Dato'
Datuk (or its variant Dato or Datu) is a Malay title commonly used in Brunei, Indonesia, and Malaysia, as well as a traditional title by Minangkabau people in West Sumatra, Indonesia.
The title of the wife of Datuk is Datin.
Origin
The oldes ...
Ngeh Koo Ham (,
Bàng-uâ-cê
Foochow Romanized, also known as Bàng-uâ-cê (BUC for short; ) or Hók-ciŭ-uâ Lò̤-mā-cê (), is a Latin script, Latin alphabet for the Fuzhou dialect of Eastern Min adopted in the middle of the 19th century by Western missionaries. It had ...
: ''Ngà̤ Kō̤-háng''; born 29 September 1961), also known as James Ngeh, 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, a ...
and
lawyer
A lawyer is a person who practices law. The role of a lawyer varies greatly across different legal jurisdictions. A lawyer can be classified as an advocate, attorney, barrister, canon lawyer, civil law notary, counsel, counselor, solic ...
who has 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 of ...
(MP) for
Beruas
Beruas (alternative spelling: Bruas) is a small town and mukim in Manjung District, Perak, Malaysia.
Name
Beruas is named for a local mangosteen-like tree, '' Garcinia hombroniana'', the "seashore mangosteen", called in the local Malay diale ...
since March 2008. He served as Speaker of the
Perak State Legislative Assembly
The Perak State Legislative Assembly ( ms, Dewan Negeri Perak) is the unicameral state legislature of the Malaysian state of Perak. It is composed of 59 members representing single-member constituencies throughout the state. Elections are held no ...
from July 2018 to May 2020 and Member of the assembly (MLA) for
Sitiawan
Sitiawan (alternate spelling: Setiawan; origin: from Malay, a portmanteau of '' Setia Kawan'', meaning "Loyal Friend") is a mukim and town in Manjung District, Perak, Malaysia.
The region spans an area of . In the year 2000, the population w ...
from March 2004 to May 2018, Member of the
Perak State Executive Council
The Perak State Executive Council is the executive authority of the Government of Perak, Malaysia. The Council comprises the Menteri Besar, appointed by the Sultan on the basis that he is able to command a majority in the Perak State Legislative ...
(EXCO) in the
Pakatan Rakyat
The People's Alliance ( ms, Pakatan Rakyat; abbrev: PR) was an informal Malaysian political coalition and successor to Barisan Alternatif (BA). The political coalition was formed by the People's Justice Party (PKR), Democratic Action Party (DAP ...
(PR) administration under former Menteri Besar
Mohammad Nizar Jamaluddin
Dato' Seri Ir. Mohammad Nizar bin Jamaluddin (born 17 March 1957) is a Malaysian politician and engineer who has served as Member of the Perak State Executive Council (EXCO) in the Pakatan Harapan (PH) and Barisan Nasional (BN) state admini ...
from March 2008 to the collapse of the PR administration in February 2009. He is a member of the
Democratic Action Party
The Democratic Action Party (abbreviation: DAP; ms, Parti Tindakan Demokratik; ; ta, ஜனநாயக செயல் கட்சி) is a Centre-left politics, centre-left social democracy, social democratic political party in Malaysia. ...
(DAP), a component party of presently 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 r ...
(PH) and formerly PR opposition coalitions. He was also Deputy Secretary-General of DAP, member of the Central Executive Committee (CEC) of DAP and State Chairman of DAP of
Perak
Perak () is a state of Malaysia on the west coast of the Malay Peninsula. Perak has land borders with the Malaysian states of Kedah to the north, Penang to the northwest, Kelantan and Pahang to the east, and Selangor to the south. Thailand's ...
.
Personal life
A native of
Ayer Tawar
Ayer Tawar (Chinese: 爱大华; Pinyin: Ài Dàhuá) is a small town of 30,000 people in Manjung District, Perak, Malaysia. ''Air Tawar'' literally means "fresh water" in the Malay language. The town is less well-known than its immediate and larg ...
, Perak, Ngeh comes from an old Ayer Tawar Methodist family. Ngeh's parents were
rubber tapper
Rubber tapping is the process by which latex is collected from a rubber tree. The latex is harvested by slicing a groove into the bark of the tree at a depth of with a hooked knife and peeling back the bark. Trees must be approximately six years ...
s in Ayer Tawar. He was christened James by the late Rev. Koh Gie Bing. As a student, he was active in the Methodist Youth Fellowship and later with the Persatuan Kristian Varsiti (PKV, part of the
International Fellowship of Evangelical Students
The International Fellowship of Evangelical Students (IFES) is an interdenominational association of 170 evangelical Christian student movements worldwide, encouraging evangelism, discipleship and mission among students. The headquarters is in Oxf ...
