Commercial interest will over-ride the racial sentiments in the ongoing debate of certain imported programmes aired by satellite TV Astro, says a columnist, Teh Hon Seng, who writes regularly for Chinese newspapers Sin Chew Jit Poh and Nanyang Siang Pau.

Teh told malaysiakini today that the Chinese programmes featured in the local television networks are all motivated by the market, and not a result of pressure from political parties like the MCA, or the government.

Teh was commenting on a Utusan Malaysia report that foreign programmes imported wholesale by Astro could undermine Malaysia's nation-building process, as alleged by a group of local artistes and literary figures campaigning against such programmes.

"If the government wants to go backward, people will then switch to watching web TV, where the government cannot stop anyone," he said.

The Astro satellite station has 28 channels, including four Chinese ones, namely Astro AEC, TVBS Asia, Phoenix and Astro Wah Lai Toi, and one Tamil channel, Astro Vaanavil.

Astro, which started operations in 1996, has over 300,000 subscribers today.

Yesterday, Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad said the government is monitoring public views on the call for the Chinese and Tamil programmes on Astro television channels to be restricted, reduced or banned.

According to the director of Chinese Community Research Centre (Huazi), Tiah Toh Twin, Malaysians are educated enough to distinguish between "good and bad".

"We won't follow the leaders blindly," he said. He felt that the low quality of the Chinese programmes on RTM and TV3 is one of the reasons pushing the consumers to turn to Astro.

Meanwhile, DAP chairman Lim Kit Siang said that the complaints and criticisms about the lack of local Chinese programmes on Astro are legitimate, but this cannot be used to demand the discontinuation of the existing four Chinese channels unless it is extended to all foreign programmes.

He said as the attack on Astro's foreign programmes is focused only on the Chinese and Tamil channels and not on the over 20 channels beaming American and English programmes, the motive and agenda of the campaign "is highly suspect".

"The imputations made against the Chinese and Tamil communites, suggesting that they are chauvinistic and even doubting their loyalty to Malaysia, must be deplored in the strongest possible terms.

"So long as the loyalty of the Chinese and Tamils in Malaysia are praised sky-high before every general election, but are openly doubted and challenged before every Umno party election, Malaysia cannot be said to have succeeded in the Malaysian nation-building process - and the problem lies not with the ordinary people of all races but in the political leadership of the Barisan Nasional, particularly in Umno," he said.

He said, the Cabinet should warn Umno leaders not to jeopardise the nation-building process and the larger national interests in their campaign for the upcoming party elections in May.