Journalists and staff of Nanyang Siang Pau today handed over a memorandum to MCA calling upon the party to divest its entire stake in the Chinese newspaper which it acquired two months ago.

Six journalists, representing the Nanyang branch of the National Union of Journalists (NUJ), led by branch chairperson Cheah Kee Ling, handed over the memorandum to MCA secretary-general Dr Ting Chew Peh at the party's headquarters in Kuala Lumpur.

The memorandum was signed by over 150 staff of Nanyang nationwide including executive and management officers.

Ting promised that the memorandum would be submitted to the board of directors of Huaren Holdings, of which he is one of the four trustees.

Huaren is the investment arm of MCA which in late May paid RM230 million cash for 72.3 percent of the equity in Nanyang Press Holdings, publisher of two major dailies, Nanyang Siang Pau and China Press .

Yesterday, Huaren announced that it intends to retain only 20 percent of its stake in Nanyang Press adding it had received three offers for the remaining 80 percent of its shares.

Cheah told reporters the memorandum also urged MCA not to sell its shares in Nanyang Press to other media groups.

"We do not want the Chinese newspaper market to be monopolised by individuals or groups," he said.

Asked whether he was confident that MCA would dispose all its shares in Nanyang Press, Cheah said the party must sell 'at least a majority of the shares'.

Slim majority

The Nanyang takeover by MCA sparked a storm of public protest, particularly from the Chinese community, who feared that political party ownership would stifle the editorial freedom of the two dailies.

The party's leadership was forced to call for an Extraordinary General Assembly (EGM) on June 24 which saw the delegates approving the deal by a slim majority.

Meanwhile, some 90 columnists and writers have withdrawn from contributing to the two dailies.

A boycott of the papers was also launched by several Chinese-based organisations and this has been reported to have 'substantially affected the papers' daily circulation figures'.

MCA president Dr Ling Liong Sik then announced that the party would divest a 'strategic stake' of its newly-acquired Nanyang shares to others who were interested.

Prior to the MCA June 24 EGM, Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad had openly conceded that the government was 'uncomfortable' with the previous owner of Nanyang Press for 'not supporting the government'.

The premier, however, denied giving any directive to MCA to take over Nanyang Press.