Just one signature that of Home Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi is all that Oriental Daily News needs to resume publication. A formal letter is expected soon from the Home Ministry.

Deputy Home Minister Chor Chee Heung confirmed yesterday that the ministry has "on principle approved the resumption of publication" of the newspaper, which was suspended on Sept 29 the date of its inaugural issue.

Last Monday, malaysiakini reported that the ministry had given the green light for the daily to resume publication, and that it had approved the licence for the printing plant in Subang Jaya, Selangor.

Chor, however, declined to elaborate on the reasons why the ministry has allowed the Chinese daily to resume operations.

Condition set

Contacted later for comment, a source from the daily said the lifting of the suspension was linked to a 'condition' set by the ministry. The daily had lodged an appeal against the suspension two months ago.

The source said the management team led by the owner's son, Henry Lau Lee Kong had agreed to tell several former staff of Nanyang Siang Pau and China Press to leave Oriental Daily News.

While no official reason was given as to why the daily was suspended, certain quarters felt that there was a political agenda behind the move.

It is believed that this may have been the outcome of attempts to convince Abdullah that the suspension of Oriental Daily News would be in the national interest, because some former Nanyang Press journalists it recruited are deemed to be "anti-government elements".

Nanyang Press Holdings is the publisher of Nanyang Siang Pau and China Press, which Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad had once labelled an "anti-government instrument".

His scathing comment came after Barisan Nasional narrowly lost the Lunas by-election in Kedah in November 2000, which he blamed on critical coverage by the two Nanyang-owned dailies, among others.

Scores of journalists and editors from the two dailies joined the fledgling Oriental Daily News early this year, after MCA controversially acquired Nanyang Press Holdings last year.

Advice for publisher

Last Friday, the Penang-based Kwong Wah Yit Poh quoted Chor as saying that it would not be a problem for the Home Ministry to lift the suspension order on Oriental Daily News.

However, he advised the publisher to consider the country's multi-racial and multi-religious interests as well as security concerns in future.

Chor also said the new daily would not have a negative impact on the market for Chinese dailies.

This is currently dominated by Pemandangan Sinar Sdn Bhd publisher of Sin Chew Daily and Guang Ming Daily and Nanyang Press Holdings. Their publications have a combined daily circulation of about 800,000 copies.

A senior editor of the Oriental Daily News had said in an interview with a Singapore daily recently that the new daily aimed to "fill the vacuum" created by the boycott of the Nanyang publications since last year.