) at
Universiti Malaya
The University of Malaya ( ms, Universiti Malaya, UM; abbreviated as UM or informally the Malayan University) is a public research university located in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. It is the oldest and highest ranking Malaysian institution of highe ...
where he obtained a
Bachelor of Laws
Bachelor of Laws ( la, Legum Baccalaureus; LL.B.) is an undergraduate law degree in the United Kingdom and most common law jurisdictions. Bachelor of Laws is also the name of the law degree awarded by universities in the People's Republic of Chi ...
. He has also served on the Local Church Executive Council (LCEC) of the Ayer Tawar Chinese Methodist Church (ATCMC) and provided legal counsel to the Methodist Church in Malaysia. He is a regular communicant member of ATCMC where he often also provides translation during Sunday worship.
He married Cheok Foong Ling from Setiawan in 1992. They have three children.
Education
Ngeh attended the Methodist English School, Ayer Tawar; Sekolah Menengah Jenis Kebangsaan (SMJK) Shyr Tien, Ayer Tawar; and the (Methodist) Anglo-Chinese School,
Setiawan. He went on to graduate from
Universiti Malaya
The University of Malaya ( ms, Universiti Malaya, UM; abbreviated as UM or informally the Malayan University) is a public research university located in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. It is the oldest and highest ranking Malaysian institution of highe ...
as a
Bachelor of Laws
Bachelor of Laws ( la, Legum Baccalaureus; LL.B.) is an undergraduate law degree in the United Kingdom and most common law jurisdictions. Bachelor of Laws is also the name of the law degree awarded by universities in the People's Republic of Chi ...
.
Professional career
Ngeh practised as a lawyer with Nga Hock Cheh and Co. (no relation) in Sitiawan before starting his own law firm, Ngeh and Co, which is headquartered in Ayer Tawar, with branches in Ipoh, Perak and Kuala Lumpur.
In one of his more famous cases during his legal career, Ngeh Koo Ham represented Sitiawan businessman Yong Kon Fatt, who was sued by
Indah Water Konsortium
Indah Water Konsortium Sdn. Bhd. (doing business as Indah Water or IWK) is a Malaysian national wastewater and sanitation company. It is a government-owned company under the Minister of Finance Incorporated, which has the task of developing and ...
Sdn Bhd (IWK) in January 2005 for refusing to pay RM1,074 for sewerage services purportedly provided to his house at Taman Samudera in Lumut. The High Court sitting in Ipoh ruled that 'those who have made payments to IWK but had not received any sewerage services could demand refunds'.
Political career
Ngeh first stood in the
1990 general election against
Lim Keng Yaik
Tun Dr.Lim Keng Yaik (; 8 April 1939 – 22 December 2012) was a Malaysian politician and former Minister of Energy, Water and Communications in the Malaysian cabinet. He was the third president of Parti Gerakan Rakyat Malaysia (Gerakan) from ...
for the parliamentary seat of
Beruas
Beruas (alternative spelling: Bruas) is a small town and mukim in Manjung District, Perak, Malaysia.
Name
Beruas is named for a local mangosteen-like tree, '' Garcinia hombroniana'', the "seashore mangosteen", called in the local Malay diale ...
. He nevertheless lost to Lim, president of
Parti Gerakan Rakyat Malaysia
The Parti Gerakan Rakyat Malaysia ( en, Malaysian People's Movement Party, commonly abbreviated as GERAKAN or less commonly as PGRM) is a liberal political party in Malaysia. Formed in 1968, Gerakan gained prominence in the 1969 general electio ...
(Gerakan) and a powerful
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 se ...
(BN) cabinet minister, by a narrow margin.
In the
1995 general election, he contested but lost in the
Batu Gajah
Batu Gajah (population 133,422) is a municipality in Kinta District, Perak, Malaysia. It is the capital of Kinta District.
Etymology
The name ''Batu Gajah'' in Malay means "elephant rock", it is presumably derived from two large boulders (''b ...
seat. In the
1999 general election, he contested but lost in both the
Ipoh Timor parliamentary seat and
Pasir Pinji
Pasil ( fa, پسيل, also Romanized as Pasīl; also known as Pasīr) is a village in Sepiddasht Rural District, Papi District, Khorramabad County, Lorestan Province, Iran
Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also ...
state seat in Perak.
