news analysis

Talk to Sin Chew Jit Poh employees in Kuching and they will tell you that their boss, Sarawak timber tycoon Tiong Hiew King, is definitely keen to take over the MCA-owned Chinese daily Nanyang Siang Pau .

According to one senior staff, Tiong has always cherished the idea of being the 'king' of the Chinese vernacular press in the region.

His acquisition of a financially-troubled Sin Chew years ago and turning it into a very profitable national newspaper was not seen as the end of his interest in Chinese media ownership.

"He is ambitious, he wants to spread Chinese culture globally through media ownership, and he has already done this successfully in Malaysia, Hongkong, Cambodia, Papua New Guinea and Canada. He is planning to set up a Chinese newspaper even in New York.

"He has the money and is not merely looking at making more money through media ownership," said the staff who declined to be named.

According to Forbes magazine, Tiong is the world's 336th richest man. He is estimated to be worth US$1.5 billion (RM5.7 billion) and his Rimbunan Hijau Group is said to have assets worth several times more spread across the world.

Another senior employee said Tiong, a former Malaysian senator, is a very low-profile man but there is little doubt that he harbours the ambition to be 'king of the world Chinese press'.

"So it does not come as a surprise to hear his name linked again to a possible purchase of a major stake in MCA's investment arm Huaren Holdings which owns Nanyang and China Press ."

Single daily

Nanyang has also lost a substantial number of its loyal readers to Sin Chew , whose circulation in Sarawak and Sabah has outstripped all the other Chinese newspapers in the region.

According to its circulation staff, Sin Chew has a circulation of a little more than 40,000 in Sarawak and about one-fourth of that in Sabah. Its circulation in Peninsular Malaysia is about 350,000.

He believed if there is a MCA-Tiong deal, it would make money sense for Sin Chew to absorb Nanyang and create a single Chinese language newspaper while China Press could function as an afternoon paper.

But they acknowledge that this would not go down well with the Chinese community in Malaysia who would rather see two competing newspapers so they have at least one paper that is not aligned too closely to the government of the day.

MCA's Huaren has denied reports that it planned to sell 51 percent of its Nanyang stake to Tiong.