[MCA mungkin nampak untung dengan membeli Nanyang tetapi majoriti masyarakat Cina akan rugi. Rugi kerana isu yang menindas mereka tidak akan muncul lagi. Dan yang menyedihkan pemimpin dan parti bangsa mereka sendiri merestui tindakkan seumpama ini.

Ling bolehlah ketawa dengan kemenangan undi 53% lawan 46% dalam EGM itu tetapi tunggu dulu. Bagaimana jika 46% pembaca Nanyang tidak membeli akhbar itu lagi?????? Bukankah Ling telah menggali kubur buat MCA dan Nanyang sendiri?
- Editor]

The Asian Wall Street Journal
25th June 2001

Malaysian Chinese Association Votes In Favor of Takeover of Newspapers

By CRIS PRYSTAY

Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia -- An ethnic Chinese party in Malaysia's government voted narrowly in favor of the controversial takeover of two newspapers that Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad described last week as "instruments of the opposition."

The Malaysian Chinese Association, part of the ruling coalition, bought 72.3% of Nanyang Press Holdings from a unit of Hong Leong Group on May 30, sparking an outcry from hundreds of ethnic-Chinese organizations in Malaysia who fear a loss of press freedom. Nanyang Press publishes Nanyang Siang Pau and China Press, two dailies with a combined circulation of 390,000. The takeover also pitched MCA President Ling Liong Sik, who engineered the deal, into a battle with his deputy president and long-time leadership rival Lim Ah Lek and Vice President Chua Jia Meng.

In a bid to quell growing dissent Datuk Ling called for an extraordinary general meeting of the party on Sunday -- the second in 52 years -- and the won approval for the deal by a slim, 53% majority.

The MCA president may have won the day, but the victory raises the specter of a political backlash from the party's own electorate when the ruling coalition needs to shore up support from the Chinese community. The narrow margin of Sunday's vote also highlights the deep schism within the party itself, and at the same time, strengthens the hand of Datuk Lim ahead of next year's party elections.

Sunday's vote is "going to polarize the situation even more," says P. Ramasamy, a political science professor at the National University of Malaysia.

Despite widespread dissent within the Chinese community over the deal, many observers believed Datuk Ling would win the vote by a solid majority. But the prime minister himself may have alienated some delegates by striking out at the two papers in a Saturday speech at annual general assembly of his United Malays National Organization party. Dr. Mahathir criticized the two papers for stirring up racial tensions by covering Chinese lobby groups that have questioned the government's pro-Malay affirmative action policies.

Malaysia's Chinese-language press, widely regarded as more critical than the country's mainstream English- and Malay-language media, has given extensive coverage in recent months to a host of education and language issues that have deepened discontent within the Chinese community for Dr. Mahathir's government. Nanyang's papers, in particular, have been critical of the MCA's stance on these issues, and have also scrutinized a continuing succession battle between Datuk Ling and Datuk Lim -- points that may have helped fuel Datuk Ling's interest in the takeover, political analysts say.

A protest group of 245 ethnic Chinese from nongovernmental organizations have kept up pressure on the government this month by threatening to withdraw support in the next general election unless the deal is dropped. A consortium of Chinese business leaders led the president of the influential Associated Chinese Chambers of Commerce and Industry also offered to buy the whole stake, provided the MCA agree to fully divest. Dr. Ling, who said the MCA would consider selling some or part of its stake, later declined, saying the party had received a higher offer from an unnamed law firm.