World Radio Stations On Our Recent General Elections

Top world news

By ANTHONY THANASAYAN

The winds of change that swept across the country, which shocked and awed the entire nation last weekend, was also strongly felt by many radio broadcasters around the globe.

“Badawi fails to get a two-thirds majority” was the top world news bulletin on All India Radio (AIR).

The New Delhi broadcaster made the announcement last Sunday, a day after Malaysians went to the polls to pick a new government.

Describing the 12th General Elections as one of Malaysia’s ruling coalition’s worst electoral performances, AIR told its worldwide audience that the Barisan Nasional had “lost control of four state governments and failed to win a two-thirds majority in Parliament for the first time since 1969”.

AIR pointed out that the polls results had even “raised questions about the political future of Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi”.

It also mentioned Datuk Seri S. Samy Vellu’s parliamentary seat loss, describing him as “Malaysia’s lone ethnic Tamil Minister”.

“The elections were held amidst complaints of racial inequality by ethnic Indians and rise in crime and corruption”, concluded the South Asia broadcaster.

China Radio International (CRI) from Beijing called the poll outcome “a setback for the BN”.

Radio Australia (RA) commented that “Malaysia’s opposition parties had pulled off a historic election performance posing the first challenge to the BN in five decades”.

The Melbourne-based broadcaster added that while “Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi’s coalition government will stay on in office, for the first time since independence in 1957 there will be a sizeable opposition in Parliament”.

RA said former Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim described the phenomenal event as a ”defining moment in Malaysia’s history, and a big success for the opposition”.

The Australian radio station also quoted Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s accusation of the Prime Minister of “destroying” the coalition, and suggesting that Badawi quit his post.

Washington DC’s Voice of America broadcast’s Luis Ramirez from Kuala Lumpur – speaking to local analysts in Malaysia – narrowed down the BN’s shocking poor performance to complaints of complacency and corruption.

Quoting James Chin, a politics professor at Kuala Lumpur’s Monash University, Ramirez said that the BN ought to look for pragmatic ways to rebuild support or face extinction.

“The BN government has heard the message loud and clear,” Chin told the VOA. “(Now) they (must) do something about it (if) they (want) to win the next election,” he concluded.

Note: This article appeared on Friday. Air Raves will resume on Wednesdays from next week.

Election In The Air

News & Features, The Star, Wednesday March 5, 2008

Election coverage on air

Air Raves by ANTHONY THANASAYAN

MALAYSIANS go to the polls on Saturday. The exercise is to decide who gets to govern the nation over the next five years.

The run-up to our general election (Malaysia’s 12th to date) this weekend, meanwhile, seems to be getting good coverage on Radio24.

The round-the-clock bilingual broadcaster in Bahasa Malaysia and English which is operated by the Bernama News Agency in Kuala Lumpur is currently running a special two-hour weekday talk show on the elections.

Named Hello Pilihan Raya and aired only in Bahasa Malaysia, the programme can be heard today until Friday at 8pm.

Listeners will not only be able to know more about the many political and social issues in the country but also acquire a better background understanding at the end of the shows.

These will be provided by the many prominent political personalities who are invited to proffer their views in the studio. The guests range from political analysts to ex-politicians and observers.

On Saturday listeners can expect to hear voting and result updates from what the station describes as “hot” locations around the country.

These include the states of Kelantan, Terengganu, Sabah, Sarawak, Kedah, Perlis and Perak.

Radio24’s anchors will also be able to rely on the support of Bernama’s own team of news journalists when presenting their live-crossovers and news reports on the broadcast.

Whilst the bad news is that Radio24 can only be heard at the present time by listeners in the Klang Valley on the frequency of FM 93.9MHz – the good news is that people living outside the stipulated area can tune in to the FM broadcaster via the Internet. All one has to do is to got to www.radio24.com.my.

On Radio24’s homepage, web surfers will also find the latest news updates on the general election as a tasty treat.

Recently, quite a few independent bloggers apparently gave the thumbs up to Radio24 for having conducted a poll last month where it was revealed that 80% of its respondents felt that blogs did not jeopardise the democratic process of our nation.

