A month after being panned for calling former Indonesian president BJ Habibie a traitor to his nation, former Malaysian information minister Zainuddin Maidin has changed his tune and described Habibie as a credible leader highly respected by the people.

In a long article published by Utusan Malaysia today, Zainuddin continued his tirade against PKR de facto leader Anwar Ibrahim, but made the U-turn on Habibie in the last two paragraphs.

“In Indonesia, former Indonesian president Habibie still has high credibility. He is not a street actor. That’s why the people of Indonesia were angry when I equated him to Anwar.

“Habibie is a leader who is still respected and does not wallow in the mud like Anwar,” he wrote.

NONE In an article published in Utusan on Dec 10, Zainuddin ( right ) had called Habibie a traitor to the nation who bowed to Western pressure to issue a referendum that allowed East Timor to secede from the nation.

He also labelled Habibie and Anwar, who had invited the former president to speak in Selangor, as “dogs of imperialism”.

The scathing attack has drawn flak from current Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, who raised concern over the statement during a meeting with Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak.

Zainuddin, however, refused to apologise but argued that his view was shared by former inspector-general of police Abdul Rahim Noor.

In today’s article, Zainuddin also recalled his discussion with former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad over Anwar when the latter was deputy prime minister in Mahathir’s cabinet.

“I once told Mahathir who was then the prime minister to be careful with Anwar, but he said to me, ‘Zam, you are good, does Anwar has (anything good), or everything about him is bad?’

“But when I met Mahathir in his office on the day Daim Zainuddin was sworn in as finance minister for the second time (after Anwar was sacked by Mahathir), I first apologised to him.

“I said, ‘Datuk Seri, in the issue of Anwar, I was right and Datuk Seri was wrong’. I saw tears rolling down his cheeks and he wiped them off with his handkerchief,” he wrote.