The government has yet to receive a letter from the Indonesian government acknowledging the appointment of former parliamentarian Zahrain Hashim as Malaysia’s ambassador.

NONEDeputy Foreign Affairs Minister Hamzah Zainuddin (right) told reporters in the Parliament lobby today that, because of this, Zahrain cannot be formally be described as an ambassador.

"That is (also) why I did not list Zahrain during my parliamentary reply yesterday," Hamzah explained.

Hamzah also denied that he was “evasive” in answering questions about Zahrain’s appointment in the House yesterday.

“What I said was the answer, it was the truthful answer. If we have not received the letter, we cannot name someone as an ambassador,” he said.

“If we do, the other government might criticise us for announcing without their confirmation. I was not evading anything,” he added.

He went on to blame Malaysiakini and another news portal, The Malaysian Insider, for being “dishonest” with reports that Hamzah had evaded answering the question.

“I hope the opposition and the (portals) apologise for saying that I was evasive,” he added.

Opposition members had pressed Hamzah for clarification on Malaysia’s ambassador to Indonesia yesterday, but the former did not touch on Zahrain or the circumstances around his appointment.