Listen and thou shall know

In my office at the newsroom

ONE of the things I have learned to master over the years as a journalist is to listen more than I speak. Since I don't talk that much anyway, many-a-times, I just listened and hear people tell their stories. After several years of doing this, I also picked up the ability to read between the lines when people talk and also the skill of observing people's body language to figure out what they actually mean when they speak.

 I consider myself a good interviewer. In fact I have always liked interviewing people and I tend to get the stories I want from most of my interviews.
 One time I sat in Brigadier General Lee Hsien Loong's office in Singapore to interview the man. He was then deputy to prime minister Goh Chock Tong and I had been staying for almost a week as a guest of the Republic then, in conjunction with its national day celebrations.
 During the week, I was briefed by various departments of the Singapore government, including a visit to its armed forces training institute. Then during the national day parade, I watched a pantomime performed at the stadium.
 The pantomime depicted Singapore's progress from the end of the Second World War right up to the present day vibrant and wealthy state that it was. Conspicuously missing however, was the period when Singapore was part of Federation and then Malaysia. I was surprised that director of the pantomime had overlooked that tumultuous period of Singapore's history and planned to ask Lee Hsien Loong about it the next day.
 When I asked him during the interview, Hsien Loong gave a surprised look and said he will check with the organisers. Well judging from his body language, I didn't believe him.
 I was sure he knew. I later wrote in my story that it was quite clear that the Singapore government would like its younger generation to forget about that part of its history.
 The late Tan Sri Samad Ismail, then an editorial adviser at the NSTP and an authority as far as news concerning Singapore was concerned, commended my story, saying he enjoyed reading the piece and that it was well-written. Coming from Pak Samad, I felt like I'd just won the Pullitzer prize.
 I like talking to children the most. Children usually speak from their hearts, even if they are saying something as simple as wanting a particular toy. They seldom beat round the bush.
 Whenever I talked to children who are not as fortunate as some others, all I had to do was to look into their eyes. Almost always, even those eyes would tell of their sufferings.
 Once I was at a rundown port in the West African town of Conakry, capital of the Republic of Guinea.  The republic of Guinea was then a poor country and I saw many malnourished children wandering about the wharf.
 A ship carrying grain was unloading its cargo and as some of the grains fell to the ground, a group of boys no more than eight years of age used cardboards to scrape them into heaps. Sadly, as the heap of grains gets bigger, a group of older boys came, just shoved the smaller ones aside and ran away with the grains. I saw a few of the smaller boys were in tears and had wanted to talk to them.
 Unfortunately, they only speak their mother tongue and a little French (Guinea was once a French colony).
 But, I did not have to ask them to speak English to know of their plight. When I looked into their eyes, I couldn't see anything else but misery and even as they spoke in a language I could not understand,  their body language revealed all. When they spoke with tears on their cheeks and hands clutching their deflated tummies, I knew they must be starving.
 And of the lot, among the easiest of people to read have been politicians. I find it easy to see through politicians because they always speak with one purpose -- their political survival. And politicians tend to follow the saying 'the end justifies the means' to the letter.
 In general, however, it is human nature that every individual would think that he or she is the best. Which explains why sincere compliment is an expensive commodity.
 I have interviewed probably scores of people who think they were God's gift to mankind. And always, I have listened intently as in the process of glorifying themselves, word by word and perhaps unknown to them, they were revealing their own shortcomings at the same time.
 Journalism has taught me these little things, and more.

ENDS