Politics
Zainuddin was appointed as a member of the Dewan Negara in 1998, before being named the Parliamentary Secretary of the Information Ministry in 17 January 2001. He was sworn as a member of the Dewan Negara for a second term in February 2001 and was appointed Deputy Information Minister in 21 November 2002.
Later, he won the Merbok Parliamentary seat in the 2004 Malaysian general elections by beating a Parti Keadilan Rakyat candidate with a 15,162 majority.
In 14 February 2006, he was made the Information Minister by then Prime Minister Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, replacing Datuk Paduka Abdul Kadir Sheikh Fadzir.
In 2006, the DAP, which had been a vocal opponent of the Sedition Act and the Internal Security Act (ISA), filed a police report against UMNO, whose annual general assembly had been noted for its heated rhetoric, with delegates making statements such as "Umno is willing to risk lives and bathe in blood to defend the race and religion. Don't play with fire. If they (non-Malays) messed with our rights, we will mess with theirs." In response, the Information Minister said that this indicated that the Sedition Act continued to remain relevant to Malaysian society. He also denied that the government intentionally used the act to silence dissent or to advance particular political interests.
He gained notoriety in Malaysian politics for demonstrating a poor command of the English language during a telephone interview with Al Jazeera on the first Bersih rally.
In the 12th General Election of Malaysia on 8 March 2008, he contested the Sungai Petani parliamentary seat but was defeated by Datuk Johari Abdul from Parti Keadilan Rakyat.
In December 2012 Zainuddin caused a minor diplomatic incident with Indonesia after writing an article highly critical of former President B J Habibie, which was published by Utusan Malaysia, a newspaper notorious for its unquestioning sycophancy with Malaysia's ruling Barisan Nasional government. President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono conveyed his discomfort with the article to Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak, and the newspaper quietly retracted the article from its online site, although no apologies were offered.
Read more about this topic: Zainuddin Bin Maidin
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