exclusive Seven key leaders of Perak MCA, including two state assembly representatives, today slammed the controversial decision by their party to take over two Chinese dailies.

They said that contrary to party chief Dr Ling Liong Sik's assertion that the acquisition was purely a business deal, the takeover was "highly political in nature".

Among the seven are Perak MCA deputy secretary Dr Yap Yit Thong, Pasir Pinji state assembly representative Chan Kam and Teja state assembly member Dr Ho Wai Cheong.

The remaining four are party division leaders, Tambun secretary Wong Lim Ching, Ipoh Timur vice-chairman Woon Saw Koong and Youth vice-secretary Low Kim Pian, Jalan Yang Kalsom deputy chairman Fan Yin Sing and Ipoh Barat vice-chairman Oh Chew Sng.

According to them, the party's investment arm Huaren Holdings - not cash-rich Star Publications - will be buying Nanyang Press, which is the publisher of Nanyang Siang Pau and China Press.

"If Huaren is the vehicle that is buying Nanyang Press, where is Huaren going to obtain the hundreds of millions of ringgit for the purchase? The party should not be ruined by another financial crisis," they lamented in their letter to the MCA central committee which was also faxed to malaysiakini.

Sources told malaysiakini that in order to speed up the process of takeover, MCA has decide to use Huaren Holdings instead of public-listed Star Publications, which required the shareholders' approval for such a acquisition. However, it is expected that Huaren would be using cash reserves of Star at a later stage to settle the deal.

MCA central committee is due to meet on Wednesday to discuss the takeover. Last Wednesday, an emergency MCA presidential council meeting gave the go-ahead to Huaren Holdings to proceed with the takeover of Nanyang Press.

Three out of the 15 party's top leaders in the council, including deputy leader Lim Ah Lek, abstained from backing the decision.

Endless phone calls

The MCA Perak leaders, who are aligned to Lim's faction, said that they had received "endless phone calls from NGOs and Chinese guilds and associations registering their objections" to the party's intention to buy over the Nanyang media group.

"We hope that all central committee members are brave enough to say no to the takeover...," they urged.

They added that the deal will result in further erosion of Chinese support for MCA and this would in turn affect the standing of the ruling Barisan Nasional coalition.

"If MCA was to remain relevant as a Chinese-based party, it cannot and must not turn a deaf ear to the voices and grievances of the Chinese community," they said in their joint statement.

"The decision by 41 writers to immediately stop contributing to the dailies is a very significant eye-opener as to how dearly the writers value independence and the maintenance of the tradition and culture of Nanyang which has existed for the last 78 years."

The leaders warned that the fate of the defunct Thung Pau as "an example of how a party-controlled newspaper can be rejected by the Chinese-speaking community".

Thung Pau, which was later renamed Tong Bao, went out of business in 1992 several years after it was bought by MCA.

The seven also rejected party leader Ling's explanation that MCA would not meddle with the two Chinese dailies.

They pointed out that while news of the protests by the Chinese community against the takeover was widely reported in a number of dailies, "not a word of the controversy was mentioned" in English daily The Star, which is owned by MCA through Huaren Holdings.

Community's outrage

DAP leader Lim Kit Siang also lamented the The Star's omission on news of the community's outrage against the takeover.

"It is sad to see the good professional journalists in Star not allowed to be fully professional in their journalistic field, which was why they spearheaded the campaign for a free, independent and responsible press two years ago...," he said.

Lim commended the journalists in Nanyang Siang Pau and China Press for their collective stand against the MCA takeover.

He added that the issues are not just about the livelihood of the staff of the two newspapers and Chinese press freedom, but also larger press freedom as a whole, human rights and democracy.