Hannah Yeoh
Hannah Yeoh Tseow Suan is a Malaysian politician and lawyer who has served as the Minister in the Prime Minister's Department in charge of the Federal Territories since 2025. She served as the Minister of Youth and Sports from 2022 to 2025. A member of the Democratic Action Party, she was the first female and the youngest Speaker of the [Selangor State Legislative Assembly|speaker] serving at the Selangor State Legislative Assembly from 2013 to 2018.
Born in Subang Jaya, Yeoh graduated from University of Tasmania in 2001 with a Bachelor of Laws degree. From 2018 to 2020, she was the Deputy Minister of Women, Family and Community Development under Mahathir Mohamad.
Early life and education
Hannah Yeoh Tseow Suan was born on 9 January 1979 and raised in Subang Jaya, Selangor. She said her name means "coincidentally a pair" or "likely double" in Chinese. Yeoh is the eldest child, and her younger sister Megan was born later in the same year. They were in the same school year and often attended the same classes. Yeoh completed her early education at and before earning a Bachelor of Laws at the University of Tasmania in Australia, in 2001.Career
Early career
Trained as a lawyer, Yeoh began her career working in Tasmania before returning to Malaysia, where she spent three years at a legal firm in Petaling Jaya. In 2006, she transitioned to the event management industry. Encouraged by her school friend Edward Ling, Yeoh entered politics by joining the Democratic Action Party the same year. Just two years later, in the 2008 general election, she won the Subang Jaya state seat with a majority of 13,851 votes, securing 23,459 votes against Barisan Nasional's Ong Chong Swen, who received 9,608.Speaker of the Selangor State Legislative Assembly
On 21 June 2013, at the age of 34, Yeoh was sworn in as the Speaker of the Selangor State Legislative Assembly, becoming Malaysia's youngest and first female state Speaker. During the same ceremony, Nik Nazmi was sworn in as the state's Deputy Speaker. In June 2015, a columnist criticised Yeoh for wearing a headscarf inside a mosque, labelling her an "enemy within" for seemingly betraying the Chinese community. Yeoh responded by defending her choice, emphasising that "respecting the dress code of a place of worship does not equate to disloyalty."2018 general election
In the 2018 general election on 9 May, Yeoh won the Segambut parliamentary seat with 53,124 votes and a majority of 45,702, defeating opponents Loga Bala Mohan and Solleh Ab Razak, who received 7,422 and 4,181 votes respectively. This marked her first term as Segambut's MP, succeeding Lim Lip Eng, with a significantly larger majority than in the previous election. She was succeeded as Speaker by Ng Suee Lim, who was appointed to the position on 26 June 2018.Deputy Minister of Women, Family and Community Development
Following her appointment as Deputy Minister of Women, Family and Community Development on 2 July 2018, Yeoh pledged to be a "strong voice for children" in Dewan Rakyat. In February 2019, she announced that the Sexual Harassment Bill would not be tabled in the Dewan Rakyat during the March session as the results of a recently completed feasibility study were still under careful review. In July 2020, police investigations clarified that a seditious post wrongly attributed to Yeoh was actually uploaded by a portal called "muafakatnasional.net", with no involvement from her. Then, in August 2021, Yeoh called on Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob to urgently establish a dedicated Ministry of Children to better address the critical needs of children in Malaysia.Yeoh successfully retained her Segambut parliamentary seat in the 2022 general election on 19 November, winning over 80% of the vote with 65,290 votes and a majority of 56,980 against her opponents from Perikatan Nasional–Gerakan and BN–MCA.
Minister of Youth and Sports
On 3 December 2022, Yeoh was appointed Minister of Youth and Sports in the Anwar Ibrahim cabinet. In January 2024, Universiti Utara Malaysia lecturer Kamarul Zaman Yusoff withdrew his defamation suit against her, with the court ordering him to pay RM5,000 in costs, affirming Yeoh's position that she did not misuse religion in her campaign. However, in 2024, Wan Ahmad Fayhsal criticised Yeoh for a lack of hands-on leadership amid controversies surrounding the Paris 2024 Olympics, stating that despite her limited control over sports associations, she bears ultimate responsibility.Following the party's 2025 [Democratic Action Party National Congress|leadership reshuffle] on 16 March 2025, Yeoh continues to hold a prominent role as one of DAP's deputy secretaries-general. In May 2025, the High Court ruled in her favour in a defamation suit against Kamarul Zaman, ordering him to pay RM400,000 in damages for making false and malicious claims that she was promoting a Christian proselytising agenda through her political platform.