Kota Kinabalu: Star senior reporter Muguntan Vanar is the new President of the Sabah Journalists Association (SJA) for the 2017-2018 term.He polled 51 votes against the incumbent Acting President Francis Fahir's 23 votes at the election of new office-bearers during the SJA Biennial General Meeting held at Zara's Boutique Hotel, Saturday.Diana Dominic of the Sabah Information Department was elected as the new Vice-President after beating two other contenders.
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Lailah Elok of RTM Sabah was re-elected Secretary with Siti Aisyah Narudin from Utusan Borneo elected as Assistant Secretary.Also retained as Treasurer was See Hua Daily News photographer James Tseu who was returned unopposed.
The six new faces in the Committee comprise Edmund Samunting (New Straits Times), Emran Azmie Roslee (RTM Sabah), Eddie Angat (New Sabah Times), Haslin Gaffor (Bernama), Kristy Inus (New Straits Times) and Ricardo Unto (Daily Express).In his maiden address, Muguntan said the priority of the new SJA Executive Committee (Exco) would be to put up the proposed SJA Building at Bukit Keramat where the association had acquired a piece of land from the State Government some years ago.
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"We will organise fund-raising events such as dinners and other activities to make SJA's 'dream house' a reality," he said.Emphasising the importance of SJA having its own premises, Muguntan said the Exco will also look into the need for more training programmes for the benefit of members.
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Meanwhile, Lailah, who was emotionally charged, recalled the struggle, together with Francis and James, to keep the association afloat amidst controversies at a time when it almost ran into trouble with the Registrar of Societies (RoS).
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To save the association, an extraordinary general meeting was held in April 2015 to sort out the financial statement for the 2010-2014 term, which was eventually audited and submitted to the RoS.Earlier, Francis in his speech thanked all members of SJA for their support and cooperation during his term.
