opinion

Although MCA's investment arm Huaren Holdings has formally taken over Nanyang Siang Pau and China Press , the resistance and opposition to its attempt to control and manipulate the Chinese-language newspapers intensify at various levels.

According to a news report published by Sin Chew Jit Poh yesterday, Gerakan president and Primary Industries Minister Dr Lim Keng Yaik urged the MCA "to reconsider" the takeover decision. Gerakan party is a predominantly Chinese multi-ethnic member of the ruling Barisan Nasional, and a traditional competitor of MCA for Chinese electoral support and resources.

The Sin Chew report also quoted Lim as criticising the MCA-controlled English-language daily The Star for "suppressing" the voices of Gerakan leaders. He said, "Gerakan has no confidence in the assurance given by MCA president (Dr) Ling Liong Sik of not interfering in the editorial policy of Nanyang Press."

Lim, an Ireland-trained medical doctor, started as a middle-ranking MCA leader who got sacked by the party in early 1970s for being openly critical of the top MCA leadership then. After spending a short while in the political wilderness organising what is now known in the Chinese community as " gai ge movement" (reform movement), he joined Gerakan, transforming the originally multi-ethnic party into a competitor of MCA in terms of Chinese support for the Umno-dominanted BN.

Not normal business deal

A day earlier, MCA Youth chief and Youth and Culture Deputy Minister Ong Tee Keat was quoted by Sin Chew as saying that MCA's takeover of the two Chinese dailies cannot be regarded as "a normal business transaction". He said, as "public instruments", newspapers must not belong to the shareholders alone, but be accountable and responsible to the Chinese community as a whole.

The former deputy speaker of Parliament's Lower House told the Chinese media that he had received written objections to the takeover from 21 Chinese associations and 121 individuals in his parliamentary constituency, Ampang Jaya. He was also quoted as saying that he would submit the objections to MCA's top leadership.

Ong, a four-term MP, is publicly known as a leading dissident in the Ling-controlled MCA. Also a regular columnist in various Chinese-language newspapers and publications, the Malaya University engineering graduate is seen to be a strong rival to Ling's protege and political operative and 'networker', Ong Ka Ting who is a vice-president and whose elder brother Ong Ka Chuan holds the powerful party post of national organising secretary.

Both Ong Tee Keat and the Malaya University science graduate Ong Ka Ting are Mandarin-educated, while Ling still find it difficult to pronounce many commonly used Chinese characters when delivering Mandarin speeches.

The most serious challenge to MCA's takeover seems to come from 'Jimmy' Chua Jui Ming, an MCA vice-president and health minister. He was quoted by Sin Chew on Tuesday as saying that MCA's involvement in business is objectionable. He said, as a political party, MCA should "specialise" in managing the country and leave business activities to companies in the private sectors. The Mandarin proficiency of Chua, who is English-educated like Ling, is slightly lower than Ling.

Chua's statement is reminiscent of those by a former MCA acting president Dr Neo Yee Pan, in the early 1980s, when his faction opposed to "mixing politics with business" propagated by tycoon Tan Koon Swan who later became a MCA president in 1984 after successfully purging Neo and his supporters from MCA.

At one stage in the ferocious power struggle between Neo and Tan, Tan himself and Ling Liong Sik were sacked from the party by the bullish Neo. Tan, however, was later arrested, charged, convicted and jailed for criminal breach of trust in business deals by the Singapore authorities in 1986.

Revolt from businesses

On Tuesday, Nanyang Siang Pau reported that the usually conservative but reticently powerful Associated Chinese Chambers of Commerce and Industry (ACCCI) would officially call on emergency meeting of its board of directors next Tuesday to discuss the MCA's takeover of the two newspapers.

Its president, Lim Guan Teik, had already come out with a rather clear but emotional statement last month in a mass meeting held in the Selangor Chinese Assembly Hall, opposing the takeover. Lim was reported as saying that ACCCI would find ways and means "to save" Nanyang Siang Pau and China Press if MCA withdrew from the bid.

It is learnt that Lim Guan Teik's statement last month is now being disputed by the president of Penang Chinese Chamber of Commerce, Tan Kok Ping, who is widely known in the political and business circles in Penang as an 'agent' of Ling's faction in MCA.

Tan Kok Ping is also in extremely bad terms with the Gerakan government in Penang after he was seen to be using the Penang Chinese Chamber of Commerce, before the last general elections, as a platform for Ling's faction to 'discredit' Gerakan vice-president and Penang chief minister Dr Koh Tsu Koon in its political campaign to convince Umno of the desirability of having an MCA chief minister.

