The campaign that Astro AWANI launched last Monday on the fight against dengue called #CukupSetakatSamson got me thinking a little bit.
The team here lost a very valuable member, Samson AKA Khairul Anuar Che Ramli, a visual editor who has been here since the inception of the channel due to the dreaded disease.
His death was immediate. Admitted into hospital on a Thursday, passed away on a Sunday. Only 33 years old with a wife and a one year old son. Immediately, AWANI took the fight personally.
As our Group Editor-In-Chief, Suhaimi Sulaiman, said, "Often, we journalists are very cold in reporting. But now that we have experienced it ourselves, it changes the perspective.".
Samson became our poster boy for the fight against dengue. And this has become a contention for some who say that he is being used for commercial reasons and for publicity.
This made me think, are we really doing that? For those who aren't in the circle of the decision makers who made the call for this campaign, don't be too fast to judge and past assumptions.
If I were to die, I would be honoured to be remembered due to a good and positive cause. I would want my memory to be carried on in the best and most positive way possible.
The intentions of the Astro AWANI team is to honour Samson's life and to create a human face to the fight and the cause against dengue that has plagued Malaysia for ever since.
Of course, he didn't ask for it. He didn't ask to contract dengue either, and neither did he ask for his life to be taken away and to leave his young family.
We are not doctors who have the ability to help sick people. We aren't scientists who have the skills to develop drugs and other various ways to eradicate to virus.
We are not politicians and law makers that can initiate policies and regulations to help fight against dengue and the aedes mosquito.
We all are just mere journalists and all we know how to do is to report stories and to create awareness, and even then, if people actually want to listen.
We are hardly as significant as doctors, scientists, politicians and law makers.
However, we still want to use our humble skills and abilities in journalism to do something to contribute - to contribute for the cause and to honour Samson.
And #CukupSetakatSamson is as much as we can do. Al-Fatihah and rest in peace.
Zan Azlee
Thu Mar 06 2014
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