Senior Writers of Newswav met on Senior Citizen's Day to share common interests

Senior Writers of Newswav met on Senior Citizen's Day to share common interests inspiring one another to express their own opinions!
By Mihar Dias (C) Copyright October 2022

It was a great coincidence that the first gathering of would-be senior writers for Newswav was held on Senior Citizen's Day, 01 October 2022 at the 132-year-old Royal Lake Club.

We couldn't have planned this great coincidence any better than that. The average age of participants is about 60 with the oldest being 84 and the youngest in the 40s.

The most senior and distinguished participant is Dato' Syed Ahmad Idid a Barrister at Law of Inner Temple and formerly a High Court Judge. It was indeed inspiring to see someone like Dato' Syed Ahmad still interested in writing for digital media. His daughter Sheriffah who is a regular contributor for the Edge was also present to keep the dad company.

A couple of years younger than Dato' Syed Ahmad is Mr Aw Eng Sun, father of our world-famous novelist Tash Aw, who found the discussion at the workshop very illuminating reminding him of his younger days when people from various ethnic backgrounds could meet and talk about our relationships in this multi-racial country of ours without reservations.

But at his age, he finds it rather difficult to use his handphone to get on board the Newswav portal without assistance. Anyway, the fact that he is willing to try in his 80s is highly commendable.

In fact, almost all participants had to be assisted by Janice Chin and the CEO and Founder of Newswav, Swee Wai Hoow. The latter were present to lend a helping hand to every participant struggling to get on board the Newswav platform via their handphones.

For instance, Janice had to help Dato' Dr Mohd Zin a former professor of UIA and the University of Brunei who neglected to bring his reading glasses to the workshop. But in the end, everyone registered as a writer on Newswav.

Besides Prof Zin, there's Gijs Van Wezel from Holland who is in Malaysia on Malaysia My Second Home (MM2H). He has already written 5 columns since I briefed him a couple of weeks earlier as to how to get published on Newswav. He said he's doing it as a hobby trying to popularise tennis more so of the street variety for school children to instil in them the love for the game early in life.

Sitting next to Gijs was Alias who signed up at the last minute when he saw my advert on my Facebook page. He rushed to the workshop and dashed off again to a wedding reception in Bangi, politely turning down our invitation to lunch because his wife was already anxiously waiting for him outside the club. He said he was glad to learn how to write and promised to contribute to Newswav during his overseas travels in the coming months.

In any case, the common bond that brought about 20 of them to the meet that day was to learn "How to Write and Get Published on Newswav".

For over two hours they quickly learned how to write an opinion page a.k.a Op.Ed traditionally appeared on the Editorial page of printed newspapers like the New York Times, London Times, The Guardian or even the local New Straits Times. Many are still avid readers of these papers, now mostly in digital format.

The seriousness of learning how to write was interspersed with jokes, laughter and lengthy discussion that lasted almost two hours. But from what they expressed during the discussion we discovered that everyone had strong opinions about issues that needed an outlet for them to express themselves.

And they have come to the right place. Newswav offers them an outlet where they could freely express themselves without difficulty.

Also, Newswav is ready to help them find the audience they need to widen their readership.

Among those pleased to find the platform is Sharmini who loves to write but never had the time. Now after quitting her job to be with her children she has more time to write and eagerly joined our workshop for the day. She too promised to submit an article real soon.

Sitting next to her were Cindy Chiew and Madam Teow both entrepreneurs in entertainment and education respectively. They were happy to be part of the workshop and participated earnestly and freely in the discussion. Madame Teow who had been actively involved in politics expressed her views without reservations.

At times her ideas were at odds with that of a Malay activist Haji Lokman who almost always has something extraordinary to say at all conferences that I had attended with him.

For instance, in a discussion on project allocation by the government, Lokman believed that the NEP benefited the Chinese business community as well as the Malays when Cindy said that she had difficulty doing her job because of the affirmative action programme that favours Bumiputeras.

He said when he was in PERNAS he had to offer contracts to the Chinese community, "I have no choice but to offer the Chinese when there were no Malays who could do the job!"

Obviously, Cindy Chiew, Madame Teow and Lokman have their own views and stories worth sharing with the rest of the world.

Newswav is a good platform to start uploading their thoughts to be shared with others.

Anyway, the explanation on how to write op.ed was followed by a briefing from Newswav on the dos and don't(s) when writing. They were also shown how their writing could be monetised via the news aggregation portal.

On the whole, the discussion was lively and the motivation to learn to write and get published on Newswav was indeed inspiring.

It became more motivating when they learned that Newswav goes on a profit-sharing scheme which most of the time favours writers and other participating content creators than the platform owners themselves.

It became more apparent when Janice disclosed how much the most prolific amongst the writers could possibly earn in a month.

At the end of the workshop we had lunch at The Buttery Restaurant at the Lake Club sponsored by Newswav.

Most opted for the traditional fish and chips or chicken chops while others had rice or Hokkien fried noodles.

Discussion continued over lunch ending around 2.30 pm with everyone promising to write a column within the following week.

To keep the motivation going I started a WhatsApp chat group the following day reminding everyone of their commitment to Newswav. So far the enthusiasm is contagious.

Time for you to shine, Go Senior Writers!

Mihar Dias is a content creator under the Newswav Creator programme, where you get to express yourself, be a citizen journalist, and at the same time monetize your content & reach millions of users on Newswav.

Newswav is solely an aggregation platform and hosts the content. The views expressed and content above including media (pictures, videos, etc) were provided by the author. If you have any questions about the content, copyright or other issues of the work, please contact Newswav.