COMMENT | As usual, my pick for the top five newsmakers in no particular order – except the top spot, that is – are individuals who shaped the discourse, either intentionally or not over the course of the year.

I assumed that choosing these individuals would be difficult, but I discovered this was not the case.

1. Zaid Ibrahim

Let's see. Over the course of the year, the former law minister has:

1. joined DAP;

2. angered the Selangor royal family, by reminding the Sultan that he should be non-partisan;

3. angered mainstream Islamists, by reminding them that rationality trumps blind faith;

4. angered the liberal left by encouraging Malays to leave an increasingly intolerant Muslim Malaysia;

5. angered certain people in the opposition for his defence of former Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad (Zaid was one of the first to support the former strongman); and,

6. Angered the Umno establishment with his views on the Islamisation process and what it means to be Malay. The state has since banned a book of his that has been in print for the past two years.

From my vantage point: “Zaid will no doubt gain much attention if he continues talking about his principles with nary a care for party solidarity. While I think this is a good thing, his political career is evidence that this is not considered being a team player. Zaid believes that a ‘Malay’ tsunami will be the downfall of Najib. The question is, can Zaid and all the other oppositional Malay leaders create the variables for a perfect storm that would bench the Umno hegemon?”...