Hawks back changes at The Star
(The Malaysian Insider) His moves to make personnel changes at The Star may be unpopular in the newsroom and with the financial community but Datuk Seri Ong Tee Keat will find much support from his Cabinet colleagues and government circles for his daring.
It is an open secret that the tone and coverage of the country's largest English daily has been under scrutiny since Election 2008, with ministers and senior civil servants griping about the space the newspaper has been giving to the opposition and the tone of its reports on government initiatives.
The names of other newspapers owned by Barisan Nasional political parties have also been raised during meetings attended by ministers and government officials but inevitably the discussion veers to The Star, said officials who have been present at several such discussions.
"There is a concern that The Star is behaving like an anti-establishment paper. One minister even said that it was like Harakah, '' a senior government official told The Malaysian Insider. Harakah is the newspaper of Pas and is known for its uncharitable coverage of the Barisan Nasional and government policies.
In a filing made with Bursa Malaysia, Star Publications (Malaysia) Bhd announced several boardroom changes. Of this the most important was news that Datuk Steven Tan has given six months’ notice of his intention to relinquish his position as executive deputy chairman.
Tan, 60, however, will remain as a non-executive director. It is understood that party veteran Tan Sri Sak Cheng Lum is also expected to step down from the board soon. Analysts view these changes at the boardroom level as steps by Tee Keat to increase his influence in the influential daily and reduce the hold on those close to former MCA president Tun Ling Liong Sik.
Ling has been a strong supporter of Datuk Chua Soi Lek, the party's deputy president and staunch rival of Tee Keat. In all likelihood, these boardroom changes have more to do with political affiliation than with a change in editorial policy but there is a view in government that Steven Tan and his protégé, Datuk Linda Ngiam, were driving editorial policy.
Despite the political sea change after March 8, ministers and government officials still believe that newspapers owned by BN political parties should be supporting the government and should not go out of their way to be critical of the establishment.
The Star sells some 315,000 copies a day and has made significant inroads in the Malay community. Steven and other senior personnel at the paper have been pushing for more even-handed coverage of national politics and issues even before the general election. But their coverage became more aggressive following the significant gains by Pakatan Rakyat at the expense of BN in Election 2008.
Recently, the paper was lauded by the opposition for its coverage of parliamentary proceedings — a fact which only served to confirm the misgiving hawks in the administration have about The Star.
