You learn eventually that, while there are no villains, there are no heroes either. And until you make the final discovery that there are only human beings, who are therefore all the more fascinating, you are liable to miss something.”

- Paul Gallico

COMMENT | When DAP veteran Lim Kit Siang said in January that 2020 was the make or break year for Pakatan Harapan, little did anyone realise that not only a certain segment of the voting public had to deal with a backdoor government but all Malaysians had to deal with a pandemic.

There are of course obvious personalities, some would wrongly claim heroes and villains, who were more high profile than my picks and an argument could be made that they shaped this country's mainstream narratives more than my choices.

However, I believe that these Malaysians highlighted the inequalities of the system and defined the year in a more immediate way than the high profile characters that in my opinion were part of the problem.

My top five newsmakers are ordinary Malaysians who, unlike politicians, demonstrated what it means to be Malaysian and not in the sense of...