KUCHING: Meet veteran newsman Datuk Seri Azman Ujang from Kapit.
Apa Khabar TV sat down with Azman to recount his journey in the world of journalism recently.
According to the article published on Apa Khabar TV’s website, Azman, 72, who has served as Editor-in-Chief of Bernama, later as its CEO and finally as Bernama chairman, is even now not about to abandon journalism. Such is his passion.
Years ago, travelling along the Rejang River, the journalist could not have imagined the degree of recognition he would go on to achieve in the field.
He launched his career in Kuching back in 1971 when, just to illustrate, current Senate President Tan Sri Dr Wan Junaidi Tuanku Jaafar was a police inspector in charge of traffic.
Azman went on spend well over five decades doing what he loves most – bringing even the most complicated stories to the public in a simple manner which became a hallmark of his craft.
He held various posts in Bernama in a career spanning decades before his retirement in June 2008 as the general manager, a post to which he was appointed in March 2007.
He began his career with Bernama as a cadet reporter at the Bernama Sarawak Bureau in 1971 and was promoted to head the Bernama Sabah Bureau in 1982.
The following year, he was appointed Bernama Economic News Service news editor.
Azman was promoted to various editorial positions in the news agency, including as assistant editor of the News Desk, Features Desk and acting editor of the Features and Foreign News Desk before he rose to become the editor-in-chief in 2004.
He was appointed Bernama editorial advisor until September 2009. He was also the advisor to BernamaTV from July 2008 to April 2010.
In 2016, he was appointed chairman of Bernama and retired in January 2020.
Azman became the first ever to hold the top three posts of Chairman, General Manager and Editor-in-Chief in the history of the national news agency.
Last year, Azman won the Japanese government’s prestigious award, The Order of the Rising Sun, Gold Rays with Neck Ribbon.
The award is in recognition for his immense contribution to the world of journalism for more than five decades, and in deepening relations between both countries.
All things said, Azman who at one time was referred to as ‘anak Orang Malaya’, mistakenly of course has made an indelible mark in the media, especially from the viewpoint of Sarawak.
Growing up, Azman was known as ‘anak Orang Malaya’ to his schoolmates.
His father, Ujang Malek, of Minangkabau descent, was born in Rembau in 1912, while his mother, Dayang Rokayah Abang Tokay, hailed from Mukah, a predominantly Melanau area.
Although Azman was referred to as ‘Anak Malaya’, he never actually visited Malaya during the pre-Malaysia days.
“Our father used to take a few of us children, by turns, to visit his uncle, the actor Ahmad Mahmud, at the Jalan Ampas Studio at Jalan Ampas, Singapore.
On how did Ujang Malek, a Minangkabau from Rembau, end up in Sarawak?
“It was not macho for a Minang man not to merantau (travel),” Azman said.
Ujang Malek attended the Serdang Agricultural School, an institution founded in 1931 which was progressively upgraded to a College and ultimately a university.
He then moved from Rembau to Sarawak soon after World War II ended and married Dayang Rokayah in 1945, the same year he arrived in Sarawak.
The rest, as newsman Azman would put it, is history.