The results of the poll findings were broadcast over Radio24. Well done!

And speaking of alternative views, Melbourne’s Radio Australia ran a news feature last week on our elections.

The Asia Pacific segment of the international broadcaster highlighted a number of interesting topics in the country by speaking to Tian Chua, the information chief for the opposition Keadilan party and social anthropologist Professor Shamsul Amri Baharuddin, Director of the Institute of Ethnic Studies from Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia.

Despite living in the cyber age, the writer insists that radio still provides a unique window on the world. When he isn't scanning bandwidths, he helps to raise awareness of positive living with pets through his organisation, Petpositive (Malaysian Animal-Assisted Therapy for the Disabled and Elderly Association).

Nomination Day Coverage On Radio

Keeping up to date

Air Raves, StarTwo, The Star

LAST Sunday was certainly no ordinary day for Malaysians. It was the much anticipated nomination day for our political candidates of the respective parties ahead of next week’s exciting 12th General Elections in our country.

And Red fm was there for its listeners. From 9am until 1pm Red, which is operated by The Star, presented as frequently as four updates each hour on what was happening over at many of the nomination centres throughout the nation.

The FM broadcaster had six radio deejays posted on the ground in order to bring the action direct into the homes of listeners of Red.

The updates were presented as live crossover reports. Each report lasted for about two minutes.

The deejays not only spoke about the nominated candidates but also conducted brief interviews with some of the people at the centres. Listeners were able to feel the mood of the people in each venue this way.

Fans of Red are advised to stick with the broadcaster for more news on the March 8 Elections as the days get nearer. Meanwhile, the announcement of the election date a fortnight ago on Feb 14 witnessed many of our media scrambling to get the news to Malaysians and the world through radio, television and SMS.

However, sometimes being the first may not always make one the best – as Radio24 obviously discovered.

The station’s anchor in the studio was clearly not prepared about what to do should a delay in a scheduled event occur.

The problem started when Election Commission Chairman Tan Sri Abdul Rashid Abdul Rahman took a longer time to make his announcement. As a result, the 24-hour news station’s listeners ended up not knowing what was happening for a good 10 minutes or so.

Whilst television viewers could at least see what was going on, radio listeners could not. All we heard were voices mumbling. Radio24’s anchor should have intervened at once and criss-crossed back to the studio to apologise for the glitch.

Then, crossover back when everything was ready.

The same day was also Valentine’s Day. Whilst many of the English radio stations were pretty much in a

lovey-dovey mood all morning, some broadcasters tried to be different and downplay – or even dismiss the occasion.

Hitz.fm promoted “Single Awareness Day” which fell on the same day.

Red fm’s Shaz boldly proclaimed that Valentines over the recent years had become rather overrated.

RAT TREATS

RAT TREATS

AIR RAVES NEWSFLASH! My column as of today will appear on Wednesdays from now on. aNt


Wednesday February 20, 2008
Air Raves, StarTwo, The Star

Rat treats

By ANTHONY THANASAYAN

Tomorrow is Chap Goh Mei, an auspicious day which marks the final day to the Lunar New Year celebrations to welcome the Year of the Rat.

I cannot think of a more fitting time to look back and see what kind of treats the Rat recently decided to bring for us on radio.

I was delighted to observe several non-Chinese language broadcasters – particularly the Bahasa Malaysia radio stations – taking special interest in the lunar event.

I say this because over the recent years some of them have not been doing so, or at least, not enough.

Radio stations like Asyik FM run by RTM got its mostly Malay listeners to send out their Gong Xi Fa Cai greetings to Chinese listeners in the Eve of CNY.

Although many of them were taking advantage of the long festive holidays to return to their hometowns to be with their families, many still found time to call in to the studio to convey their greetings.

Asyik’s male deejay on duty was enthusiastic about the occasion. He reminded listeners about our multi-religious and multiracial country, sent his greetings out to all the “towkays” (Chinese businessman) listening in and reminded those on the road to drive safely.

