MEDIA TOO HAVE ROLE TO PLAY IN CHARACTER BUILDING

SHAH ALAM (Malaysia), Oct 6 (Bernama) -- The media have an important role to
play in character building besides institutions of higher learning in the
country, Chief Secretary to the Government Mohd Sidek Hassan said Tuesday.

"We must build good character but the media have an important role to assume
in making sure that we speak about this good character so that it will encourage
others to behave," he told reporters after delivering his lecture on "The
Character of Doing the Right Thing" at Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM) here.

In the lecture he said the crux of character-building was doing the right
thing everytime.

He said there were so many people who avoided corruption in Malaysia and
named former Bank Negara governor Ismail Mohd Ali and former chief secretary
to the government Ahmad Sarji Abdul Hamid as examples.

He said that if the media kept echoing that there were many thefts and
snatch thefts, people would remember Malaysia as having lots of snatch thefts,
and this was where the role of media to educate the public was important.

"Granted there are snatch thefts, granted there is as much corruption here
as in England and Singapore but do they talk about it in the press? No, they
don't," he said.

Nevertheless, he said, those who abused the process or their powers must be
taken out from the government system.

Asked whether he was suggesting that the media tone down their reporting, he
said: "I'm suggesting that the media do the right thing that is good for our
country, all the time."

He said the media would always say that they wanted the truth but there were
good things happening in the country that were true and should also be reported
instead of focusing more on the negative side.

The KSN (Chief Secretary to the Government) Annual Lecture 2009 is organised
by UiTM's Faculty of Administrative Science and Policy Studies. The lecture was
started last year.
-- BERNAMA