WongMunChee ought to learn what is citizen journalism

Wong Mun Chee, just like Rais Yatim ought to learn what is citizen journalism. His mind is too clouded with  'I dislike Lim Guan Eng'  frenzy and that tends to make life very gloomy for him. This is illustrated in the kind of mail from him published by MT. I personally mailed to Wong Mun Chee yesterday (13 August 2009) and this man doesn't have the courtesy to thank me for my reply. Is that a sign of cowardice when cyber trolls like him are confronted with real humans? 

Dear Mr. Wong

I am referring to the mail to the Editor of Malaysiakini.  First of all, let me clarify that I am a citizen journalist under cj.my and am not employed by Malaysiakini and neither do I get a salary for the videos. I merely contribute videos to them, just like how people write to the Editor.

In a way, I am glad that you get the message I was trying to project in the few minutes' video. It expresses the same sentiments of unfairness I felt when I heard that the developer is giving away RM500K homes to the ten families whom had left the village sometime in 2006. They were offered a paltry sum of money and since then, their houses in Kg Buah Pala have been demolished.

They had never fought a single fight, never shed a single tear and out of the blue, they get a RM500K house. Can you feel the unfairness to the rest of the villagers in Kg Buah Pala? That’s why I asked Thomas Chan to clarify if they are getting the same kind of home.

I had been there in Kampung Buah Pala since they started picketing on June 2. I had made so many videos about life there and interviewed the villagers. I also gave Darshan Singh, Uthayakumar, Tamaraj, Sugumaran and other villagers a lot of airtime through my videos. However, maybe some sectors may notice I have a lot of videos by the state government too.

The reason of this perception is because lately, the state has been giving a lot of press conferences. Moreover, I am operating alone (and again, without salary or compensation) and was given the press schedules of the Chief Minister while I was hardly informed of the villagers' or developers' press conferences. I do not report to any editor or get any bureau chief to give me news leads. Whatever comes my way, I feature them. Whatever that I missed, are simply not reported.

For you to claim that I am part of whatever propaganda spin is baseless. I do not deny the fact that I admire the leadership of Lim Guan Eng and did not hide this fact. I only met the developer for the first time yesterday. 

We asked a lot of questions and almost all that you asked below were either explained by Thomas Chan or Lim Guan Eng through the many press conferences. Youtube only allows us 10 minutes per video so I cannot accommodate all the explanations. Anyway, I don’t see the need for me to justify what the developer or the state government said because I am not their mouthpiece. Like I said, I am not Malaysiakini's reporter so there is no need for me to painstakingly report every detail about ‘what Thomas said, what LGE said’. 

Thomas Chan did not want to answer questions related to Buah Pala yesterday and insisted on only general questions. So, as a citizen journalist, I am curious to find out about the news reporting because I am a citizen journalism curious to know about journalism. I even asked Uthayakumar who told me he watched my videos if I had been fair in reporting. 

Now, you may wonder why I bother to spend time doing these videos related to Kampung Buah Pala when I don’t get paid for them. I truly believe that all the parties can do with more exposure. Racist remarks are thrown and hurled around on the internet through blogs. Mainstream media are known be biased towards their agenda. So, I see my role as the intermediate voice. Like you said, “Our  thoughts and action objectivetly actually reflects our strength rather than hinging on someone else or false propaganda that we are so used to.” 

I believe I had reported fairly. I made it clear that the developer had treated the villagers who are the right owners as squatters. I said that though the villagers have lodged so many reports, they are going nowhere. The message is loud and clear that the rakyats are at the losing end because they are going against such huge force.

I wasn't aware that the developer is going to move in today to do the demolition so some quarters may assume that it was a crafted strategy, organised by Thomas Chan and Lilian Chan. Hahaha, we are not related. Too bad……….. 'cos I live in a 750 sq ft apartment with four grown sons and I wouldn't mind having relatives as rich as Thomas Chan, you know? Then, I probably can get a 500K double storey house too. It does sound like a nice conspiracy to feed on people's mind, isn't it?

At the end of the day, however people want to see the whole thing is beyond my control.

 — 

Lilian
My blog : http://chanlilian.net
My video :http://www.youtube.com/user/5xmom