Zainal Bakar (16 August 1940 – 31 July 2012) was an Indonesian politician and bureaucrat who served as the governor of West Sumatra between 2000 and 2005.

[2] During his term as regent, sitting West Sumatra governor Hasan Basri Durin appointed him as the provincial secretary in 1993.

[3] In late 1998, the new West Sumatra governor Muchlis Ibrahim nominated the Head of the Regional Development Body, Nurmawan, to be his deputy.

[9] Investigation into Zainal was suspended in 2005,[10] and the attorney general of West Sumatra revoked his status as a suspect in 2007 for health reasons.

He was buried on the same day at his family's grave in Padang Pariaman Regency, after briefly laying in state at the West Sumatra gubernatorial office.