I had expected Malaysian Trades Union Congress president Zainal Rampak with his bizarre rationale and logic for holding onto the presidency at the cost of his personal integrity and reputation to be favoured as malaysiakini's "Newsmaker of the Year".

But since no less than Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad has implicitly made known his view of the man's behaviour, I guess events will take their rightful course in that matter.

Your choice of Deputy Information Minister Zainuddin Maidin (or Zam for short) is most apt. If there were any doubt as to his credentials for the award, let me contribute yet another.

The Sun (Dec 24, 2002) attributed the following remarks to him:

"Malaysians should be proud of a North Korean delegation's acknowledgment of Malaysia as an independent nation as it comes from a leader of a country that still practises communist rule ... such recognition is hard to come by. In fact, some citizens of our own country regard our nation as still being not independent."

I leave it to malaysiakini's enlightened readers to try and find some semblance of logic or meaning in the above statement.

I worry for the nation's future when we have leaders like him.

May I suggest that a grand event be organised to present Zam the award. It would be great to see him in action. He could be the new Bob Hope. I am sure former US ambassador John R Malott will kindly consent to do the honours since even the Californians have benefitted from Zam's pearls of wisdom.