The biennial election for the control of the National Union of Journalists (NUJ) is seeing a heated battle between two teams led by incumbent president Chin Sung Chew and secretary-general V Anbalagan respectively.

The results are expected to come down to the wire. Voting is already under way at the respective NUJ branches and the results will announced during the biennial general meeting on Nov 3.

NONE Chin ( left ), a veteran journalist with Sin Chew Daily , is facing a challenge from Utusan Karya Sdn Bhd (UKSB) NUJ branch president Latip Mat Radzi, a senior graphic designer. UKSB is a magazine publisher under the Utusan Group.

As for Anbalagan, a veteran journalist with New Straits Times ( NST ), he will be defending his post against Schave Jerome De Rozario, a current NUJ vice-president and member of The Star NUJ branch.

Chin has christened his team ‘Barisan Pakatan', comprising representatives from several NUJ branches but which excludes members from the NST branch.

NONE He took over as NUJ president after Utusan Malaysia sacked its previous leader, Hata Wahari ( right ), forcing him to quit his union post last year.

Anbalagan, who is also NST branch president, doesn't have a name for his team and only has one official running mate in the form of Latip.

Adding to the mix of candidates is Malaysiakini chief reporter Abdul Hafiz Yatim who is vying for the deputy secretary-general position in a three-cornered fight - a first for an online journalist.

Chin: No branches will be ignored

Although the contest for NUJ positions is normally a friendly and cordial affair, the two main candidates are taking the race very seriously.

One of Chin's campaign messages was that Anbalagan had engineered the nomination of candidates from NST for most of NUJ's positions.

Chin said that in contrast, his team included people from various media organisations because the leadership line-up needed to be inclusive.

"We have to ensure that none of the branches are ignored," he said, adding that no single NUJ branch should be dominant in the union.

Chin also accused Anbalagan of shoring up support for himself by recruiting direct members from organisations not formally recognised by NUJ, such as Malaysiakini .

He said there were NUJ branches which were not comfortable with this move.

The NUJ was originally established for print journalists, which online journalists do not fit the description, although both essentially do almost the same work.

Online media members

As for Anbalagan, he said the recruitment of direct members from the alternative media was necessary in order to keep up with the times and remain relevant.

NONE "We have to be very inclusive. At the moment, there 1,500 members of NUJ. That's just from the print media. But the media is no longer limited to print," he said.

On Chin's observation about the high number of NST branch members taking part in the contest, Anbalagan ( right ) said this was expected because the branch was the biggest in the union.

"But this doesn't mean that I'm ignoring the other branches," he said.