Ngeh begun to be a state assemblyman for
Sitiawan
Sitiawan (alternate spelling: Setiawan; origin: from Malay, a portmanteau of '' Setia Kawan'', meaning "Loyal Friend") is a mukim and town in Manjung District, Perak, Malaysia.
The region spans an area of . In the year 2000, the population w ...
, Perak for three terms continuously following his victories in the
2004
2004 was designated as an International Year of Rice by the United Nations, and the International Year to Commemorate the Struggle Against Slavery and its Abolition (by UNESCO).
Events January
* January 3 – Flash Airlines Flight 6 ...
,
2008
File:2008 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Lehman Brothers went bankrupt following the Subprime mortgage crisis; Cyclone Nargis killed more than 138,000 in Myanmar; A scene from the opening ceremony of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing; ...
and
2013
File:2013 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: Edward Snowden becomes internationally famous for leaking classified NSA wiretapping information; Typhoon Haiyan kills over 6,000 in the Philippines and Southeast Asia; The Dhaka garment fact ...
general elections. He also served as the head of the Opposition in the
Perak State Legislative Assembly
The Perak State Legislative Assembly ( ms, Dewan Negeri Perak) is the unicameral state legislature of the Malaysian state of Perak. It is composed of 59 members representing single-member constituencies throughout the state. Elections are held no ...
from 2004 to 2008. After 2008 election, with the formation of the Perak new state government by the
Pakatan Rakyat
The People's Alliance ( ms, Pakatan Rakyat; abbrev: PR) was an informal Malaysian political coalition and successor to Barisan Alternatif (BA). The political coalition was formed by the People's Justice Party (PKR), Democratic Action Party (DAP ...
(PR) coalition of DAP,
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) and
Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party
The Malaysian Islamic Party (PAS; ms, Parti Islam Se-Malaysia; ms, ڤرتي إسلام سمليسيا, label=Jawi alphabet, Jawi, script=arab, italic=unset) is an Islamist political party in Malaysia. As the party focused on Islamic fundamen ...
(PAS); which was faced with the problem of the candidate of new Chief Minister. Among the 3 parties, DAP has the most seats, but the Perak state constitution says that the Chief Minister must be a
Malay
Malay may refer to:
Languages
* Malay language or Bahasa Melayu, a major Austronesian language spoken in Indonesia, Malaysia, Brunei and Singapore
** History of the Malay language, the Malay language from the 4th to the 14th century
** Indonesi ...
Muslim
Muslims ( ar, المسلمون, , ) are people who adhere to Islam, a monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God of Abrah ...
. Ngeh, being the Chairman of the Perak DAP, is ethnic
Chinese
Chinese can refer to:
* Something related to China
* Chinese people, people of Chinese nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity
**''Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic concept of the Chinese nation
** List of ethnic groups in China, people of va ...
and a Christian. They initially agreed that
Mohammad Nizar Jamaluddin
Dato' Seri Ir. Mohammad Nizar bin Jamaluddin (born 17 March 1957) is a Malaysian politician and engineer who has served as Member of the Perak State Executive Council (EXCO) in the Pakatan Harapan (PH) and Barisan Nasional (BN) state admini ...
from PAS should be the Chief Minister but in the end try persuading the Sultan,
Sultan Azlan Shah
Sultan Azlan Muhibbuddin Shah ibni Almarhum Sultan Yussuff Izzuddin Shah Ghafarullahu-lah ( Jawi: ; 19 April 1928 – 28 May 2014) was the 34th Sultan of Perak and served as the ninth Yang di-Pertuan Agong of Malaysia from 26 April 1989 to 25 ...
, to appoint Ngeh as the non-Malay, non-Muslim Chief Minister. They listed three candidates, the other two being Mohammad Nizar Jamaluddin and Mohd Radzi from PKR. Finally the Sultan rejected Ngeh and wanted to appoint a Malay who is a professional. All of the Malay state assemblymen in PKR have only Form 5 (Secondary school year 5) qualification. Thus Mohammad Nizar, being an engineer and carrying the highest position in PAS among the Perak PAS state assemblymen, became the new Chief Minister. Ngeh was appointed to the state executive committee as senior state executive councillor, with the portfolios of Infrastructure and Public Amenities; Energy and Water; and Non-Muslim Affairs during the short-lived state government was led by PR from March 2008 to May 2009, which the PR state government had collapsed due to the
2009 Perak political crisis.
In the 2008 and 2013 general elections, Ngeh also contested and won the Beruas parliamentary seat to become the Beruas MP and Sitiawan state assemblyman concurrently. In the
2018 general election (GE14), Ngeh contested just the parliamentary seat and did not contest his state seat which was abolished. After GE14 which saw 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 r ...
