Ma Sik-yu | |||||||||||
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Born | |||||||||||
Died | 1998 | ||||||||||
Citizenship | British Hong Kong | ||||||||||
Chinese name | |||||||||||
Traditional Chinese | 馬惜如 | ||||||||||
Simplified Chinese | 马惜如 | ||||||||||
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Ma Sik-yu (traditional Chinese: 馬惜如; simplified Chinese: 马惜如; pinyin: Mǎ Xī-rú; Jyutping: Maa5 Sik1-jyu4, died 1998) was a Hong Kong businessman and, along with his brother Ma Sik-chun, co-founder of the Oriental Daily News.
Ma Sik-yu and his younger brother Ma Sik-chun came from Chiu Chow, Guangdong. They eventually relocated to Hong Kong.[1]
The Ma brothers became associates of Ng Shek-ho, a major drug trafficker in Hong Kong.[2] Ma Sik-yu was nicknamed "White Powder Ma".[3][4][5] It was alleged that the Ma brothers began trafficking heroin from 1967 onward.[6] They were able to procure heroin by having Ma Sik-yu personally traveled to the Golden Triangle in Burma,[6] along with forging a political alliance with Laos general Ouane Rattikone. Ma Sik-yu was also involved in the activities of Chiu Chow triads in Thailand.[6][7][8]
The brothers founded the Oriental Daily News in 1969.[2]
In 1977, warrants were issued for the arrest of the brothers for the importation of 700 tonnes of opium into Hong Kong between 1968 and 1974.[2] Ma Sik-yu, after being tipped off about the police, escaped to Taiwan, where there was no extradition treaty with Hong Kong. His brother followed one year later.[1][3][4]
He died in Taiwan in 1998.[2]
Oriental Daily News was run by Ma Sik-chun's son Ricky Ma Ching-fat.[9]
In 2010, Oriental Press sued the companies behind five websites, including Wikipedia, for publishing allegedly defamatory statements.[10] The complaints were mainly about the drug trafficking history of its founder, the Ma brothers, found on the Chinese Wikipedia. The Wikimedia Foundation, as a company registered in California, had ignored the court summons and was absent from the trial. The Oriental Press Group therefore received a favorable ruling on paper, including damage claim and an injunction order in August 2010. The articles remained on Chinese Wikipedia.[11]