her recent project involving the New Millennium Graduates (NEMGRADS) as part of the University's Corporate  Social Responsibility (CSR) programme and her recent involvement on green campaigns which have attracted a lot of attention from the corporate sector, the NGOs and the mass media. She is very much into voluntary social and environmental work trying to uplift public awareness of related issues.

I had the opportunity to attend and observe the CSR environment project and seminar held in USM, 13 to 14 March 2010 together with Prof. Mohd Hamdan Adnan, IPRM's President and Associate Prof. Dr. Kiranjit Kaur, the chair person for education bureau, which was led by Dr. Jamilah.

Dr. Jamilah is a graduate of UiTM and obtained her doctorate from  Deakins University, Australia. Being the vice chair of IPRM, Penang chapter, she is very active, full of determination and enthusiasm to do more to promote the visibility of public relations profession especially in environmental and green projects. Before moving to her present position at USM,  Dr. Jamilah has lectured at UiTM for several years.

Puan Nur Saidatul had given her perspective on Crisis Communication plan of two GLCs or government-linked companies: PETRONAS, the national oil company, and PROTON, the national car project. Her presentation was based on the content analysis research carried out by her on the two prominent GLCs with regard to how these organizations manage the media during crisis situations or handling of emergency response. The presentation threw significant lights on the importance for Crisis Management team and procedures to be triggered during crisis situations. Puan Nur Saidatul is currently pursuing her doctorate in communication at UiTM.

All the three candidates have shown their strengths in their respective areas for what they are capable of embarking as professionals to further the interest of public relations and to uplift its status academically and professionally.

One of the core communication subjects that I enjoyed teaching since joining the university is Contemporary Issues in Mass Communication. The subject is normally offered to students at levels 3 and 4. Students who intend to take up this subject should have a basic understanding of communication concepts and principles and must have done the prerequisites in their respective specialization. That is why I do not encourage students on level 2 to sign up for the subject because without sufficient knowledge of mass communication theories and practices and a critical mind for understanding of contemporary issues, I am afraid they would not be able to carry through. I have, in fact, rejected some of those who I feel are still not yet prepared for the subject.

On the whole, the subject is designed to equip students with current knowledge of the working of the mass media and an understanding of communication process and theories and practices of communication in relations to topics like concentration of ownership and conglomeration, power game, media literacy and audience response to the changes in media landscape.

The subject is pretty wide and extensive and students are required to have a good grasp and a fairly broad understanding of current issues and how the mass media report and interpret issues from different perspectives. And this could be achieved only if students are prepared to do extra reading and involved in serious thinking over the subject matter. I do not wish to see students learning the subject like 'parrots' vomiting out raw facts given to them in the notes delivered during lectures, without being able to articulate their views. They would not be learning any thing much if they choose the easy way out. What I attempted to do so far in my teaching is to provoke their minds to think 'out of the box' so that they would be able to apply the knowledge intelligently when they leave the university to join the industry.

To make the subject more lively and interesting, students are engaged in discussions to critique issues and critically analyze media content and relate to media ownership and concepts like ideology, hegemony, power and domination, press freedom, cultural imperialism, democracy and globalization. Apart from that, they have to examine the use of language and words of high-level abstraction by the mass media in influencing audiences' perception.

Another related topic is the new technology, particularly the internet which has brought changes to the media landscape, and how traditional media needs to reconsider their position in terms of message, content, style and approach to remain relevant, and to meet the demand of the sophisticated audiences which have become increasingly fragmented. And related to this subject is the new media and the questions of overlapping roles of content providers and content consumers. They also need to examine issues of media convergence and its consequences.

On completing the subject students should be able to see things in clear perspective, unbiased in a way, and to look at the big picture and be aware of the intricacies and complexities involved in the media industry and communication as a whole. It is hoped that when students graduate they would be able to adapt and position themselves well in the industry.