(PH) taking over the federal and Perak state governments, Ngeh was appointed the Speaker of the
Perak State Legislative Assembly
The Perak State Legislative Assembly ( ms, Dewan Negeri Perak) is the unicameral state legislature of the Malaysian state of Perak. It is composed of 59 members representing single-member constituencies throughout the state. Elections are held no ...
on 3 July 2018 despite not being an assemblyman. He is the first speaker of
Chinese
Chinese can refer to:
* Something related to China
* Chinese people, people of Chinese nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity
**''Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic concept of the Chinese nation
** List of ethnic groups in China, people of va ...
descent. Ngeh resigns as the Perak Speaker on 12 May 2020 after the collapse 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 r ...
(PH)'s state and federal governments in the
2020 political crisis.
Controversies and issues
Anti-Islam remarks
In 2012, Ngeh drew flak with remarks over the "Innocence of Muslims" film which insulted Muhammad and Islam. Ngeh had allegedly tweeted: "Khairy wants Muslim protest against Sam Bacile. For Islam or for his political gains? Are Muslims wasting too much time and energy on this?" Ngeh apologised after it received widespread criticisms from Muslims and had the post removed.
Acceptance of Perak state Datukship award and title
In April 2008,
Sultan Azlan Shah of Perak
Sultan Azlan Muhibbuddin Shah ibni Almarhum Sultan Yussuff Izzuddin Shah Ghafarullahu-lah ( Jawi: ; 19 April 1928 – 28 May 2014) was the 34th Sultan of Perak and served as the ninth Yang di-Pertuan Agong of Malaysia from 26 April 1989 to 25 ...
in conjunction with his 80th birthday, had bestowed Ngeh the ''
Darjah Dato Paduka Mahkota Perak'' (DPMP) award which carries the title ''
Dato'
Datuk (or its variant Dato or Datu) is a Malay title commonly used in Brunei, Indonesia, and Malaysia, as well as a traditional title by Minangkabau people in West Sumatra, Indonesia.
The title of the wife of Datuk is Datin.
Origin
The oldes ...
''.
He is the first actively serving DAP politician to be conferred (and accepted) a Malaysian chivalrous title. Later in 2012, DAP chairman
Karpal Singh
Dato' Seri Utama Karpal Singh s/o Ram Singh Deo ( pa, ਕਰਪਾਲ ਸਿੰਘ, Karpāl Siṅgh; 28 June 1940 – 17 April 2014) was an Indian Malaysian politician and lawyer. He was Member of Parliament (MP) for the constituency of Bu ...
had rebuked Ngeh and
Teng Chang Khim
Dato' Teng Chang Khim (; born 2 June 1963) is a Malaysian politician who has served as Member of the Selangor State Executive Council (EXCO) in the Pakatan Rakyat (PR) and Pakatan Harapan (PH) state administrations under Menteris Besar Khalid ...
on their acceptance ''"Datukship"'' awards of Perak in 2008 and Selangor in 2010 respectively; which had breached the party's long-standing principal agreed upon since the mid-1990s on DAP elected representatives receiving awards during their active political service. Ngeh had claimed that the party's CEC had discussed and consented to the award that was conferred upon him.
Election results
Honour and award
* :
**
Knight Commander of the
Order of the Perak State Crown
The Most Illustrious Order of the Perak State Crown (Malay language, Malay:''Darjah Kebesaran Mahkota Negeri Perak Yang Amat Mulia'') is knighthood order of the Sultanate of Perak.
Background
It was founded by Sultan Yusuf Izzuddin Shah on 12 D ...
(DPMP) - Dato' (2008)
[
]
References
External links
* http://ngehkooham.blogspot.com – official website
Democratic Action Party
Perak state government
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ngeh Koo Ham
1961 births
Living people
People from Perak
Malaysian politicians of Chinese descent
Malaysian Methodists
20th-century Malaysian lawyers
Democratic Action Party (Malaysia) politicians
Members of the Dewan Rakyat
Members of the Perak State Legislative Assembly
Perak state executive councillors
Leaders of the Opposition in the Perak State Legislative Assembly
Speakers of the Perak State Legislative Assembly
University of Malaya alumni
21st-century Malaysian politicians