{"id":6528,"date":"2010-05-04T09:56:29","date_gmt":"2010-05-04T01:56:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/poobalan.com\/blog\/?p=6528"},"modified":"2010-05-04T09:56:29","modified_gmt":"2010-05-04T01:56:29","slug":"new-newspaper-uthaya-surian-hits-the-streets","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/poobalan.com\/blog\/indian\/2010\/05\/04\/new-newspaper-uthaya-surian-hits-the-streets\/","title":{"rendered":"new newspaper Uthaya Surian hits the streets"},"content":{"rendered":"

Well, I try look on the bright side and have this to say: at least we have more pages to read<\/a><\/strong>, if we want to.<\/p>\n

\n

\n

KUALA LUMPUR, May 2 \u2013 A new Tamil daily, started purportedly with the blessing of Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak, hit the streets yesterday, making the small Tamil readership field crowded with four dailies, each having its own distinctive political interest, with the exception of the middle-of-the-road Malaysian Nanban daily.<\/p>\n

The Uthaya Surian (Rising Sun), despite its name, is an afternoon paper and available in the central region on the same day of publication and nationally on the next day.<\/p>\n

The publishing licence is believed to be held by Indian Muslim businessman A. Tajuddin and was obtained during the time of former Prime Minister Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi.<\/p>\n

Its editor is Tamilmani @ P. Veerasamy, a controversial editor who went to jail in his decade-long crusade against MIC president Datuk S. Samy Vellu and the alleged hijacking of the nine million Telekom Malaysia shares.<\/p>\n

After gaining notoriety as an anti-Samy Vellu editor, Tamilmani worked with various weeklies, none of which succeeded.<\/p>\n

He also flirted with the Pakatan Rakyat (PR), publishing various anti-Barisan Nasional (BN) monthlies, none of which took off in a big way.<\/p>\n

More recently Tamilmani joined forces with his former nemesis Samy Vellu who continues to cling on to power although the MIC fared disastrously under his stewardship in the 2008 general elections.<\/p>\n

Tamilmani is also executive editor of Samy Vellu\u2019s Tamil Nesan daily, the oldest in the country and first published in 1924.<\/p>\n

He is wearing two hats as editor of Uthaya Surian and his provocative writing style and argumentative politics is reflected in both dailies, readers and observers said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn fact Uthaya Surian is really Tamil Nesan 2,\u201d said a hardcore support of Datuk S Subramaniam, whose inner circle controls the Makkal Osai daily which is rabidly anti-Samy Vellu.<\/p>\n

The circulation of the Tamil Nesan plunged to about 5,000 from a high of 9,000 in the 1980s, MIC insiders said, suggesting that the drop was due to it being used as a unvarnished mouth piece of the Samy Vellu family and his interests.<\/p>\n

\u201cA great newspaper that was helmed by giants of Tamil journalism has gone down the drain because of cheap politics,\u201d said a Tamil lawyer who follows local Indian politics keenly.<\/p>\n

\u201cTamil Nesan had great editors like Murugu Subramaniam,\u201d he said, referring to the member of the famed Chettiar family which owned and managed the daily before Samy Vellu bought it over on becoming MIC president in 1979.<\/p>\n

Uthaya Surian is closely linked to Samy Vellu and his faction in the MIC. Not only does it have the same editors but also the same staff and premises.<\/p>\n

The Tamil Nesan (M) Sdn Bhd prints the Uthaya Surian daily and both operate from the same premises. They even have the same telephone and fax numbers.<\/p>\n

Tamilmani introduced himself in the inaugural May 1 edition as the Uthaya Surian editor with a page two editorial under the title \u201cUthaya Surian will shine new light in people\u2019s hearts\u201d.<\/p>\n

It had a front page story with a photo montage of Samy Vellu and MIC deputy president Datuk G. Palanivel face to face and nearly embracing under the headline \u201cMIC leadership transition only in 2012\u201d.<\/p>\n

Tamil Nesan and other mainstream national dailies and Internet news websites might have written off Samy Vellu but in the MIC, the new mantra is 2012.<\/p>\n

Samy Vellu and his coterie, Palanivel included, are pushing the idea that \u201cnewspapers have no business\u201d to tell Samy Vellu to quit.<\/p>\n

\u201cSamy should complete his term right up to 2012. I will surely support it,\u201d Palanivel is quoted as saying in the inaugural edition.<\/p>\n

The MIC was roiled after the Utusan Malaysia quoted Palanivel as saying, in the aftermath of the Hulu Selangor by-election victory, that he was ready to take over but that Samy Vellu had to make way.<\/p>\n

The story sparked speculation that Palanivel was about to unseat Samy Vellu by mobilising grassroots support, something that Subramaniam\u2019s supporters are hoping for so that they can wade in and pick up the pieces after the battle.<\/p>\n

In fact the Makkal Osai daily under their control has been publishing provocative stories which, allegedly, attempt to pit Palanivel and Samy Vellu against each other.<\/p>\n

Palanivel quickly moved to dampen the strategy and assure Samy Vellu\u2019s supporters by giving nearly identical exclusive interviews to both Tamil Nesan and the new Uthaya Surian dailies pledging \u201cundying\u201d loyalty to Samy Vellu.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are together… we cannot be separated. Our relationship will continue,\u201d the dailies quoted Palanivel as saying.<\/p>\n

The talk among the reading public is that the new paper seeks to exploit the journalistic skills of Tamilmani to win a readership and then gradually eclipse, and possibly replace, the Tamil Nesan daily.<\/p>\n

In a front page foreword Najib wrote that he was confident the new daily would reflect the aspirations of the Indian community with skill and responsibility and give voice to the desire of all citizens to come under his 1 Malaysia umbrella.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Well, I try look on the bright side and have this to say: at least we have more pages to read, if we want to. KUALA LUMPUR, May 2 \u2013 A new Tamil daily, started purportedly with the blessing of Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak, hit the streets yesterday, making the small Tamil readership […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[158,225],"class_list":["post-6528","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-indian","tag-media","tag-politicians"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/poobalan.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6528","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/poobalan.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/poobalan.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/poobalan.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/poobalan.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6528"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/poobalan.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6528\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6533,"href":"https:\/\/poobalan.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6528\/revisions\/6533"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/poobalan.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6528"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/poobalan.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6528"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/poobalan.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6528"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}