Oriental Daily News would have been in circulation for 46 days today.

By now, it would have known where it stood in the highly competitive Chinese newspaper market, identified the advantages and disadvantages it has over its competitors, and taken steps towards improving its content.

However, all these remain 'would haves' because the daily, launched on Sept 29, had its publishing permit suspended by the Home Ministry that very same evening.

No reasons were given the Printing Presses and Publications Act (PPPA) makes unnegotiable, the issuance and revocation of publishing permits anytime at the discretion of the Home Minister though some close to the daily said it could be a breach of technicality.

Many in the publishing circle see the suspension as an indication that a decade-long power struggle between two Sarawakian logging giant families, Lau and Tiong, has now spilled over to the peninsula each trying to outdo the other with political manoeuvring and large masses of wealth in a bid to expand their influence to the federal level.

The prominent figure from the Lau family is Lau Hui Kang ( left ), 74, and his counterpart from the Tiong family is Tiong Hiew King ( right ), 66.

Initially friends or at least acquaintances they eventually fell out when their similar background and interests started to clash.

"It is like what the Chinese proverb says: 'Two tigers are too many for one mountain'. The mountain was big enough for cubs. But now a grown tiger wants the whole thing by himself," said one Sarawakian businessman who preferred not to be named.

Two empires

Both Lau and Tiong hail from Sibu, Sarawak. The two Foochew a common dialect clan in Sibu got rich from logging concessions which were politically connected to the predominantly Malay-Melanau ruling elites in the state.

They were also close to the Chinese-based Sarawak United People's Party (SUPP). Like most rich Chinese towkays, the duo were actively involved in the local clan association and Chinese education groups.

Lau, however, started much earlier than Tiong in business and kept a lower profile than the latter. His KTS Sdn Bhd was already an established name in the logging industry throughout 1960s and 1970s when Tiong was only working for his uncle who owned WTK Sdn Bhd.

In early 1980s, Tiong set up his own Rimbunan Hijau group and got his competitive edge through his connections with the state's Chief Minister Taib Mahmud, who was also the Sarawak minister for forests.

His wealth has since witnessed an exponential growth. It was estimated in early 1990s that Rimbunan Hijau controlled concessions to more than one million hectares of Sarawak. Forbes magazine also named Tiong as one of the four Malaysian billionaires (in US dollars) for 2000.

When Rimbunan Hijau was still a fledgling company in the 1980s, Tiong's relationship with Lau remained cordial. Tiong even injected capital into Chinese daily See Hua Daily News run by Lau's younger brother Hui Siong and became a major shareholder in the daily at one time.

See Hua was dominating the Sarawak Chinese newspapers market then with a niche in providing a substantial amount of local news.

Signs of competition gradually appeared after Rimbunan Hijau purchased Sin Chew Jit Poh , now known as Sin Chew Daily , in 1988. The year before that, Sin Chew , together with English daily The Star and Malay tabloid Watan , was suspended in a media clampdown following the Operasi Lalang which saw the arrest of over 100 politicians, social activists, religious workers, and environmentalists under the Internal Security Act.

Tiong subsequently withdrew his investment from See Hua when Sin Chew 's circulation and reputation started to climb, challenging Nanyang Siang Pau , the leading Chinese newspaper in the country then.

Sin Chew eventually overtook Nanyang in sales. It was at this time that Tiong thought of penetrating the Chinese newspapers market at home, in Sarawak, too.

His ambition of forming a Chinese media empire grew bigger. He soon took over Hong Kong newspaper Ming Pao and regional news magazine Yazhou Zhoukan , as well as several other newspapers in Papua New Guinea and Cambodia.

This took place at a time when nearly all the logging areas of Sarawak had already been given out. Contest for these concessions became tougher and sometimes vicious. Both Lau and Tiong began to look overseas to expand their operations.

