newsmaker n. One whose actions consistently make news headlines, who effects the course of public discourse and creates an impact in Malaysian politics, for better or worse.

There is no dearth of ‘wannabe’ newsmakers in Malaysia, where politicians among other public figures compete for attention with statements and actions that alternately cajole, condemn or confuse their audience.

As the malaysiakini team narrowed down the choices and cast its vote openly, the choice fell on Deputy Information Minister Zainuddin ‘Zam’ Maidin. Seldom has anyone managed to amuse, annoy and agitate Malaysians all at once. And here’s why.

Zam spent the better part of the year thinking up new uses for an old television network that has been regularly dim in the ‘bright ideas’ department.

The Information Ministry parliamentary secretary since 2000 and deputy minister from November this year, he took a kerajaan boleh approach to generating propaganda for the ruling Barisan Nasional (BN).

And so, the horror year began for media consumers, especially in rural Malaysia, who had to absorb the full impact of blatantly anti-opposition messages over the two television channels of Radio Television Malaysia (RTM).

Also in the line of fire over the year were media activists, religious leaders and regional ‘bananas’, whom he goaded with statements designed to discredit their respective positions on civil and political rights or international relations.

In December, perhaps chafing at the confines of domestic politics, he took on Hollywood heartthrob Brad Pitt, who appeared in a Toyota commercial. The advertisement was banned because it did not conform to guidelines stipulating the use of ‘Asian’ faces.

That made the news in parts of the US as well — and Zam to emerge the clear winner.

Prime-time viewing

The year may have ended on that light note, but few were laughing when the House of Zam went into serious production of video clips inspired by the fertile imagination of a frustrated writer.

In January, with the Indera Kayangan state by-election looming, the first of these was aired on RTM’s prime-time news. In just 90 seconds, images of PAS leaders were shown inset into footage of the Taliban executing a veiled woman in Afghanistan. Shortly after BN won the election in late January, the clip was taken off the air.

In March, RTM broadcast a 30-minute ‘documentary’ depicting the bloody clash between followers of PAS member Ibrahim Libya and police in Memali, Kedah. In the 1986 incident, 14 villagers including Ibrahim and four police officers were killed. It took the National Fatwa Council’s intervention to stop repeats of the broadcast on the grounds that the tragedy should not be exploited for political advantage.

Next came a remake of Amanat Hadi , a speech made in 1981 by then PAS vice-president Abdul Hadi Awang (and Terengganu Menteri Besar since PAS won the state in the 1999 general election). In the speech, Hadi had said those who oppose Umno could be considered to be involved in a jihad (holy war).

Other clips followed in rapid succession on RTM channels, clearly targeting the Malay-Muslim community in an attempt to win back political support for BN. These showed:

  • PAS central committee member Muhamad Sabu calling Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad bodoh (stupid);

  • PAS Kelantan information chief Bunyamin Yaacob alleging that Mahathir had watched a pornographic movie with his grandson; and

  • PAS spiritual leader Nik Aziz Nik Mat claiming that “God is more thuggish than thugs ”.

    • “RTM has to save the people from baseless instigation or things will get out of hand. RTM will educate PAS leaders to be good Muslims. We are not doing this to win the elections ,” Zam said.

    Since early this year, too, RTM has aired a weekly half-hour sitcom Salam Pantai Timur that pokes fun at PAS leaders and the governments they head in Kelantan and Terengganu, in the east coast.

    Zam also took on the DAP and Chinese education movement Dong Jiao Zong over their opposition to the government’s move to switch the teaching of Science and Mathematics to English from next year, in all schools.

    Playing on their concern over implications for mother-tongue education, a five-minute clip entitled Bahaya Cauvinisme (The Dangers of Chauvinism) duly informed Malaysians in November that such groups are “anti-Malay and unpatriotic”.

    Editorial contributions

    While branching out into propaganda video work was new to Zam (thereby proving that an old dog can learn new tricks), those familiar with Zam’s career in the media industry will recall the sterling service he provided for BN on the eve of the 1990 general election.

    The infamous tengkelok salib Ku Li photo that was splashed on the front page of Utusan Malaysia that day had Zam’s stamp of approval all over it.

    It showed then opposition leader Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah (aka Ku Li) wearing Kadazan headgear with a design that resembled a cross. The item was a gift from Joseph Pairin Kitingan, president of the Christian and Kadazan-based Parti Bersatu Sabah, with whom he had formed a political alliance for the election. Ku Li and his supporters had left Umno in 1988 to form Parti Semangat 46, now defunct.

    Zam’s association with the Utusan Melayu Group started in 1960, when he was recruited as a stringer for Utusan Malaysia . In 1982, he became editor-in-chief of the newspaper, which is controlled by Umno. Despite this, he was not always a sycophant to the party’s leaders at the time.

