For MCA to take over Nanyang Siang Pau and China Press against the wishes of the Chinese community is playing with fire. Party chief Dr Ling Liong Sik may say that it is purely a business deal and that there is nothing political about it. Well, he is either the greatest fool or he is trying to pull wool over the eyes of the Chinese and MCA members.

Nevertheless, we'll humour him and regard it as strictly a business deal. So, as a businessman would ask, is it worth it for MCA?

Certainly not. Here are the reasons:

First, buying a newspaper is not the same as buying into an ordinary company. Newspaper is a product produced entirely by the minds of people and needs readership and advertisers. Money is not enough to sustain a newspaper, it needs good writers and thinkers who are able to reflect and articulate the feelings of the people. So if the needs of the Chinese community are not reflected in the newspaper they read but are manipulated instead, they will simply abandon the product. With dwindling readership, even advertisers will quit advertising. Where is its viability then? How long can MCA sustain the continuous losses?

Second, when staff are not happy, they quit or do not give their best to their employers. When key staff (especially credible journalists and editors) quit, they are hard to replace. Recruiting new staff to replace old ones is never the same, as every management knows. Recruiting good writers and editors is especially difficult when the community in general is against your takeover because the best journalists will stay away. Won't that add substantially to the management woes in the long run, leading to more problems for the company as a whole?

Third, MCA is in the 'people business'. Like it or not, they have to deal with people. Translated into practical reality, this entails winning the support of the people. If MCA wins their support, then it survives. If MCA loses their support, then it is finished. This means they have to win the hearts and minds of the people (i.e. the Chinese community they represent). How can MCA win the hearts and minds of the Chinese community when the latter are clearly against the takeover bid?

Fourth, how long can MCA continue to ignore the true feelings of the Chinese community? Two days ago, malaysiakini reported this: 14 Chinese organisations today jointly urged all parties to call off the proposed deal. ''We strongly oppose the direct and indirect control and intervention of media operation by political parties which will manipulate public opinion and work against the realisation of a democratic, liberal and just society,'' they said in a statement signed by, among others, Suqiu Committee, Chinese education movement Dong Xong and Jiao Zong, Selangor Chinese Assembly Hall and Nanyang University Alumni Association of Malaysia. The group also urged Malaysians to support the yellow ribbon campaign launched by Nanyang Siang Pau and China Press journalists as a show of protest to the takeover bid."

So you see, the Chinese community is not happy. Though the wind is just beginning to blow and has not yet become a storm, the signs are clear. It is sheer folly to ignore a coming storm by quickly closing the deal, hoping that the storm will go away.

But this coming storm is a different storm (it is the Internet era), it is powerful and it will sweep even MCA away for its arrogance - if it continue to ignore the gathering storm. Isn't it sheer folly to continue with the deal in view of what is ahead? Isn't this suicidal for MCA?

In view of the above predictability associated with the takeover bid, whichever way you look at it - from the business point of view or from the political point of view - the takeover of Nanyang Siang Pau and China Press by MCA is bad not only for the political party but more importantly, for the Chinese community as a whole for it will mean the death of two voices for them.

Dr Ling, you are playing with fire. As the English proverb goes: "Out of the frying pan and into the fire." If you think you can manipulate the thinking of the Chinese community through the takeover of the two dailies, you are wrong. The signs are already there. If you cannot read the signs of the coming storm, the next election will reveal it in its full fury.