Lau, who possesses a more conservative mind, invested vastly in plantations, properties and hotels whereas Tiong sought to acquire public listed companies on the Kuala Lumpur Stock Exchange as vehicles for his businesses.

Start of strained relationship

Though there have been occasional competitive spurts between the two, it was not until the 1996 Sarawak state elections that the relationship between Lau and Tiong was strained severely.

The then SUPP president and Sarawak deputy chief minister Wong Soon Kai, a close friend of Tiong, was defeated by DAP's Wong Ho Leng in the contest for the Bukit Asek state seat in Sibu. Two other state seats also fell into the hands of the opposition party.

As a result of the defeat, SUPP's Wong blamed See Hua Daily , and two other newspapers run by Hui Siong the Malay Utusan Borneo and the English Borneo Post for giving extensive coverage to the opposition. He lobbied for the state government to boycott these three newspapers in a campaign that lasted for about three years. It only ended in early 1999, when the state government was trying to 'befriend' all the media in Sarawak, including the three newspapers, in preparation for the general election later that year.

The boycott however dealt a serious blow to Hui Siong's newspapers as they were said to have suffered a decline in advertising revenue amounting to millions of ringgit.

There was no evidence to link the boycott to a larger plot but sources said Lau believed that it was Tiong who fed Wong with the idea of a boycott as Sin Chew was making inroads into Sarawak.

In 2000, Hui Siong could no longer run the three newspapers due to financial difficulties and health reasons, and started looking for a buyer. Though Tiong would have been interested in the deal, he was someone Hui Siong would not even consider. Tiong had earlier bought Malaysian Daily , another Chinese newspaper in Sarawak, in 1998 and shut it down as part of a move to consolidate Sin Chew 's position in the state.

Other companies and businessmen were hesitant to take over the newspapers as they were just starting to 'cool off' after the boycott.

Lau eventually came to Hui Siong's rescue and took over the newspapers using KTS, a company now run by his son Henry Lau Lee Kong, 53. The newspapers were commercially purposeful as well as strategically useful for Lau to check the encroachment of Tiong's influence into his business interests.

The more enterprising Lee Kong knew that the only way to revive See Hua to its former glory was to have more national news and to be less 'Borneo-centric'.

Window of opportunity

It was around the same time that Hume Industries Bhd owned by businessman Quek Leng Chan, who was close to former deputy prime minister Anwar Ibrahim, sold Nanyang Press Holdings Bhd, publisher of Nanyang and its sister daily China Press , to MCA's investment arm Huaren Management Sdn Bhd for RM230 million.

The Chinese Malaysian community and many key organisations opposed the deal vehemently for fear that ownership by a political party would compromise the editorial independence of the two dailies.

On Lee Kong's part, his concern was not about editorial independence. The takeover had strengthened his suspicion that Tiong had a hand in it as part of an effort to monopolise the Chinese newspapers in the country.

His suspicion was not without basis. Within 24 hours after the takeover, several key editors and directors of Nanyang Press were sacked and replaced with a new editorial and administrative line-up taken from Sin Chew , a supposedly long-time rival newspaper.

Sin Chew later insisted that the departure of its staff to Nanyang Press was entirely their "personal decision".

But many took it with a pinch of salt, especially after Sin Chew 's chief executive officer Liew Peng Chuen editor-in-chief of English daily The Star during the 1980s became Nanyang Press' chief operating executive and was made managing director later. The Star is published by Star Publications Bhd controlled by Huaren as well.

Furthermore, it is well known in the business and political circle that after former SUPP chief Wong lost his government post, Tiong had gravitated himself towards MCA president Dr Ling Liong Sik, also a Foochew.

Two months after the Nanyang takeover, Tiong had also told his own magazine, Yazhou Zhoukan , that his grand ambition is to build a 'global Chinese media circle' that is of equal strength and resource to that of the West, adding that he would not mind cooperating with any political party to achieve the purpose on condition that he has the controlling stake in the company.

