A lot of criticism was directed at Deputy Information Minister Zainuddin Maidin who banned the Toyota car advertisements featuring Brad Pitt because the choice was said to have 'insulted' Asians. To understand why Zam, as he is better known, said what he did, it may be important to know his background.

He started as a peon in the office, later becoming a reporter at an age when he should rightly be in form five. Because he was close to Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad, he was promoted until he became Utusan Malaysia's editor-in-chief.

Ironically, Mahathir was also the reason Zam was forced to resign when he criticised the premier for using English in a press conference while on an official visit to Indonesia in the 1980s.

He however resurrected himself by faithfully supporting Mahathir and because of this, he was eventually appointed a senator.

One must forgive Zam for his gaffes for he does not have an impressive academic qualification.

Former information minister, Rais Yatim, too, had made similarly silly remarks years ago when he barred the New York Philharmonic Orchestra from playing music by Jewish composers such as Strauss and Tchaikovsky during their performance in Kuala Lumpur. That also attracted a lot of media attention in the US.

I really don't blame Zam for his gaffes; I blame Mahathir for appointing him in the first place. This shows that Mahathir doesn't care whether the people he appointed are good for the country or government; all that he cares is if they are good for him.

This also shows that Umno doesn't have people of calibre whom he can appoint anymore, so much so that even an underqualified person like Zam had to be enlisted.

A saving point for Zam despite his gaffes is there is no hint of financial corruption attached to him compared with the other Umno and BN leaders who didn't commit gaffes (except for Rafidah Aziz who became the brunt of jokes over the sniffer-dog incident).

I however suspect Mahathir planted Zam in the cabinet as a punching bag for the opposition and general public to distract everyone from the more serious issues.

Thus we should stop the Zam-punching and start to look more seriously at corruption and cronyism issues and not let Mahathir or anyone distract us with Zam.