Thus, the MCA/Ling-Gerakan inter-party struggle also seems to have surfaced. On the same day, Nanyang Siang Pau also carried a press statement issued by MCA national publicity bureau (NPB) criticising Dr Koh Tsu Koon for being not daring enough to oppose Umno's takeover and control of "many newspapers". NPB is directed by MCA chief propagandist Wong See Wah, a former deputy finance minister, who is widely speculated to be the managing director of the MCA-controlled Nanyang Press Holdings.

According the NPB's press statement, had MCA not taken over Nanyang Siang Pau and China Press , the Chinese-language newspapers might have "fallen" into the hands of "a business group controlled by another race". "Another race" seems to refer to Umno or interests associated with or backed up by Umno. Umno's interests did once control a now defunct Chinese-language newspaper Shin Min Daily News through the Fleet Group.

Seeking control

NPB's press statement also alleged that "a pro-Gerakan" business group and another company are also eyeing the ownership of Nanyang Siang Pau and China Press . Thus, according to NPB, there are now four groups competing for the ownership of the two Chinese dailies, and three have been identified in varying clarity, namely its own Huaren Holdings, "a business group controlled by another race" and "a pro-Gerakan business group".

Just as no one has linked the "business group controlled by another race" to Samy Vellu's Malaysian Indian Congress, the fourth and unidentified group is certainly not related to the infamous international currency speculator, George Soros, or the International Monetary Fund.

It is learnt that the fourth group is associated with a faction in the predominantly-Chinese Sarawak United Peoples' Party (SUPP), which commercially and politically rivals the owner of Sin Chew , Tiong Hiew King, who was a former SUPP-nominated senator and whose younger brother is still a BN MP. That faction of SUPP is also said to have controlled some Chinese-language newspapers in Sarawak, competing with Tiong's.

While Sin Chew Jit Poh , as a newspaper and a business entity, and its owner Tiong have come out with public statements to deny any involvement, 'direct or indirect', in the takeover, speculation is still rife in the Chinese community that Tiong supported, and still supports, MCA's takeover in order to prevent the two newspapers from falling into the hands of his Sarawak rival.

Besides having worldwide interests in the logging and timber industries, Tiong also at least controls Cambodia's Sin Chew Jit Poh , Hong Kong's Ming Pao and Yazhou Zhoukan - the Chinese version of Asiaweek - as well as an English daily in Papua New Guinea, the National .

What the press statement of MCA's NPB and other circumstantial evidences seem to suggest is that the Ling-controlled MCA is making a strategic alliance with the "friendly and experienced" Tiong. It is not a very wrong hypothesis to suggest that while Ling has to find "friendly and experienced" succor to overwhelm Gerakan and "another race", Tiong needs Ling's political and commercial strength to protect himself from his rival in Sarawak. At this stage, the form of the strategic alliance seems to be that Ling's MCA supplies money while Tiong contributes logistical support like experienced ('former') staff and technical expertise, to the takeover.

Opposition intensifies

Meanwhile, in the Chinese-speaking civil society, the opposition to MCA's takeover continues and even intensifies. It is led by the president of the Selangor Chinese Assembly Hall (SCAH), Ngan Ching Wen, supported by the powerful networks of teachers, graduates and financial sponsors of Chinese schools and backed by the influential opinion of the president of the Associated Chinese Chambers of Commerce and Industry (ACCCI).

Ngan, a Britain-trained lawyer and who is known for his 'easy access' to Gerakan president Lim Keng Yaik, had also led a delegation to Putrajaya to submit a protest memorandum to the popularly perceived 'mastermind', Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad.

At the less elitist or more populist level, Chinese civil leaders, young and old, have started to travel to small towns and villages all over the country to rally multi-partisan opposition against MCA's takeover. They are now joined by leaders, members, supporters and activists of Parti Keadilan Nasional, DAP, PRM and PAS.

The more technically-minded and visionary Chinese youths have also set up alternative Chinese newspapers in the cyberspace, like [#1] Generasi [/#] by Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia graduate Justin Yong Kai Ping.

The number of Chinese-language mainstream newspapers' columnists and writers on strike has gone up from some 40 originally to about 90, making the opinion pages almost unrecognisable.

In addition to the recently vacated post of finance minister of Malaysia, Dr Mahathir should perhaps also consider taking over 'temporarily' the positions of editor-in-chiefs of both Nanyang Siang Pau and China Press .

JAMES WONG WING ON is a former member of parliament (1990-1995) and also a leading Mandarin-Chinese opinion writer and columnist. He read economics and political science at the Monash University in Australia from 1983 to 1986.