[Kalau Mahathir membelah Umno sampai lebih empat kali dan menghiris perasaan orang melayu entah berapa kali sehingga mereka tidak menyukainya lagi - kini MCA pula sedang terbahagi. Ini akan mewujudkan satu konfrontasi sengit yang akan memupuskan MCA sendiri sebagaimana Umno kini.

Hasil pengundian dalam MCA itu menunjukkan terdapat tentangan yang amat sengit dimana 53% menyokong, dan 46% membangkang. Keputusan ini bermakna sudah tiada lagi media perdana yang betul-betul bebas di negara ini kerana ia sudah dimilikki oleh samada pemerintah ataupun pembangkang. Akan lenyaplah kritikkan walaupun membina hanya kerana kerajaan dan MCA tidak mampu diaibkan.

Menurut analis langkah mengambil-alih akhbar itu akan membolehkan Mahathir memutar minda masyarakat Cina agar menjadi me-layu juga. Lunas tumpas ke tangan pembangkang, antara lain, adalah kerana perubahan mendadak sikap masyarakat Cina. Kita meramalkan selepas ini isu sekolah wawasan, SRJKC, kuota atau gambar-gambar menarik demo reformasi tidak akan muncul di akhbar itu lagi.

Walaupun begitu masyarakat Cina dijangka tidak akan akur begitu sahaja membiarkan lidah mereka dipotong agar terus mengampu kerajaan BN/Umno. Mereka amat bersatu berkempen menentang usaha itu - baik dikalangan cendiakawan, persatuan, mahupun kelompok perniagaan. Jika kempen menggempur itu berterusan sehingga pemilu akan datang, BN akan tumbang dan Mahathir serta Ling tidak akan dapat dimaafkan berzaman oleh ahli parti mereka sendiri. - Editor]

The Australian
25th June 2001

Mahathir allies in paper take-over

By Kimina Lyall, South-East Asia correspondent and agencies

MALAYSIA'S largest Chinese party has voted narrowly in favour of taking over two independent newspapers - a deal that has sparked uproar among the Chinese community over press freedom fears.

About 53 per cent of delegates to a special meeting of the Malaysian Chinese Association voted in favour of the deal. About 46 per cent voted against.

The decision by leaders of the MCA has deeply divided the 900,000-member party - the second-largest in Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad's National Front, which is becoming increasingly dependent on Chinese support.

The move to buy the two dailies, Nanyang Siang Pao and China Press, last month was interpreted as an indirect attempt by Dr Mahathir to bolster his Chinese constituency by eliminating the then-independent newspapers' criticism of his Government.

Dr Mahathir admitted as much on Friday when he said that, although he did not direct the purchase, he had been unhappy with the two newspapers, which were "instruments of the opposition".

But the decision backfired, with an outcry in the Chinese community leading to a consortium of Chinese businessmen offering to buy out the MCA's interest in the broadsheet newspapers, which have a combined circulation of 300,000.

The meeting, only the second in the MCA's 44-year history, was called after bitter internal fallout that some observers interpreted as a pretext for a leadership dispute between the president, Ling Liong Sik, who supported the move, and his deputy, Lim Ah Lek, who opposed it.

Yesterday's close vote, while on the surface securing the decision and the future of Dr Ling, reflects a growing dissatisfaction in Malaysia with political control of the media.

The buyout of a 72.5 per cent stake in the newspapers for RM230million ($116 million) late last month means there is no major newspaper in Malaysia that is not controlled by either the Government or the opposition.