news analysis
Just like the Sarawakian-owned Chinese daily Sin Chew Jit Poh , two other dailies Nanyang Siang Pau and China Press are sold at newsstands in all major towns in Sarawak where 30 percent of the state's 2.2 million population are Chinese.Although not every Malaysian Chinese can read and write the language, the percentage that do, is still very high and includes a growing number of non-Chinese, with many bumiputra parents sending their children to Chinese schools these days.
In fact, Nanyang Siang Pau made its mark in Southeast Asia as a newspaper for the Chinese trading community in the region much earlier than Sin Chew .
Although in recent years, the latter had overtaken the former in terms of circulation, especially after the world's largest timber-based conglomerate Rimbunan Hijau group owner Tiong Hiew King took over the financially-troubled newspaper group and turned it around into what it is today.
But the name Nanyang Siang Pau has been etched in the memory of its many old and loyal readers throughout the region.
In recent years, many of Sin Chew 's best editorial people have left to join Quek Leng Chan's Nanyang which together with its sister paper China Press , have a respectable combined circulation of 300,000.
Big influence
In fact the readership is big enough to influence Chinese thinking, and no other party can perhaps see this as well as MCA, especially its president Dr Ling Liong Sik.
The view from a distance here is that, if the two Chinese dailies are not prepared to articulate MCA leadership's and Barisan Nasional's policies, then at least without MCA's control over them, they would give prominence to the expression of more divergent viewpoints reflecting both sides of the political and racial divide.
That MCA which already owns popular English daily The Star through its investment arm Huaren Holdings does not own or control a leading Chinese newspaper, and this is relevant to the current developments which has created a great deal of anxiety among both the journalistic fraternity and the Chinese community.
The general belief is that the MCA should allow another party which is not political to take over if for some reasons Quek Leng Chan's group is forced to become an unwilling seller.
The belief, which is not totally without foundation, is that this will give the editorial team the laxity and not the owners, to decide what the readers want.
Ling Liong Sik's words do not count much nowadays, not after what has happened between him and his deputy, the honest and financially-independent Lim Ah Lek. That Ling has chosen to keep quiet after the tacit understanding regarding the party's future leadership between the two men has raised a lot of questions.
A dilemma
A MCA-controlled Nanyang Siang Pau and China Press will be no different than what The Star is today. Editors, who will incur the wrath of their political masters, do so at the risks of losing their jobs.
Malaysia's media is faced with a dilemma at many fronts: whether to pander to the whims and fancies of their masters on commercial or political matters or both or nothing at all. Of course, on both counts there is a price to pay - one is at the risk of antagonising the bosses, the other is at the risk of losing one's job.
It has already happened in Nanyang and China Press even though Huaren Holdings has not officially taken over. Leave it to the Chinese when they want to spoil a fight.
Many of the dailies' readers see the joint stand taken by the 14 powerful Chinese groups as a warning that the MCA leaders must heed if they do not want to be consigned to the dustbin of history in the coming general-elections.
It is bad enough when the private and state-owned radio and TV stations are not articulating the opposition's views. But surely the MCA can see the folly of its own action if it were to go ahead to own and control the two Chinese dailies, even though it may well be based on commercial considerations.
Perhaps, as one reader said, Hong Leong's Quek Leng Chan should come out and make a statement as to why he is relinquishing his shares totally in Nanyang Holdings?
Why has he been described by some quarters as an unwilling seller?
Propaganda machinery
The MCA leadership ought to look at the wider interest of the Chinese community rather than the short-term narrow and sectional interest.
What would be the effect on the Chinese community, Chinese education and culture when traditional Chinese dailies lose their original identity and become an extension of the government's propaganda machinery?
The Chinese community in this country are at a crossroad when their traditional roles in many areas such as commerce, industry and education are being undermined by new policies. They need to speak out.
Will a MCA-controlled and MCA-appointed editorial team be prepared to expound third-party or neutral and independent viewpoints? Or must they only reflect the views of one or two men in MCA?
Current trends in newspaper ownership seem to point at one direction, as a Malaysian lecturer at the London School of Economics wrote recently: Not only answers are not being given but the authorities are also trying to prevent questions being asked. It may soon become impossible to ask what kind of society is now evolving in Malaysia?
TONY THIEN is a freelance writer based in Kuching.
