The Home Ministry has finally given the suspended Chinese newspaper Oriental Daily News the green light to resume publication after a two-month appeal.

It is learnt that the letter lifting the suspension has been signed by the ministry's secretary-general Aseh Che Mat and that the daily's management headed by Henry Lau Lee Kong is expected to collect the letter this week.

A source from the daily told malaysiakini today the ministry has also approved the application for a printing licence at the daily's office-cum-printing plant in Subang Jaya, Selangor.

"Our management has been informed by the ministry of the good news and the staff have been told to prepare the publication to hit the streets in a very short time", the source said.

Attempts by malaysiakini to obtain confirmation from Aseh and Deputy Home Minister Chor Chee Heung today were unsuccessful.

Closely handling appeal

Contacted later, the ministry's publication control unit chief Abdul Rahim Mohd Radzi also declined to comment. But an aide admitted that Abdul Rahim has been handling the appeal very closely since last week.

The suspension letter to the daily in September was signed by Abdul Rahim.

Launched on Sept 29, Oriental Daily News managed to distribute 50,000 complimentary copies in several towns before the ministry suspended its publishing permit on the same evening.

Using an old publishing permit acquired from a former MCA Perak leader and a businessman who currently runs several Chinese tabloids, the first issue of the daily was printed by a printing firm in Ipoh as the application for its own printing permit was rejected by the ministry.

Scores of journalists and editors from Nanyang Siang Pau and China Press joined the fledgling newspaper largely as a result of MCA's controversial acquisition last year of Nanyang Press Holdings the publisher of the two dailies.

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

It is believed that some party leaders have attempted to convince Home Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi and the premier that the suspension of Oriental Daily News was good for the country as many of the staff are 'anti-government elements' from Nanyang Press.

However, the source from the daily said he felt the approval was given after they managed to convince the ministry that the management and staff were not anti-government as alleged.

Positive development

Another source from the daily, when approached, also confirmed that the ministry has given the green light for the paper to resume publication.

"This development is very positive indeed. However, we are aware that some quarters would have preferred that we remain suspended" he said without elaborating.

Oriental Daily News was supposed to have hit the streets in July but sources said it was postponed due to "repeated advice" from the ministry to drop the launch altogether.

At least RM30 million had been injected for the daily's preparatory works since June and RM1 million is needed monthly to pay the 200-odd staff and maintenance fees for the office.

Currently, the daily's staff are working as usual, providing news for their sister daily, the Sarawak-based See Hua Daily News .