Suddenly a copy of newspaper was pushed over to my hand and I heard a voice saying, "it's free". Before I can even say anything, a copy of the Sin Chew Daily which is the highest circulated Chinese vernacular newspaper in the country was already in my hands. Initially I thought it was the free Chinese language paper launched recently.
I took a quick turn and saw a man wearing a T- shirt with Sin Chew emblazoned on it giving out today's paper to everyone in sight - free of charge. Within less than five minutes all the lunch patrons in the coffeeshop was either holding a copy of the paper or laid on the table.
After I took my seat at the only unoccupied table, I have a quick browse of the said "free" paper. Not that I read it, but just to look through on some statistics and photographs related to the UPSR results announced yesterday.
Thinking about it later, I have a hunch that the reason the Sin Chew paper was distributed free today was related to the spat between the paper and the MCA central committee member Ti Lian Ker. Ti had claimed the paper are used to promote the hidden agenda to discredit MCA's president Ong Tee Keat.
Is Sin Chew feeling the heat that the public are upset with its recent purported agenda against Ong Tee Keat and their circulation are dropping by the day. By giving out free papers, Sin Chew hopes its agenda will continue to be read by the public and keep its leading circulation status intact.
Maybe I will visit the coffeeshop again to tomorrow to see if I will be given another free copy of the Sin Chew Daily News.
