Teresa Kok Suh Sim (;

Pha̍k-fa-sṳ Pha̍k-fa-sṳ is an orthography similar to Pe̍h-ōe-jī and used to write Hakka, a variety of Chinese. Hakka is a whole branch of Chinese, and Hakka dialects are not necessarily mutually intelligible with each other, considering the large geogr ...

: ''Kwo̍k Su-tshim''; born 31 March 1964) is a Malaysian

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 served as the Minister of Primary Industries in 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) administration under former Prime Minister

Mahathir Mohamad Mahathir bin Mohamad ( ms, محاضير بن محمد, label= Jawi, script=arab, italic=unset; ; born 10 July 1925) is a Malaysian politician, author, and physician who served as the 4th and 7th Prime Minister of Malaysia. He held the office ...

from July 2018 to the collapse of the PH administration in February 2020. She 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 o ...

(MP) for

Seputeh Seputeh is a federal constituency in the Federal Territories, Malaysia, that has been represented in the Dewan Rakyat The Dewan Rakyat (English: 'House of Representatives'; ) is the lower house of the bicameral Parliament, the federal legis ...

since November 1999. She also served as the

Selangor State Executive Council The Selangor State Executive Council ('' Malay: Majlis Mesyuarat Kerajaan Negeri Selangor'') is the executive authority of the Government of Selangor, Malaysia. The Council comprises the Menteri Besar, appointed by the Sultan on the basis that he i ...

lor and Member of the

Selangor State Legislative Assembly The Selangor State Legislative Assembly ( ms, Dewan Negeri Selangor) is the unicameral state legislature of the Malaysian state of Selangor. The State Assembly is composed of 56 members representing single-member constituencies throughout the sta ...

(MLA) for

Kinrara Bandar Kinrara () is a township in Puchong, Selangor, Malaysia. The Ayer Hitam Forest Reserve is situated to its south. Island & Peninsular Berhad commenced the township development under Perumahan Kinrara Berhad in 1991. The only link road to th ...

from March 2008 to May 2013. She 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 social democratic political party in Malaysia. As one of four component parties of the ...

(DAP), a component party of the PH opposition coalition.

Early life and education

Born and raised in

Kuala Lumpur , anthem = ''Maju dan Sejahtera'' , image_map = , map_caption = , pushpin_map = Malaysia#Southeast Asia#Asia , pushpin_map_caption = , coordinates = , sub ...

, Teresa is a third generation Malaysian of Chinese descent. Kok is a member of the

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 ...

dialect group and her ancestors were from

Huizhou Huizhou ( zh, c= ) is a city in central-east Guangdong Province, China, forty-three miles north of Hong Kong. Huizhou borders the provincial capital of Guangzhou to the west, Shenzhen and Dongguan to the southwest, Shaoguan to the north, Heyu ...

, Guangdong Province, China. She commands Malay, English and Chinese Languages with fluency in Hakka and Cantonese dialects. Kok is a

Catholic The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

by religion. She graduated with a Bachelor of Communication from

Universiti Sains Malaysia Universiti Sains Malaysia ( 'Science University of Malaysia'; abbreviation, abbreviated as USM) is a public research university in Malaysia. Founded on 1 June 1969 as a statutory body with its own constitution, it is among the oldest institute ...

(USM) in 1990, and obtained a Master of Philosophy from University of Malaya. Her thesis was on

United Malays National Organization The United Malays National Organisation ( Malay: ; Jawi: ; abbreviated UMNO () or less commonly PEKEMBAR), is a nationalist right-wing political party in Malaysia. As the oldest continuous national political party within Malaysia (since its i ...

(UMNO), titled ''"Factionalism in Umno During Dr Mahathir's Era (1981–2001)"''. Kok writes in weekly column for Chinese newspaper ''

Sin Chew Daily ''Sin Chew Daily'' (), formerly known as ''Sin Chew Jit Poh'', is a leading Chinese-language newspaper in Malaysia. According to report from the Audit Bureau of Circulation for the period ending 31 December 2011, ''Sin Chew Daily'' has an averag ...

''. In 2004, she published a book compiling articles she wrote for the then Chinese daily.

Political career

Kok was political secretary to Opposition Leader

Lim Kit Siang Lim Kit Siang (; born 20 February 1941) is a Malaysian politician. He is the longest-serving leader of the opposition in Malaysia, having held the position for a total of 29 years on three separate occasions. He is also former Secretary-Gene ...

from 1990 to 1995. In 1995 general election, she contested the Ipoh Barat Parliamentary seat on a DAP ticket but was defeated by the

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) candidate. Kok resigned as political secretary after that to further her studies and worked part-time at the Secretariat of the Political Leaders Network Promoting Democracy in Burma (PD Burma) from 1996 till 1998. In the 1999 general election, Kok won the Parliamentary seat of

Kuala Lumpur , anthem = ''Maju dan Sejahtera'' , image_map = , map_caption = , pushpin_map = Malaysia#Southeast Asia#Asia , pushpin_map_caption = , coordinates = , sub ...

with a majority of 5,200 and was re-elected in 2004 with a majority of 12,895, the largest winning margin among the 13 elected DAP MPs. In the 2008 general election, Kok retained the Seputeh seat with a majority of 36,492, the largest majority in any constituency and won the

seat in

at the same time. She was elected in the new

, and was named senior executive councillor who was put in charge of investment, trade and industry to ensure all funds are directed to Malaysians. In 2013 general election, she won re-election to Parliament, garnering over 86 percent of the formal votes cast in her Seputeh constituency. Kok was re-elected to Seputeh seat for the fifth term in the 2018 general election but on the ticket of

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) as the move of Pakatan Harapan using a common symbol in the election. In view of the bad market of palm oil, she launches few palm oil drinking campaign to boost the market demand on the palm oil and further inviting local tour guide to become the ambassadors for palm oil.