Even though the subject may appear simplistic, I find some students still lacking in their ability to understand the principles and concepts or to see things beyond textbooks and notes given to them. Most can't even differentiate the implicit from the explicit or to see the hidden meaning or agenda behind issues examined.

How I wish to see students taking this subject have a higher level of maturity, a critical and inquisitive mind, and an ability to look at situations more holistically!!!

I am proud to be an old Edwardian. I started going to King Edward VII School in 1962  when I joined Special Malay Class 1 (SMC1) after 4 years in Malay primary school in Taiping.

Located in the mining and heritage town of Taiping, the school has long years of history. It first began as a Central School in 1883. The traces of history can still be seen in some of the school buildings in Upper Stephen Road which reflect colonial architecture. In fact, the present primary school along Station Road was a former railway station. Opened by the then Sultan of Perak in 1906, the school was named after King Edward VII who succeeded to the throne of England in 1901. When I was in London in mid 1990s I realized that some public schools in England resembled that of my school in terms of their architecture.

In the past since its beginning, the headmasters of the school used to be British. The first headmaster was  R.F. Stainer. When I went to secondary school in 1965, the school was already headed by a Malaysian, Mr. Long Heng Hua. A graduate of the University of Malaya, he was in fact, the first local to be appointed as its principal. The school prides itself of the Tiger logo and its motto, Magni Nominis Umbra, which means under the Shadow of the Great.

The thing I remember most about my school is the quality of its teachers. They were not only dedicated and committed to teaching but were also real sources of inspiration and motivation. Most of them were strict disciplinarians, which explained why we, students, had no choice but to focus attention in our studies.Of course, there was also time to play and to run around in the field. Many of the teachers, particularly the English language teachers were trained in Kerby or Brinsford Lodge in England. We also had British volunteers directly imported from United Kingdom. Others were trained in Raffles College in Singapore and University of Malaya (in Singapore then).

Some of my favorite teachers were Miss Khoo (unfortunately I could not remember her full name) who was my form teacher in SMC1 and SMC2 , and Mr. Rahmat Ali who taught me English language when I was in forms1 and 2. Mr.Lim Swee Chin (whose brother was a popular politician of the day Mr. Lim Swee Aun) taught me Geography in forms 4 and 5 but he was such a fierce-looking teacher that most of my classmates were so scared of him. Our History master was known by the nick name "Junjong", a Punjabi,  who was also the school's senior assistant.

My other favorite teacher was Raja Mahtra Raja Kamaralzaman (the daughter of the Raja Di Hilir of Perak then) who taught me English Literature in form five. She was my form teacher later when I went to form six.  She too was an old Edwardian who earned both bachelor's and master's degree from Victoria University, New Zealand. Two other teachers who taught me Malay language and Malay literature in forms 5 and 6 were Miss Rabitah and Miss Arfah Aziz respectively. Miss Rabitah was a graduate of University of Malaya and Miss Arfah graduated from Toronto University, Canada. Miss Arfah later on acquired her doctorate and left the school to join the Ministry of Education.

My interest to go into communication field later in my life was actually inspired by all these teachers.

The unique thing about my school was the multiracial character. This was not surprising because of its location in Taiping, a multiracial town itself. Being a multiracial school we have learned to tolerate among various races at young age. The multiracial nature gave us the atmosphere of a healthy competition in our class. I remember those days having to compete with some of the bright Chinese students from wealthy background. If you are talking about "1Malaysia concept" it was in fact there already in the 1960s.

We also had students from the rural areas outside Taiping who were housed in the school's hostel. I remember some of my classmates who hailed from as far as Batu Kurau and Selama. These were bright students who later on went to university and became engineers, doctors, lawyers and professionals. The school was popular for rugby and our rival in the game was Malay College Kuala Kangsar, a boarding school mainly populated by the elites.

Indeed, the past headmasters or principals, teachers and students had all contributed to making King Edward VII School or KEVII  for what it had proudly stood... Today the Tiger spirit still roars...