On Monday, in the winding-up on the Information Ministry during the 2008 Budget policy debate, Information Minister, Datuk Zainuddin Maidin saw red at being called “monkey” in this blog.
At first he accused me for calling him a “monkey” — but when confronted, he backed down and admitted that it was a comment left on my blog. But he said I must bear responsibility as moderator of the blog.
I said I regretted that such a term was used but it was definitely not used by me. I did a search of the reference which he had objected to and found it was a post by ENDANGERED HORNBILL on 28th October 2007 in the thread “Zam – Info Minister under coconut shell or bidding to be Mat Rempit “Godfather”?”, viz:
“ZAM is behaving like a BN monkey that’s gone bananas over NUTs.”
ZAM has legitimate grievance at being called “monkey” but it is no justification for him to become the Cabinet’s premier anti-blogger, and this was why I told him in Parliament why he should not behave like a “frog under the coconut shell” in expressing satisfaction at Malaysia’s 32-spot plunge in the Freedom Without Borders (RSF) 2007 press freedom index, from No. 92 last year to 124, which is the nation-worst ranking in the RSF annual worldwide press freedom ranking since it was started in 2002.
From Monday’s parliamentary exchange, it is clear that although ZAM is the government’s chief anti-blogger, he reads this blog and I would urge all posters to use proper language to express their views hoping that they will have some influence on government thinking and direction.
I am surprised that RTM last night telecast the parliamentary exchange between ZAM and me. Those who have seen it may wish to offer their feedback.