Ma Sik-yu (, died 1998) was a Hong Kong businessman and, along with his brother

Ma Sik-chun Ma Sik-chun (, 1938 – 15 June 2015) was a Hong Kong businessman, media mogul and, along with his brother Ma Sik-yu, co-founder of the Oriental Daily News. Biography Ma Sik-chun and his older brother Ma Sik-yu came from Chiu Chow, Guangdong. ...

, co-founder of the

Oriental Daily News ''Oriental Daily News'' is a Chinese-language newspaper in Hong Kong. It was established in 1969 by Ma Sik-yu and Ma Sik-chun, and was one of the two newspapers published by the Oriental Press Group Limited (). Relative to other Hong Kong ...

Biography

Ma Sik-yu and his younger brother

came from Chiu Chow,

Guangdong Guangdong (, ), alternatively romanized as Canton or Kwangtung, is a coastal province in South China on the north shore of the South China Sea. The capital of the province is Guangzhou. With a population of 126.01 million (as of 2020 ...

. They eventually relocated to

Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China (abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delta i ...

. The Ma brothers became associates of Ng Shek-ho, a major

drug trafficker The illegal drug trade or drug trafficking is a global black market dedicated to the cultivation, manufacture, distribution and sale of prohibited drugs. Most jurisdictions prohibit trade, except under license, of many types of drugs through ...

in Hong Kong. Ma Sik-yu was nicknamed "White Powder Ma". It was alleged that the Ma brothers began trafficking heroin from 1967 onward. They were able to procure heroin by having Ma Sik-yu personally traveled to the Golden Triangle in

Burma Myanmar, ; UK pronunciations: US pronunciations incl. . Note: Wikipedia's IPA conventions require indicating /r/ even in British English although only some British English speakers pronounce r at the end of syllables. As John C. Wells, Joh ...

, along with forging a political alliance with Laos general

Ouane Rattikone Major-General Ouane Rattikone (Ouan Rathikoun), a Laotian senior military officer, was the commander-in-chief of the Royal Lao Armed Forces (French: ''Forces Armées du Royaume'' – FAR), the official military of the Royal Lao Government and t ...

. Ma Sik-yu was also involved in the activities of Chiu Chow

triad Triad or triade may refer to: * a group of three Businesses and organisations * Triad (American fraternities), certain historic groupings of seminal college fraternities in North America * Triad (organized crime), a Chinese transnational orga ...

s in

Thailand Thailand ( ), historically known as Siam () and officially the Kingdom of Thailand, is a country in Southeast Asia, located at the centre of the Indochinese Peninsula, spanning , with a population of almost 70 million. The country is b ...

. The brothers founded the ''

'' in 1969. In 1977, warrants were issued for the arrest of the brothers for the importation of 700 tonnes of

opium Opium (or poppy tears, scientific name: ''Lachryma papaveris'') is dried latex obtained from the seed capsules of the opium poppy '' Papaver somniferum''. Approximately 12 percent of opium is made up of the analgesic alkaloid morphine, which ...

into Hong Kong between 1968 and 1974. Ma Sik-yu, after being tipped off about the police, escaped to

Taiwan Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the northe ...

, where there was no

extradition treaty Extradition is an action wherein one jurisdiction delivers a person accused or convicted of committing a crime in another jurisdiction, over to the other's law enforcement. It is a cooperative law enforcement procedure between the two jurisdi ...

with Hong Kong. His brother followed one year later. He died in Taiwan in 1998.

Legacy

was run by Ma Sik-chun's son Ricky Ma Ching-fat. In 2010, Oriental Press sued the companies behind five websites, including

Wikipedia Wikipedia is a multilingual free online encyclopedia written and maintained by a community of volunteers, known as Wikipedians, through open collaboration and using a wiki-based editing system. Wikipedia is the largest and most-read ref ...

, for publishing allegedly defamatory statements. The complaints were mainly about the drug trafficking history of its founder, the Ma brothers, found on the

Chinese Wikipedia The Chinese Wikipedia () is the written vernacular Chinese (a form of Mandarin Chinese) edition of Wikipedia. It is run by the Wikimedia Foundation. Started on 11 May 2001, the Chinese Wikipedia currently has articles and registered users, o ...

. The

Wikimedia Foundation The Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., or Wikimedia for short and abbreviated as WMF, is an American 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization headquartered in San Francisco, California and registered as a charitable foundation under local laws. Best kno ...

, as a company registered in

California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the ...

, 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.

In popular culture

* ''

Lee Rock ''Lee Rock'' () is a 1991 Hong Kong crime film directed by Lawrence Ah Mon, and starring Andy Lau as the title character. The film chronicles the rise and fall of a corrupt police force that Lee Rock becomes a part of. The film was followed ...

'' : 1991 film, Character Big Brother Ma, portrayed by Chun Wong. * ''Legend of the Brothers'' : 1991 film, Character Hoi, portrayed by

Kent Cheng Kent Cheng Jak-si (born 22 May 1951) is a Hong Kong film and television actor. He is a two time recipient of the best actor award at the Hong Kong Film Awards. Biography Cheng was born in a poor family in Hong Kong.Interview of Be my Guest, TVB, ...

. * '' The Prince of Temple Street'' : 1992 film, portrayed by Kent Cheng.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ma, Sik-yu 1998 deaths Year of birth missing Hong Kong newspaper people Hong Kong expatriates in Taiwan