Information Ministry parliamentary secretary Zainudin Maidin today dismissed as immaterial the picket held by journalists from two Chinese dailies who are protesting against the takeover of their newspapers by MCA.

"They will regret it later. They can picket all they want but they would have to think about their stomachs after that," Zainudin, who is popularly known as Zam, told malaysiakini in the Parliament lobby today.

About 100 staff of Nanyang Siang Pau today staged an hour-long demonstration outside their office in Petaling Jaya, while another 100 employees of sister paper China Press also held a picket outside their workplace in Bangsar.

Last week, MCA confirmed that the party's investment arm Huaren Holdings is set to take over Nanyang Press, which publishes the two major dailies and 14 other Chinese-language publications.

While Huaren Holdings has confirmed its intention to take over Nanyang Press, rival media group Pemandangan Sinar, which publishes Sin Chew Jit Poh and Guang Ming Daily , is said to be eyeing a minority stake in it.

Media watchers have expressed fears that both deals would result in MCA acquiring complete monopoly of all four major Chinese-language daily newspapers in the country.

Party organ

When asked if it was fair for the MCA to take over the two dailies while PAS' Harakah is limited to twice a month, Zam said that Harakah is merely a party organ.

"They abuse the freedom of the press by publishing all these nonsense. They might have been allowed to publish daily but how can they, when they publish illegal material and even letters from prisoners in jail.

Zam was apparently referring a letter written by jailed deputy prime minister Anwar Ibrahim to the health authorities on why he rejected spinal surgery in Hospital Kuala Lumpur, which appeared in last issue of Harakah .

"If they practise responsible journalism, don't you think we would allow them to publish on a daily basis?" he said.

Asked if there was a possibility that Nanyang and China Press be turned into party organs, he answered "no".

" Utusan Malaysia is owned by Umno, the New Straits Times belongs to a party and The Star also belongs to a party, but the these papers have a high readership. People have trust in these newspapers," he said.

Utusan parallel

Zam conceded that a parallel could be drawn between this takeover and that of Utusan by Umno in the 1960s.

"Yes there might be a parallel there, but the takeover of Utusan was needed because the paper at that time was controlled by communists and socialists. I was there. They could not pay staff their salaries," said the former chief editor of Utusan .

"The banks then did not even want to entertain them because of their background. When Umno took over, their readership of 10,000 was raised to 15,000."

In the 1960s, when Utusan Malaysia was being taken over by Umno, veteran journalist Said Zahari together with national laureate Usman Awang led a strike in front of Utusan 's main office in Kuala Lumpur, calling for press freedom.

Said was later exiled from Malaysia by the late premier Tunku Abdul Rahman Putra Al-Haj and later spent 17 years under the Singapore's Internal Security Act, authorised by then prime minister Lee Kuan Yew.

He recently released his political memoirs entitled Meniti Lautan Gelora , which is also available in Chinese and English, the latter entitled Dark clouds at dawn .