The Home Ministry clarified today that it has nothing to do with the decision of newly launched Chinese-language Oriental Daily News to suspend its opinion page.

The ministry's publication control unit (Chinese section) chief Tan You Huat told malaysiakini that there was no instruction from the ministry to the newspaper to remove their opinion page, contrary to claims by certain quarters.

"We did not send out any (removal) directive to the paper. They are allowed to continue with any (opinion) columns as long as they comply with the ministry's requirements," he said when contacted.

Tan also said he was puzzled as to why the opinion page was removed.

"For me, Oriental Daily is ... so far so good".