Datuk Christina Liew (also known as Liew Chin Jin; ) (born 14 September 1952) is a

Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China (abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delta i ...

-born

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 ...

who has served as the State Minister of Tourism, Culture and Environment of Sabah for the second term in the Gabungan Rakyat Sabah (GRS) state administration under Chief Minister

Hajiji Noor Datuk Seri Panglima Haji Hajiji bin Noor ( ms, عزيزي بن نور, label= Jawi, script=arab, italic=unset; born 10 May 1956) is a Malaysian politician who has served as the 16th Chief Minister of Sabah and State Minister of Finance since Se ...

since January 2023 and the first term in the Heritage Party (WARISAN) state administration under former Chief Minister

Shafie Apdal Datuk Seri Panglima Mohd Shafie bin Apdal ( Jawi: محمد شافعي بن أفضل; born 20 October 1956) is a Malaysian politician who has served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Semporna since April 1995, State Leader of the Opposition ...

from May 2018 to the collapse of the WARISAN administration in September 2020 as well as Member of the

Sabah State Legislative Assembly The Sabah State Legislative Assembly ( ms, Dewan Undangan Negeri Sabah, Kadazandusun: ''Langga' Tinukuan Pogun Sabah'') is a part of the legislature of Sabah, Malaysia, the other being the governor of Sabah. The assembly meets at the Sabah Sta ...

(MLA) for Api-Api since May 2013. She also served as the Deputy Chief Minister III in the WARISAN administration under Shafie from May 2018 to September 2020, and 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

Tawau Tawau (, Jawi: , ), formerly known as Tawao, is the capital of the Tawau District in Sabah, Malaysia. It is the third-largest city in Sabah, after Kota Kinabalu and Sandakan. It is located on the Semporna Peninsula in the southeast coast of t ...

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) coalition and formerly

Barisan Alternatif The Barisan Alternatif (BA, '' lit.'' Alternative Front) was a coalition of Malaysian opposition parties, formed as a counterweight to the ruling Barisan Nasional. Disbanded after the 2004 general elections, all 4 former component parties of ...

(BA) and

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 (DA ...

(PR) opposition coalitions. She has served as Vice President of PH since September 2017 and State Chairperson of PH of

Sabah Sabah () is a state of Malaysia located in northern Borneo, in the region of East Malaysia. Sabah borders the Malaysian state of Sarawak to the southwest and the North Kalimantan province of Indonesia to the south. The Federal Territory o ...

since August 2017. She has also served as Member of the Central Leadership Council (MPP) of PKR and Division Chairperson of

Kota Kinabalu , image_skyline = , image_caption = From top, left to right, bottom:Kota Kinabalu skyline, Wawasan intersection, Tun Mustapha Tower, Kota Kinabalu Coastal Highway, the Kota Kinabalu City Mosque, the Wism ...

of PKR since July 2022. She also served as the State Chairperson of PKR of Sabah from October 2016 to her removal from the position in August 2022. She was also the Vice President of PKR. She was a member of the

United Sabah Party The United Sabah Party ( ms, Parti Bersatu Sabah, abbreviated PBS) is a political party of Sabah. The PBS was founded by Joseph Pairin Kitingan in 1985 and it is Sabah's oldest local party. In August 2020, PBS confirmed that they would be usin ...

(PBS) and

Malaysian Chinese Association The Malaysian Chinese Association (MCA; zh, 马来西亚华人公会; ; ta, மலேசிய சீனர் சங்கம், initially known as the Malayan Chinese Association) is a uni-racial political party in Malaysia that seeks to ...

(MCA), component parties of the Gagasan Rakyat (GR) and

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 ...

(BN) coalitions.

Personal life

Christina was born in British Hong Kong to

Hakka The Hakka (), sometimes also referred to as Hakka Han, or Hakka Chinese, or Hakkas are a Han Chinese subgroup whose ancestral homes are chiefly in the Hakka-speaking provincial areas of Guangdong, Fujian, Jiangxi, Guangxi, Sichuan, Hunan, Zhej ...

Chinese parents. Her parents migrated to

in British Crown Colony of North Borneo when she was a few months old. She is married to a Chinese Indonesian of

Hokkien The Hokkien () variety of Chinese is a Southern Min language native to and originating from the Minnan region, where it is widely spoken in the south-eastern part of Fujian in southeastern mainland China. It is one of the national languages ...

origin who migrated to the United States but travels often to live with her and their children.

Political career

In 1986, Christina stood as a

(PBS) candidate in the Tawau parliamentary seat but lost. After nine years with the party, she left before joining

(MCA) in 1995 and became the party State Women chief for Sabah until her resignation in January 1999. Due to her frustration with the detention of

(PKR) activists under the

Internal Security Act Internal Security Act may refer to: * Internal Security Act 1960, former Malaysian law *Internal Security Act (Singapore) * McCarran Internal Security Act, a United States federal law *Suppression of Communism Act, 1950, a South African law, rename ...

