Page 2 of
2 Malaysian media mogul's big China
bet By Chin-Huat Wong
Yi, Chen Ying Zhen, Nan Fang Shuo,
Long Ying Tai, Xi Xi and Tao Jie, have all
attended either the award ceremony or other
cultural events at Sin Chew's invitation.
Sin Chew soon thereafter overtook its
longtime market rival Nanyang Siang Pao in
circulation. The heated competition for Malaysia's
Chinese-reading audience became a duopolistic
standoff by 1992, when Sin Chew acquired Guang
Ming Daily and Nanyang bought the tabloid China
Press. But soon the two
respected publications became
embroiled in political factionalism, which some
contend undermined their editorial independence.
Under Malaysia's Printing Presses and Publication
Act, the press is required each year to reapply to
the government for a publication license, which
may be revoked without official reasoning or
judicial recourse.
When the factionalized
Malaysian Chinese Association (MCA), the largest
Chinese-based party in Malaysia's multi-ethnic
ruling coalition known as the National Front (BN),
split between its president and his deputy, Sin
Chew's top management bet on the former while
Nanyang sided with the latter. When the BN lost a
by-election in November 2000, swung by the
defection of ethnic-Chinese supporters over the
state's high-handed handling of political activism
and education policy, Mahathir blamed Nanyang and
China Press for unjustly influencing the minority
community's vote. Pressure soon mounted on
Nanyang's owner, Quek Leng Chan, to sell off his
media interests to MCA's investment arm, which was
completed in May 2001.
Monopolistic
ambitions The takeover was widely and
vigorously protested by Malaysia's Chinese
community as an encroachment on press freedom, and
Nanyang Siang Pao was later widely stigmatized as
a government mouthpiece. Its circulation
subsequently plummeted, a significant factor in
the media organization's financial loss last year.
Once Malaysia's largest Chinese-language daily,
the publication, which has an 84-year history, now
ranks near the bottom in readership surveys.
To many, the episode has spoken volumes
about the editorial integrity of Tiong's
publications. Not only did Tiong's Sin Chew
newspaper not carry news of Nanyang's takeover and
the Chinese community's visceral response, but the
representatives sent by MCA's investment arm to
run Nanyang temporarily after the takeover were
former Sin Chew senior managers and editors. Sin
Chew's perceived collaboration in the Nanyang
takeover led to a mass boycott by more than 90
columnists and commentators of all four
newspapers.
The four Chinese-language
newspapers have allegedly since collectively
filtered news and rejected public advertisements
on issues likely to be perceived as sensitive to
the MCA or Tiong's friends in government, from
corruption scandals of primary schools to the
economic plight of pig farmers. Significantly,
such self-censorship was apparently not ordered by
the Ministry of Information, as the news and
advertisements were carried by its young rival,
the Oriental Daily. From its inception, however,
the Oriental Daily has encountered difficulty
distributing through local vendors, who claim they
would be denied supplies of Tiong's four
publications if they carried the paper.
Tiong later gradually acquired Nanyang's
shares from the MCA and by last October had taken
a controlling 44.8% stake in the media company.
That sparked a new round of protests against
Tiong's perceived designs to monopolize Malaysia's
Chinese-language press. About 250 students and
concerned readers demonstrated on November 3 in
front of Sin Chew's headquarters and two regional
offices, and 120 former Sin Chew cadet reporters
have come out to oppose Tiong's move toward media
monopolization.
In light of that corporate
history, Tiong's new global ambitions are already
drawing parallels with Australian media mogul
Rupert Murdoch, who famously went on a global
media-buying spree and, in pursuit of high returns
on his investments, has allegedly sacrificed the
editorial integrity of many of the once-respected
English-language media he purchased.
With
an eye on China's enormous media-market potential,
Tiong is apparently not bothered by the
comparisons. At the press conference announcing
the planned merger, Sin Chew senior executive Rita
Sim vowed to maintain editorial independence for
the individual newspapers while simultaneously
pursuing "economies of scale, operational
rationalization and market re-segmentation". But
Tiong now seems more intent on winning over
Beijing - rather than his critics - to his global
media vision.
Rumors have recently
circulated that Tiong held talks with Richard Li,
the son of billionaire Hong Kong tycoon Li
Ka-shing and the current chairman of PCCW Ltd,
about acquiring a stake in Hong Kong's Television
Broadcasts Ltd (TVB). Former Ming Pao insiders, on
the other hand, say Tiong would more likely choose
to deal with former People's Liberation Army
colonel Liu Changle, who leads mainland China's
Phoenix TV, a satellite television operator that
beams its content to audiences in North America
and Southeast Asia.
Tiong has made clear
in interviews in Malaysia his intention to enter
China's fast-expanding and lucrative media market.
Any possible expansion, merger or partnership in
China would likely require Beijing's approval,
explaining perhaps in part Tiong's recent gung-ho
pro-China message. Partly because pan-Chinese
cultural nationalism is being evoked, and partly
because Tiong's dominance now seems unassailable,
his proposed merger announced last month has so
far been better received by Malaysia's Chinese
community than last October's seizure of a
controlling stake in Nanyang.
A daily Sin
Chew column ran a reader's letter on January 31
warning Tiong's media monopoly critics not to
become "traitors" of the Chinese by opposing this
"world-shattering" move. However, Tiong's bold
move also likely means his critics will have even
less space to air opposing views in Malaysia's
monopolized Chinese-language media, and perhaps
some day soon in other Chinese-language markets
across the globe.
Chin-Huat Wong
is a journalism lecturer in Malaysia. He is also
the chairman of the Writers Alliance Media
Independence (WAMI) formed in response to the
Nanyang takeover in 2001.
(Copyright
2007 Asia Times Online Ltd. All rights reserved.
Please contact us about sales, syndication and republishing.)
Head
Office: Unit B, 16/F, Li Dong Building, No. 9 Li Yuen Street East,
Central, Hong Kong Thailand Bureau:
11/13 Petchkasem Road, Hua Hin, Prachuab Kirikhan, Thailand 77110