A simple revamp and repackaging of See Hua thus became only a defensive move for Lee Kong. It seemed inadequate to break the monopoly that was slowly taking place at that time. To launch See Hua at national level would be difficult too as the paper as its name suggests has been associated with the Chinese in Sibu.

A new brand name was needed. Another sister daily based in the peninsula which caters news for itself and See Hua would not only ensure economic viability but efficiency too. Thus, Oriental Daily News was conceived.

Getting the right people to run the daily is the least of the problems as the former key editorial staff of Nanyang Press, sacked or resigned, were ready to be hired. The only problem left then was a publishing permit.

A window of opportunity opened in the wake of an open split within MCA which had resulted from the Nanyang takeover.

The Team B faction, a staunch critic of Ling's leadership and an opponent of the Nanyang takeover, was said to have helped KTS to acquire an existing publishing permit from Tan Tiew Bok, a former MCA Perak leader and a businessman who runs several Chinese tabloids, who also does not favour Ling.

Tan was a state exco until he quit the party following a leadership crisis in MCA during the1980s between the then acting president Dr Neo Yee Pan and vice president Tan Koon Swan. Tan later joined the People's Progressive Party (PPP) but retired from politics in early1990s.

With everything set in place, KTS began to establish the printing plant for its new publication in Subang, Selangor, chalking up RM30 million in costs so far, including the salaries paid to scores of journalists and editors, many of whom were from Nanyang and China Press .

Problematic birth

Even amid the preparations, Oriental Daily News encountered many problems, suggesting that there were parties who were trying to kill the newspaper at a premature stage.

The management of the newspaper received 'repeated advice' from the Home Ministry more specifically the Section C officers who are under the supervision of Deputy Home Minister Chor Chee Heung to drop the publication plan altogether.

Its application for a licence to operate printing presses was also rejected by the ministry without any reasons in August. This was unusual in itself as the printing licence, possessed by all printing firms, is relatively easy to obtain, unlike the publishing permit.

Despite the 'advice', Oriental Daily News had a soft launch on Sept 29 and was suspended on the same day.

Sources said a negotiation team led by Lee Kong had appealed to Deputy Prime Minister and Home Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi regarding the suspended daily.

At the meantime, MCA is not taking it lying down. Sources claimed that some party leaders have attempted to convince Abdullah and Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad that the suspension of Oriental Daily News was good for the country as many of the staff are 'anti-government elements' from Nanyang Press.

After the Nanyang takeover last year, Mahathir had labelled Nanyang and China Press "anti-government instruments" that had caused the ruling coalition a narrow but humiliating defeat in the Lunas state by-election in November 2000.

However, Mahathir soon realised that the information fed to him by MCA, who had proposed to buy the two newspapers, was inaccurate. Being 'anti-government' was something that the Chinese newspapers, or newspapers in any other languages for that matter, could not afford in this country.

Observers said the distrust was evident when Mahathir appointed two Chinese advisers late last year instead of depending mainly on MCA as the custom was to brief him on Chinese Malaysian affairs.

Furthermore, it has been said that Mahathir's relationship with Tiong was strained in early 1990s when Tiong's partnership with the premier's sons Mukhriz, Mokhzani, and Mirzan in an optical fibre venture had failed to turn a profit despite lavish investments.

In 1999, Mirzan had also sued Star Publications and Sin Chew for libel, for RM150 million and RM750 million respectively over an article in Asian Wall Street Journal (AWSJ) that indicated his ascent in businesses was due to special treatment from Malaysian companies and banks.

Star Publications' subsidiary Star Papyrus Printing is the printer of the AWSJ in Malaysia. Sin Chew had translated and carried the piece. The suits were eventually settled outside the court with an undisclosed sum.

The final decision on whether Oriental Daily News can resume publication will therefore be telling of who, between Lau and Tiong, manages to capture the confidence of Mahathir and his deputy and how good they are at playing this game called 'Who wants to be a Chinese media baron'.