, she then joined PKR in 2002. In 2013, Christina was appointed as the Deputy Chairman of Sabah State PKR. She is also the State Assemblywomen for Api Api for the state of Sabah. In 2017, she was appointed as the

(PH) state chief for Sabah.

1986 general election

In the 1986 election, PBS fielded her in the Tawau parliamentary against

Democratic Action Party The Democratic Action Party (abbreviation: DAP; ms, Parti Tindakan Demokratik; ; ta, ஜனநாயக செயல் கட்சி) is a centre-left social democratic political party in Malaysia. As one of four component parties of the ...

(DAP) candidate Samson Chin Chee Tsu but she lost.

2002 general by-election

Following the disqualification of Yong Teck Lee as Gaya member of parliament and Likas assemblyman since September 2002 due to being found guilty of corruption according to the Election Offences Act 1954, a by-election was held in that year with Christina contesting the election under PKR party. The seat was however regained by Yong party of Sabah Progressive Party (SAPP) with Liew Teck Chan won the seat while Christina came in third place.

2008 general election

In the 2008 election, PKR fielded her to contest the Kota Kinabalu parliamentary seat but she lost to DAP candidate

Hiew King Cheu Datuk Dr. Hiew King Cheu (; born 1 March 1952) is a Malaysian politician. He currently is a member and deputy president of Parti Gagasan Rakyat Sabah (PGRS) since 2019. Hiew is formerly the Member of the Sabah State Assembly for the consti ...

. Percentage figures based on total turnout (including votes for candidates not listed).

2018 general election

In the 2018 election, her party fielded her to contest the Tawau parliamentary seat facing the defending candidate from

(PBS), Yap Kain Ching. She won and became the new Member of Parliament (MP) for Tawau. She was also appointed as one of the Deputy Chief Ministers and State Tourism Minister for Sabah following the victory of

Sabah Heritage Party The Heritage Party ( ms, Parti Warisan or Warisan) is a multi-racial political party in Malaysia which was rebranded and renamed from the Sabah Heritage Party ( ms, Parti Warisan Sabah), a Sabah-based party led by Shafie Apdal formed earlier o ...

(WARISAN) with PH coalition of DAP and PKR to forming a new state government, becoming the second woman in the history of Sabah Deputy Chief Minister as well the first Chinese woman to hold the position.

2022 general election

In the

2022 general election The following elections are scheduled to occur in 2022. The National Democratic Institute also maintains a calendar of elections around the world. * 2022 United Nations Security Council election * 2022 national electoral calendar * 2022 local ...

, PKR fielded her to defend the Tawau seat and seek reelection as the Tawau MP. However, she failed to do so by losing the election to Lo Su Fui of PBS by a minority of 3,800 votes.

2023 Sabah political crisis

In the 2023 Sabah political crisis, Liew, as the Sabah PH Chairperson, led Sabah PH to support

as the Chief Minister of Sabah, allowing Hajiji to regain the majority support in the Sabah state assembly after the partial withdrawal of support of

(BN) coalition led by Deputy Chief Minister, State Minister of Works and Lamag MLA

Bung Moktar Radin Datuk Seri Panglima Bung Moktar bin Radin (born 14 September 1958) is a Malaysian politician who has served as the Deputy Chief Minister I and State Minister of Works of Sabah from 2020 to 2023. He has also served as the Member of Parliame ...

. Following this, Sabah PH left the state opposition and joined the state government. 13 BN MLAs led by Bung Moktar left the state government and joined the state opposition. 5 BN MLAs led by State Minister of Community Development and People's Wellbeing and Tanjung Keramat MLA Shahelmey Yahya remained in the state government. On 11 January 2023, Hajiji also reshuffled his cabinet after the change, Liew was reappointed as the State Minister of Tourism, Culture and Environment. Shahelmey was promoted to the Deputy Chief Minister and appointed as the State Minister of Works replacing Bung Moktar.

Election results

Lawsuit

In 2014, Christina is one of three people that were ordered to pay damages to Borneo Samudera Sdn Bhd (BSSB) for unlawfully inducing the Bahagak Smallholders Scheme participants to breach their joint venture agreement (JVA) with BSSB.

Honours

* : **

Commander of the

Order of Kinabalu The Illustrious Order of Kinabalu (Malay: ''Darjah Yang Amat Mulia Kinabalu'') is the only order conferred by the Governor of Sabah, Malaysia. Background The Illustrious Order of Kinabalu is established by virtue of Section 3(a) of State Honou ...

(PGDK) – Datuk (2018)

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Liew, Christina Living people 1953 births People from Sabah Malaysian people of Hakka descent Hong Kong emigrants to Malaysia Leaders of the Opposition in the Sabah State Legislative Assembly Women in Sabah politics Women members of the Dewan Rakyat Members of the Dewan Rakyat Malaysian politicians of Chinese descent United Sabah Party politicians Former Malaysian Chinese Association politicians People's Justice Party (Malaysia) politicians Commanders of the Order of Kinabalu 21st-century Malaysian politicians 21st-century Malaysian women politicians