I understand that there were lesser accidents on the road this year. If true, I have no doubt that a good chunk of the credit should go towards the radio stations for their frequent safe-driving messages on the airwaves.

I heard quite a few of them and was quite impressed. Having said that, however, I feel that there is still room for improvement.

Radio stations, for instance, should have invited personalities, politicians, or even the man-in-the-street to give out brief safe-driving messages to listeners during the festivities. The messages should be short, concise and kept amusing so that listeners will pay attention to them.

As for music, one FM station chose to give its listeners a heavy and long dose of sentimental songs during the evening hours of CNY. I seriously wonder about the wisdom of such a decision as loves songs tend to make some people sleepy!

NOTE: TODAY'S ARTICLE RANKED AT NO 10 IN THE STAR ONLINE.

Despite living in the cyber age, the writer insists that radio still provides a unique window on the world. When he isn't scanning bandwidths, he helps to raise awareness of positive living with pets through his organisation, Petpositive (Malaysian Animal-Assisted Therapy for the Disabled and Elderly Association).

Will Indians vote for change on March 8?/ Note: Ranked No 9 In Most Viewed

Thursday February 14, 2008 Will Indians vote for change? AIR RAVES, THE STAR By ANTHONY THANASAYAN Malaysians are not the only ones interested in our general election. The next one – our 12th to date since Merdeka in 1957 – is likely to occur very soon. Last week, Radio Australia (RA) predicted that there would be a very poor show of support at the polls for Barisan Nasional (BN) this time around from the Indian community, which, the international broadcaster pointed out, has stood by the ruling party for half a century. The Melbourne-based radio station based this assertion on Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi’s recent remarks to The Star. He had admitted that the BN can expect to have less support from ethnic Indian voters in the next election. RA’s Asia-Pacific programme presenter Nasya Bahfen interviewed Manogar Marimuthu, president of the Malaysian Tamil Education Research & Development Foundation, on the issue. Manogar told RA that the Indian community had long complained about a lack of jobs and educational opportunities. “The protest rallies by Hindraf (Hindu Rights Action Force) only drew more attention to the situation,” he added. Manogar said that the sizes of the rallies, which took the Government by surprise, were prompted by the destruction of Hindu temples. Sheer devotion: A group of devotees carrying paal kudam (milk filled container) during the Thaipusam celebrations. He went on to say that whilst he sympathised with the MIC because it was only a “small minority” within the ruling coalition, he thought that the party would “suffer serious setbacks” in the coming polls. RA, on its part, told its worldwide audiences that Abdullah has promised to address the destruction of Hindu temples and other grievances ahead of the election. “The general election is expected to be called as early as next month, although it doesn’t need to be held until 2009,” the broadcaster concluded. Meanwhile, Thaipusam on Jan 23 saw some tasty on-air treats on local radio. RTM’s Tamil-language broadcaster MinnalFM provided interesting coverage on how the event was being observed in various states in the country. One of the crossovers I heard was to Malacca. It was done clearly and glitch-free. TraxxFM’s Wake Up show talked about the incredible feats performed by kavadi bearers at Batu Caves. The deejays gave out information about the special diet and strict discipline the faithful have to endure to fulfil their vows. Finally, Bernama News Agency’s Radio24 once again performed with flying colours. Besides its regular updates on how Thaipusam was being observed in the country, a note of appreciation should go out to the broadcaster for its special festive greeting promo by its staff for the occasion. It seemed to have been done rather spontaneously, with everyone (in the studio) wishing everyone (on the air) a joyous Thaipusam. One could even hear an Indian classical music instrument being played in the background in the audio clip. A simple act like that – and the trouble taken to do it – was enough to immerse us all in the festive mood immediately. Despite living in the cyber age, the writer insists that radio still provides a unique window on the world. When he isn't scanning bandwidths, he helps to raise awareness of positive living with pets through his organisation, Petpositive (Malaysian Animal-Assisted Therapy for the Disabled and Elderly Association).

Radio Australia And Indians For Change