When newspaper editor June Wong was provoked into writing a column to prove a point, she did not expect to publish a compilation book seven years later.
Anyone who knows June Wong, or has worked with or for her, will be familiar with her firm opinions, fiery nature and fiendish determination in pursuing a story and putting out a newspaper.
During her 42-year career at The Star she has written features that have changed lives, has been hauled up by Bukit Aman and has even met Queen Elizabeth. From a newbie reporter she moved up through the ranks to be group chief editor, always at the forefront of fresh and original ideas.
Before she retired at the end of June this year her book, So Aunty, So What? And Some More, a compilation of columns, had been launched.
The Journalist
After one job and one employer, Wong has fine-tuned the art of being a newshound. “People don’t realise that the newspaper is the fastest-moving consumer product.”
To her, within a few hours, nothing can remain the same: neither the puzzles, nor the horoscopes, and definitely not the news. Everything had to be put together and got right in a 24-hour news reporting cycle.
In her early days at The Star, after Question Time in Parliament she’d rush to the press room with her typewriter to bash out the first report before the office boy arrived at 5 pm.“We could do that because we were strong writers, who could write efficiently to produce clean copies. The editors would just give it a cursory look and in it would go in the first edition.”
Some of her favourite and most personal stories that she wrote during her career are included in the book. Such as Tun Dr Siti Hasmah Ali’s first-ever exclusive interview with any journalist. Tales from the Grave, that recounted Wong’s experience covering the exhumation and re-location of her paternal grandparents’ and aunt’s graves in Singapore’s Bidadari Christian Cemetery. “I included many sidebars examining the importance of graves. Cemeteries are powerful reminders as repositories of history.”
Her most memorable piece, written with a colleague and not included in the book, was Death of an Activist. Published in 2000, the investigative piece paid tribute to young activist Kamal Bhamadhaj, son of a Malaysian father and New Zealand mother, who was killed in 1991 during East Timor’s long and tragic struggle for independence. “Years later, I saw a post by someone who had read this piece as a teenager and was so inspired that he felt he had to do something with his life.” Such a response made Wong’s job worthwhile.
The Person
“I have a curious mind, nurtured by my job, that made me want to learn,” stated Wong, as she needs to understand a subject first before explaining it to her readers. As a broad-range editor, Wong had her finest moments in features, where she learned about everything from the environment and education to fashion and women’s issues. “I can play Trivial Pursuit so well that my children respect me and are impressed by my general knowledge. And I can beat the hell out of them.” Wong also plays, challenges and wins against strangers around the world on Trivial Pursuit apps.
That’s also the value of newspapers and magazines in enticing readers to read material they didn’t think they’d be interested in. “It was a valuable kind of education process that we have lost because we don’t flip through pages. All we do now is scroll.” Aided by bots and AI, this leads to interests becoming narrower and narrower, when supplied by feeds.
Curious about the public’s perception of the police years ago, she ran a poll in the newspaper. She worked with the force’s PR department and had a professor analyse and verify the results from more than 3,000 respondents long before the days of social media polls. Two days before it was due to be published, she was summoned to Bukit Aman. Faced with a group of senior police officers she tried to explain why it was necessary to run the negative story in good faith. Out of desperation, as they were very unyielding, she resorted to using her father’s name as her ‘Get out of Jail’ card. One of them remembered the retired officer, the mood changed and she managed to run the story.
The Aunty
When Wong was managing editor, along with other senior editors, she was challenged to write after being dismissed as part of an ageing workforce. “Maybe I had lost my voice and needed to reclaim it. I wanted to represent my demographic as a mature woman.”
Now some of her loyal readers have even identified her as Malaysia’s most famous Aunty. As every writer needs readers, she tries very hard to use reason, logic, facts and figures to shape her opinion pieces. Writing from her heart humanises her stories, but she finds that is both pleasant and painful at the same time. When possible, she adds humour to make what she says sound more agreeable. And when readers write in to say that she made them laugh, she couldn’t be happier.
However, her new excitement these days comes from watching Eastern drama serials. She’s learning so many new things from podcasts and YouTube, including the favourite new singing sensation in China, Dimash Kudaibergen from Kazakhstan. That, of course, has piqued her interest in travel to Central Asia. “It’s a great way to open my mind to Asian sensibilities and to new modes of storytelling.”
She’s often brutally honest. For instance, she admits warily that she’s taking too long to finish her latest read, Jared Diamond’s Upheaval. “Maybe now my brain has been rewired to appreciate visuals instead of reading words.”