Controversy

Advise mosque to not use speaker

In 2008, she was arrested 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, renamed ...

(ISA). Under the act, the police have no obligation to disclose the alleged offence if any at all. The Malay newspaper

Utusan Malaysia ''Utusan Malaysia'' ( Jawi: اوتوسن مليسيا; English: ''The Malaysian Tribune'' or simply ''Utusan'') is a Malaysian Malay-language daily newspaper. Formerly owned by the Utusan Group, the newspaper is currently owned by Media Mulia. ...

had reported she had "advised" a mosque in

Puchong Puchong is a major town and a parliamentary constituency in Petaling District, Selangor, Malaysia. It is bordered by Subang Jaya in the north, Sepang and Putrajaya in the south, Serdang in the east and Putra Heights in the west. Histor ...

not to use loudspeakers while making the

azan Azan may refer to: People * Ivan Asen I of Bulgaria r. 1189–1196 or his sons * Ivan Asen II of Bulgaria r. 1218–1241 * Azan (Star Trek), Azan (''Star Trek''), ''Star Trek'' character * Azan (mythology), character in Greek mythology * Azan, nick ...

. She denied the allegation. It was found out later that a faulty loudspeaker system was the reason why the mosque did not broadcast the azan. Furthermore, while there was a petition sent to the mosque, the petition requested for the mosque to lower the volume during 'ceramah' or sermons and not during the azan. The administrator of the mosque, as well as the petitioners, confirmed that Kok was not involved in the petition. She was released on 19 September 2008. On 27 September, two

Molotov cocktail A Molotov cocktail (among several other names – ''see other names'') is a hand thrown incendiary weapon constructed from a frangible container filled with flammable substances equipped with a fuse (typically a glass bottle filled with fla ...

s were thrown into the compound of her family residence, accompanied by a warning letter. No one was hurt.

Seditious speech

In May 2014, Kok was charged with sedition for making a

Chinese New Year Chinese New Year is the festival that celebrates the beginning of a new year on the traditional lunisolar and solar Chinese calendar. In Chinese and other East Asian cultures, the festival is commonly referred to as the Spring Festival () a ...

video posted on

YouTube YouTube is a global online video sharing and social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by Google, and is the second mo ...

which allegedly contained seditious elements. Kok was among the first of several other opposition politicians to be caught in a nationwide sedition dragnet.

Threat on police

On 26 February 2022, during a speech for the

2022 Johor state election The 2022 Johor state election, formally the 15th Johor general election, took place on 12 March 2022. The election was to elect 56 members of the 15th Johor State Legislative Assembly. The previous assembly was dissolved on 22 January 2022. ...

, Kok asked the police to allow them to speak for 30 more minutes. Due to the Covid-19 restrictions, speeches in the electoral campaign can only be 2 hours. Kok stated that they started the speech late at 8:30pm, so they should have 2 hours till 10:30pm, but the police in charge of the speech rejected her request. After that, she said that if

is the government, they won't set such restrictions and "warned" the police to be careful. On 2 March 2022, she stated that the MCA dinner nearby had disrupted them, therefore making them starting the speech 30 minutes later Also, she stated that the police refused them to extend the speech for 30 minutes as they are the opposition.

Palm oil activism

Despite the criticism from

activists Activism (or Advocacy) consists of efforts to promote, impede, direct or intervene in social, political, economic or environmental reform with the desire to make changes in society toward a perceived greater good. Forms of activism range fro ...

back home, Teresa Kok kept up with her

palm oil Palm oil is an edible vegetable oil derived from the mesocarp (reddish pulp) of the fruit of the oil palms. The oil is used in food manufacturing, in beauty products, and as biofuel. Palm oil accounted for about 33% of global oils produced fr ...

activism Activism (or Advocacy) consists of efforts to promote, impede, direct or intervene in social, political, economic or environmental reform with the desire to make changes in society toward a perceived greater good. Forms of activism range fro ...

despite narrow scares at the ballot box. The

industry reciprocated her support by providing indirect campaign support and this drew further brickbats from critics. She admonished member states of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (

ASEAN ASEAN ( , ), officially the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, is a political and economic union of 10 member states in Southeast Asia, which promotes intergovernmental cooperation and facilitates economic, political, security, milita ...

), should support one another against outside threats to an industry as important to the region as palm oil. Teresa Kok also opposed

World Health Organization The World Health Organization (WHO) is a specialized agency of the United Nations responsible for international public health. The WHO Constitution states its main objective as "the attainment by all peoples of the highest possible level o ...

(WHO) advice to adult to avoid palm oil in their diet during the Covid-19 outbreak and use alternatives such as olive oil.

Election results

References

Others

* Kok, Teresa (2002)
"Government Should Not Send The Rohingya Refugees Who Broke Into The UNHCR Office Back To Burma"
Retrieved 5 November 2005. * Kok, Teresa (2005)
"Teresa Kok Suh Sim"
Retrieved 29 October 2005.

External links

Teresa Kok's blog

Teresa Kok's Parliamentary Web Page
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kok, Teresa 1964 births Living people People from Selangor People from Huizhou Malaysian people of Hakka descent Malaysian politicians of Chinese descent Malaysian Roman Catholics Malaysian prisoners and detainees Women members of the Dewan Rakyat Members of the Dewan Rakyat Government ministers of Malaysia Women government ministers of Malaysia Women in Kuala Lumpur politics Women MLAs in Selangor Members of the Selangor State Legislative Assembly Selangor state executive councillors Democratic Action Party (Malaysia) politicians University of Malaya alumni Universiti Sains Malaysia alumni 21st-century Malaysian politicians 21st-century Malaysian women politicians