How to handle an interview.

14.4.2009.

There are two kinds of interviews - recorded, and live . And there are two kinds of interviewers - the Malaysian kind, usually not very highly knowledgeable because of cultural/educational background, often not critical and far too soft, and mostly unlively and unimaginative; and the other kind hired by the Western media, always opposite of the Malaysian variety.

Many Malaysians are proud of their own kind, and rightly so. But we should accept our shortcomings, too. In spite of the often quick and misplaced pat on our own backs for a live interview perceived to have been well handled, the truth is mostly not so. 

Take the latest that had the BBC pit that Badawi woman against our Rais Yatim. Let's not take that comment about her IQ being low too seriously, because if it's true BBC wouldn't have hired her, and you better believe it. Rais was obviously affected by the barrage of hard questions, something that would never have happened if it was RTM. Instead of remaining completely calm, like Mahathir did in a similiar situation before, Rais tried to also interrupt Badawi. Worse, Rais tried to up the ante by saying, for instance, PM Brown has worse problems, when answering the question of Najib's big problems.

Badawi was quick to shoot down that impropriate comparison on that particular question. Brown's problems make resounding point on the bigger question of nation-building. Similiarly, in Mahathir's interview, he may have remained calm, but his cynicism was always over-dosed and not "debate- friendly". The key here is engagement. This is where the multi-lingual African leaders we like to say are politically behind us are in fact in live interviews ahead of us. Just watch them in similiar situations. They don't let their accent bother them, so you can say piss-off with your cultivated Oxford diction. But they make their points, so convincingly that often the hardest of the Hard Talk interviewers are taken aback and momentarily silenced. 

And many times I've seen that they are surprisingly soft-spoken, too. You can't even make intellectual comparisons between interviewers and interviewees. The interviewers would be the first to acknowledge that they don't know how to run a country the way many of the interviewees are often involved in. It's not their job to do that. They are journalists, and running the interview is their job.

Rais and Mahathir would fare better if they just briefly say ,without embellishments, and embarassment , what they were trying to do, each time such question was posed. That's the whole idea of the interview. If, as is wont to happen, one gets interrupted, shut up. That, eventually, would force the questioner to hold back so that an answer would be given. Never try to outtalk or outshout the questioner, because his/her main strategy is to give you discomfort. Keep in your zone, and let him/her come out of his/her comfort zone. As Tiger Woods says, you can control what you do, not what the others do. 

The background of all the questions is always fully understood by the interviewee, never the interviewer. Show up that lack of first-hand knowledge straight away. There'll be no applause, but you will always know you've scored from the look in the eyes. If you can imply their bias on top of their ignorance , the score might even cause their face to change. 

 " Anwar was not found guilty by Mahathir. He was found guilty by the Courts. The same courts that were first established by our British Advisors. Many of these Judges are English trained. Can't you differentiate between fact and fiction ?" 

Engage, not evade. Rafidah had an interview that was reported in a major newspaper recently. It wasn't live but it oozed vanity and venom a live interview would have ridiculously exposed. It said a lot about her because of the pontifications and self-endearing commentaries. It also explains her massive loss at the UMNO GA. I wonder if the reporter was smiling to herself a little bit, because I found the whole thing a bit comical. Apparently Rafidah will go to her grave believing she's a saint, poor girl. Well, Rafidah, modesty is obviously not your forte. Fair enough. But give some credit to the victor. Clearly she couldn't have tampered with all of the ballot papers, or bought over all of the delegates, because the margin was just too large. What's so bad with accepting defeat with grace ? Can't you pretend just a little bit that you have a bit of it ? I know you did the same thing to Dr. Zaharah, but I thought you might have improved with age. What's the role-model here, how to be a sore loser ? I suppose it needs class.

I see that you always put the Quran on a rehal in front of you whenever you have a p.c. I don't suppose you actually read it. 114 Surahs say much about humility, forgiveness, good-neighbourliness, jihad, repentence, and doing good and discarding bad. You should try practicing some of them. If you believe in the Hereafter, you should realise that the time to make some credits is running out. 

--------------------------------------------