To be able to converse with wise men and women has always been an intellectual pleasure. It is also sometimes morally uplifting. Meeting and talking again with John Doraisamy recently was such an experience.

Now a happy and contented retiree, Doraisamy had been an English lecturer with Universiti Malaya for some 20 years. The last post he held in the academia was associate professor in the university's faculty of education.

Graduated with a bachelor of arts degree in English from Singapore, he later went to London to read political science and law, and came home with a masters degree. While teaching English in UM, John also wrote books and scripts for Radio and Television Malaysia (RTM).

John later practised law for a short while, but he finally chose to teach, write and read as widely as possible.

He is now what Malaysians in their 20s call, an 'old school' English speaker and user. This writer, however, prefers to call it 'classical'.

This writer and Doraisamy met again at a luncheon to welcome the arrival of a Western diplomat. Somehow, their private conversation turned to journalism and the reading habits of Malaysians. Before bidding farewell, they agreed with to share their thoughts, and to invite public discourse and reflection.

Honourable profession

According to Doraisamy, journalism has always been an honourable profession and vocation in the West, and many famous writers and statesmen in the United Kingdom and United States first entered into public life and engaged in public discourses as journalists.

One of the greatest prime ministers of the United Kingdom, Winston Churchill was, said Doraisamy, a reporter during the Boer War (1899-1902).

Of course, the writer and Doraisamy remember great American journalists like William Shirer who wrote The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich — A History of Nazi Germany and Edgar Snow who met Mao Tze Dong and his guerilla bands in Yenan when the American government then was deadly against 'the bandits', and who also wrote Red Star over China .

Being a journalist gives one the social and personal exposure, as well as practical experiences in public affairs which cannot be taught in schools and universities, through theories which are by nature, impersonal.

Unfortunately, added Doraisamy, many Malaysians do not honour journalists, and worse still, many journalists themselves do not bring honour to their profession. Instead, they treat journalism merely as a job of writing and reporting according to what their bosses want them to scribble.

Doraisamy also observed that nowadays, most of the journalists do not read, or do not have the habit and passion to gain knowledge of human affairs and social conditions through reading books, especially history and classics of literature.

However, Doraisamy concurred with this writer that the lack of passion to read books among journalists is but only a true reflection of the Malaysian society at large.

Fear of loneliness

Asked why Malaysians generally do not read, or are averse to the idea, Doraisamy's answer was simple but philosophical: the fear of loneliness and solitude.

According to him, Malaysians generally love crowded and noisy activities which are action-packed because for years, they have been encouraged or conditioned to spend their leisure time with politically harmless and unthinking group programmes.

This, according to Doraisamy, was how the ancient Romans were ruled by their secular emperors and usurpers such as Philip who was once a horse-thief, who saw organising mass and popular games for their subjects as an important statecraft to discourage critical thinking and questioning spirit.

Doraisamy is an enthusiast of Edward Gibbon's The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire .

As a result, John observed, many Malaysians, including journalists, have also developed the fear of being alone or in solitude, whereas to be able to enjoy solitude is a prerequisite for a good reader of good books, or a passionate writer.

Doraisamy also said, once cut of from the crowd, or devoid of crowded activities, many Malaysians would feel empty inside their hearts and minds, and do not know how to manage the condition of being alone.

To a large extent, this writer agrees with his observations. However, there are other factors, in the opinion of this writer, besides the psychological one.

For example, while locally-produced books are in short supply, imported ones are relatively expensive. Moreover, there are not enough public libraries which stock quality books.

There is also the problem of language proficiency and the general lack of knowledge of world history and affairs, thanks to the system of education and design of syllabuses introduced and by the nationalist elites in the late 1960s and early 1970s, and enforced through the next 30 years.

Nationalist propaganda

The intellectual and moral vacuum has been filled with nationalist propaganda that stresses the values of the survival of the fittest (Social Darwinism), and of means being solely justified by ends.

In the process, many humanistic and universal values such as patience, justice, empathy and sympathy for the weak, mercy and compassion, fair-play, the need for critical self-reflection, faith in the eventual triumph of the good over evil, respect for other fellow human beings' dignity, identity, security and lives, and the moral fortitude to defend truths, have been destroyed as the invaders of Rome destroyed civilised institutions and values in the 5th century AD.

Techniques and skills in arithmetic, mathematics and information technology, in this new context and milieu, only reinforce and strengthen the system negative values of the nationalists, and its operations. It is like cannibals being given micro-wave cookers and electrical refrigerators.

However, history itself also offers hope. Just as the combined powers of Christianity and Islam finally brought Europe out of the Dark Ages, the united strengths of Liberalism and Socialism also ultimately triumphed over fascism.

Despite the seemingly irreconcilable differences, Christianity, Islam, other world religions, Liberalism and Socialism believe in the moral perfectibility of human beings and their conditions.

In short, it is the belief, however 'irrational' to some scientific and mathematic casts of mind, that good will ultimately triumph over evil, justice over injustice and liberation over oppression.

JAMES WONG WING ON is chief analyst of Strategic Analysis Malaysia (SAM) which produces the subscriber-based political report, Analysis Malaysia . Wong is a former member of parliament (1990-1995) and a former columnist for the Sin Chew Jit Poh Chinese daily. He read political science and economics at the Monash University in Melbourne, Australia. While in Sin Chew , he and a team of journalists won the top awards of Malaysian Press Institute (MPI) for 1998 and 1999.