    In 1992, he wrote a commentary criticising Mahathir for failure to uphold the national language, because the prime minister had replied in English to questions posed in Bahasa Melayu during a press conference held in Indonesia. He was to pay for that.

    In 1992, Zam resigned from the newspaper, but found a way back into Mahathir’s good books by authoring Mahathir di Sebalik Tabir (The Other Side of Mahathir) in 1994.

    In 1998, he was appointed executive chairperson of Utusan Publications and Distributors Sdn Bhd, a subsidiary company in the Utusan Melayu Group. Two years later, he was made senator.

    Although he has long disengaged from the media industry, he sees no contradiction in relying on his past career when critics question if his comments have a political agenda.

    Loose cannon

    Appalled Malaysians who have been following his exploits are usually left wondering if anything is sacred when Zam launches into a diatribe. It seems not.

    In April, he called on Taib Azzamuden Mohd Taib, the former grand imam of the National Mosque, to reveal “a big secret” to which the latter had been privy to during his tenure from 1992 and 1999. This was tailored to induce details of jailed former deputy premier Anwar Ibrahim’s alleged sexual misconduct.

    Taib, who had counselled many politicians on personal affairs, granted Zam’s wish, although not in quite the way he had anticipated.

    Among the 11 secrets Taib revealed in May about the alleged sexual misconduct of unnamed Umno politicians, was a reference to “an editor-in-chief of a mainstream newspaper who had an affair with a young girl while his wife lay sick and paralysed in bed”.

    Reformasi websites and opposition party organs zoomed in to link the reference to Zam, who amazingly ignored the allegation. Instead, he chastised religious teachers and clerics for politicising Islam and failing to uphold the religion.

    Inevitably and inexorably, RTM began gathering evidence on Friday sermons that had alleged political undertones, and is expected to broadcast these soon to expose those with an inclination to play politics rather than discharge religious duties.

    “The people must understand that there are khatib and imam (prayer leaders) who are hypocrites and tend to use mosques as the platform to dabble in politics,” Zam said, citing an incident of a khatib who reportedly delivered a sermon that called for a boycott of the media.

    Pet peeve

    The media were not spared the sharp edge of his tongue. In conjunction with World Press Freedom Day on May 3, some 50 journalists and activists from the print and Internet media submitted a memorandum to the Human Rights Commission of Malaysia (Suhakam) on the state of the media.

    “Many of our journalism scholars are Americanised and thrive on the recognition of being called ‘heroes of press freedom’ by western countries.....If they (westerners) don’t see press freedom our way, that doesn’t mean we cannot practise it,” was his response . see box

    Thai and Filipino journalists were inexplicably dragged into the fray, being charged with “telling" Malaysian journalists what to do.

    He took up the theme once again at a press freedom workshop that Suhakam organised on Aug 1, and referred to a 1999 memorandum that more than 550 journalists had submitted to the Home Minister, calling for repeal of the annual licensing provision in the Printing Presses and Publications Act.

    “Our journalists who have shallow nationalist understanding and suffer from inferiority complex compared to Western journalists can no longer appreciate acts which gave us much strength and help us counter attacks on our unity and national stability,” he said.

    Without shame and embarrassment, these journalists sent in signatures of fake journalists to the Deputy Prime Minister [Abdullah Ahmad Badawi].”

    Yet, when civil society groups complained about propagandist advertisements placed by the Council of American Muslims for Understanding in the local media, Zam turned proponent of press freedom.

    “We have never imposed our will on local newspapers and broadcast stations. We leave it to them to use their discretion in publicising advertisements that clearly have political motives. This is proof that local newspapers and broadcast stations are independent. The US should realise this, which is contrary to their views that there is no press freedom in the country,” he told The Star on Dec 17.

    Affronted Asian

    The irrepressible Zam also set his sights on those Southeast Asian governments that had refrained from criticising Australian Prime Minister John Howard, who in early December, declared willingness to use pre-emptive strikes to curb terrorist activities in neighbouring countries.

    Zam weighed in with a dig at governments that chose silence as the rest of the region went ballistic with outrage. He dubbed them “banana” (a colloquial Bahasa Melayu term for non-Caucasians who are “white” on the inside).

    And in the mother of all humdingers in mid-December, Zam reflected on Western faces in advertisements and their possible contribution to Asians’ inferiority complex.

    “Why do we need to use their faces in our advertisements? Are our own people not handsome? We barred the advertisement (featuring Brad Pitt in a car commercial) as it appeared as a humiliation against Asians,” he said.

    With that, our humiliation was indeed complete.

    Article prepared by YS Tong with contributions from Padmaja Padman, Muhammad Azlan Zamhari and Zunar.