Zam – an unrepentant crusader

He was relentless, even brutal. His trademark was his frankness and he called a spade a spade. He never minced his words and said it without fear or favour.

TAN Sri Zainuddin Maidin had been critical of the previous prime minister and his government long before many other former ministers, journalists and senior government officials openly did that. He effectively got his message across via Twitter and his blog.

When Zam made up his mind, nothing else mattered. He was relentless, even brutal. His trademark was his frankness. He called a spade a spade. He never minced his words. He said it without fear or favour.

Zam came from the hard-knocks school of journalism. He was no accidental journalist. He started his career at the age of 18 as a stringer in Alor Setar.

He rose up the ranks to become the chief editor of Utusan Melayu over a period of 10 years (1982 to 1992). The pinnacle of his achievement was his appointment as Information Minister in 2006.

Utusan Melayu, the company, started in Singapore in 1939, published Utusan Melayu which later became a force to be reckoned with. From its humble beginnings, it became a newspaper as much respected and envied as it was looked upon with disdain.

It became one of the most independent dailies in the land, so much so that Umno had to engineer an editorial coup in 1961. It triggered the 90-day strike by the journalists.

That year marked the end of press freedom in the country.

All those years, Zam was in the thick of things witnessing not only the transformation of the company that he worked for but the changes happening to his country.

Zam befriended many politicians but they could not simply count on him for support.

He was weary of politicians and their agendas. Even Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad once commented that Zam was a “difficult friend”.

After his foray into politics, he wrote a book, Saya Bukan Menteri (I Am Not a Minister). He was an outsider in politics and was never comfortable with its culture.

It was during his tenure as the chief editor that the nation knew of his uncompromising stands on many issues. He was crusading against religious extremism as evident in his newspaper’s expose of the Al Arqam activities.

He championed the need for the Malays to be open-minded and Muslims to be more progressive. He argued for the need to question religious decrees that are not beneficial to the ummah. He took the religious institutions by the horn. He created many enemies but won friends as well.

Controversy was perhaps his middle name. Back in 2007-08 he was criticised for his ministry’s management of blogs – the nascent phenomenon at the time.

Before social media accounts like Twitter and Facebook became the rage, blogging was “in”. Blogs proved to be one of the strongest vehicles to criticise the government led by Tun Abdullah Badawi, that resulted in a surprise loss of many states and Barisan Nasional performing dismally and losing its twothirds majority in Parliament.

After leaving the government, Zam was an active blogger himself, and had a Twitter account (@ZainuddinMaidin). His zamKata. blogspot.com attracted a lot of attention.

For some time he was going after tahfiz schools. He never suggested the total closure of those schools as alleged. He was merely arguing for better management and supervision.

Zam was a journalist first and last. He was a true-blue journalist. He was the last of his generation. Many can find fault with his views but Zam was a believer in saying it as it was, no mincing of words, no sweetening, just the plain truth as he believed it.

He was unpopular in certain segments of the party that owned the newspaper he edited. But he cared little. He was a crusader, never repenting, always believing in the finest tradition of journalism. Journalists set agendas, not others.

He loved his Utusan Melayu. It was his university. In fact he truly believed that Utusan Melayu was more than a company, it was an institution. He believed that Utusan Melayu was suara keramat (the sacred voice) of the Malays.

In fact he wrote Di Depan Api, Di Belakang Duri: Kisah Sejarah Utusan Melayu, a definitive book on the company.

His position on most things Malay could be misconstrued as chauvinistic even racist, but those descriptions hardly describe the man.

He was a nationalist perhaps, but never an apologist for his race. He was in fact more critical than most.

I have known him for many decades. We have our differences, of course. After all, I took over his post in November 1992 as the chief editor of the group. We all knew my purpose for being parachuted there.

But he understood better about political realities. I am sure he was hurt but he accepted the decision with grace.

Whatever happened brought us closer. He was supposed to be my adviser, and I later sent him to represent the company as a correspondent in London. We occasionally communicated via letters.

We were even closer when he became the deputy minister of information. I was still under the cloud of stigma as a result of the ouster of then deputy prime minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim in 1998 as I was perceived as being one of his lieutenants.

Zam gave me the chance to moderate a talk show programme on TV1 that went on for many years. It meant a lot back then. As a result I was perceived as “kosher” and was back into the mainstream.

When I mooted the idea of starting a WhatsApp group for ex-Utusan journalists, I consulted him first.

I am now the “administrator” for the 100-strong WhatsApp group. I am also a frequent participant at the Sunday morning session at a mamak stall in Malayan Mansion which he started many years ago.

Zam was admitted to hospital on Nov 12 for heart-related problems. He succumbed to the complications on Friday. He was 79. He could hardly talk. His handwriting was almost unreadable.

Yet he wanted to say something. A family member dictated his last scribbling which made little sense meaning-wise. But many of us could understand the gist, he was commenting about the state of affairs of Malaysian politics.

That was Zam!

We lost a man of integrity, a great journalist, and more importantly a true patriot. I lost a good friend.