Maria Chin binti Abdullah ( Jawi: مارية چين بنت عبدالله; born 1956 in

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the European mainland, continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

) also known as Mary Chin Cheen Lian () is a

Malaysian Malaysian may refer to: * Something from or related to Malaysia, a country in Southeast Asia * Malaysian Malay, a dialect of Malay language spoken mainly in Malaysia * Malaysian people, people who are identified with the country of Malaysia regard ...

politician A politician is a person active in party politics, or a person holding or seeking an elected office in government. Politicians propose, support, reject and create laws that govern the land and by an extension of its people. Broadly speaking ...

and social activist who served as the

Member of Parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members o ...

(MP) for

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from May 2018 to November 2022. She is a member of the

People's Justice Party The People's Justice Party ( ms, Parti Keadilan Rakyat , often known simply as KEADILAN or PKR) is a reformist political party in Malaysia, formed in 2003 by a merger of the National Justice Party and the older Malaysian People's Party. The ...

(PKR), a component party of the

Pakatan Harapan The Alliance of Hope ( ms, Pakatan Harapan; abbrev: PH; stylized as HARAPAN) is a Malaysian political coalition consisting of centre-left political parties which was formed in 2015 to succeed the Pakatan Rakyat coalition. It has been the ...

(PH) ruling coalition. She also held the

Bersih The Coalition for Clean and Fair Elections ( ms, Gabungan Pilihanraya Bersih dan Adil) or Bersih (meaning ''clean'' in Malay) is a coalition of non-governmental organisations (NGOs) which seeks to reform the current electoral system in Malaysia t ...

rally and formed the Coalition for Clean and Fair Elections 2.0 (Bersih 2.0) and

All Women's Action Society The All Women's Action Society (AWAM) is a feminist non-profit organization based in Malaysia. The organization was established in 1985 following a workshop held by the Joint Action Group. The group works on a local and national level to empower ...

(AWAM)

non-governmental organisations A non-governmental organization (NGO) or non-governmental organisation (see spelling differences) is an organization that generally is formed independent from government. They are typically nonprofit entities, and many of them are active in ...

(NGOs). She served as the Chairperson of Bersih 2.0 from 2013 to 2018, the Chairperson of AWAM and the Executive Director of the Persatuan Kesedaran Komuniti Selangor (Empower). As a social activist, she champions both the women and human rights.

Family

Maria met Mohamad Yunus bin Lebai Ali, a Malaysian student activist of the 1970s. Yunus Ali was in exile and was a former

Palestine Liberation Organisation The Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO; ar, منظمة التحرير الفلسطينية, ') is a Palestinian nationalist political and militant organization founded in 1964 with the initial purpose of establishing Arab unity and sta ...

(PLO) freedom fighter. In 1987 Yunus Ali was detained as a result of

Operation Lalang Operation Lalang ( ms, Operasi Lalang, also referred as Ops Lalang and taken to mean "Weeding Operation" or "Operation Weeding") was a major crackdown between 27 October and 20 November 1987 undertaken by the Royal Malaysian Police, ostensibl ...

, where the Internal Security Act was used against 106 other social activists and politicians. They were married in 1992, three years after Yunus was released in 1989. Maria converted to Islam then. Yunus died in 2010 from lupus. The couple has three sons, namely, Azumin Mohamad Yunus, Aziman Maria and Azemi Maria.

Detention

On 18 November 2016, the

Royal Malaysian Police The Royal Malaysia Police (often abbreviated RMP) ( ms, Polis Diraja Malaysia (PDRM)), is a (primarily) uniformed national and federal police force in Malaysia. The force is a centralised organisation. Its headquarters are located at Bukit Ama ...

arrested Maria under the Security Offences, Special Measures Act (SOSMA), which allows the Malaysian police to detain a person for 28 days before filing any charge. She was released on 28 November 2016 after 11 days in detention. The

US government The federal government of the United States (U.S. federal government or U.S. government) is the national government of the United States, a federal republic located primarily in North America, composed of 50 states, a city within a feder ...

has criticised her detention in a permanently-lit isolation confinement cell, saying that the US government is "troubled by the ongoing detention and solitary confinement of Maria Chin Abdullah under national security laws". She was detained the day before massive public protests against the Malaysian federal government head of Najib Razak for widespread corruption allegation involving a US$4 billion state fund scandal.

Political involvement

In March 2018, she announced her decision to leave her post in Bersih 2.0 and contest as an independent parliamentary candidate under the

(PH) banner. Later that month, she announced that she would contest under the PKR party banner, with then-party-vice-president Nurul Izzah Anwar welcoming her as "part of the PKR family". In the subsequent 2018 general election, she won the

constituency with 78,984 votes against

Barisan Nasional The National Front ( ms, Barisan Nasional; abbrev: BN) is a political coalition of Malaysia that was founded in 1973 as a coalition of centre-right and right-wing political parties. It is also the third largest political coalition with 30 ...

's Chew Hian Tat (21,847) and Gagasan Sejahtera's Noraini Hussin (14,448).

Election results

References

{{Authority control 1956 births Living people Malaysian people of British descent Malaysian politicians of Chinese descent Malaysian Muslims Converts to Islam Malaysian human rights activists Women human rights activists Independent politicians in Malaysia Members of the Dewan Rakyat Women members of the Dewan Rakyat 21st-century Malaysian politicians 21st-century Malaysian women politicians