COMMENT | Have we progressed in our treatment of refugees?

COMMENT | Every now and again, Malaysians renew my faith in the country and our society.

As a journalist, I have covered many stories. Aside from the political ones, I have also covered many conflict and humanitarian stories as well. These stories have, obviously, left an indelible mark on the way I view and live life. In fact, it has even affected the way I teach my children to live their lives.

I have covered war and conflict in countries such as Afghanistan and Lebanon. I have seen how war violence affects innocent civilians in the most extreme way, from death to, even worse, a life of suffering and torture. And so I tend to produce stories that focus on that perspective, hoping to create some awareness about it in our society.

I have also covered uprisings and revolutions in the Middle East and North Africa during the Arab Spring. I have also seen how these have affected the lives of ordinary citizens, even causing death. All of the things I have witnessed as a journalist have made me realise that there is more to producing stories just for the sake of producing stories.

One of the recent long-form stories that I have produced is a documentary titled We Are Animals, which documents the lives of Rohingya refugees in...