Maszlee Malik
Maszlee bin Malik is a Malaysian politician who has served as Chairman of the International Institute of Advanced Islamic Studies since March 2023.
He served as the Minister of Education in the Pakatan Harapan administration under former Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad from May 2018 until January 2020, and was the Member of Parliament for Simpang Renggam from May 2018 to November 2022. He briefly held the position of President of the International Islamic University Malaysia from September 2018 to November 2018.
A member of the People's Justice Party, he holds the position of Division Chief of Simpang Renggam. Prior to that, he was a member of the Malaysian United Indigenous Party. He is also professor at the University of Cyberjaya's psychology and social sciences faculty.
Background
Maszlee bin Malik was born in Johor Bahru, Johor, in 1974. He is of Malays, Hakka Chinese and Bugis descent. Maszlee attended the English College and obtained a bachelor's degree in Islamic Jurisprudence from the University of Al-Bayt and a master's degree in the same field from the University of Malaya. He obtained a doctorate in Political Science from Durham University. His PhD thesis was titled "Constructing the Architectonics and Formulating the Articulation of Islamic Governance: A Discursive Attempt in Islamic Epistemology". He speaks Malay, Arabic, English, French, German, Mandarin, and Hokkien.Career
Academia
Maszlee taught at the International Islamic University Malaysia.Politics
Maszlee made his political debut by registering as a member of the People's Justice Party Ampang branch in 2017. Later he joined another Pakatan Harapan coalition's component party, the Malaysian United Indigenous Party, in March 2018, ahead of the [2018 Malaysian people|Malaysian general election|2018 general election], which he won against incumbent Liang Teck Meng for the Simpang Renggam constituency. On 18 May 2018, Maszlee was appointed as Malaysia's new Minister of Education after Prime Minister Tun Mahathir Mohamad vacated the post just one day after taking it. After 20 months of his appointment, he resigned from the ministerial position in January 2020 as requested by the Prime Minister.His BERSATU membership was canceled in May 2020 after the collapse of the PH government, following the party's decision to leave PH in the so-called 'Sheraton Move' during the 2020 political crisis. He then became an independent MP. After being a PH-friendly independent for over a year, he rejoined PKR and PH again in November 2021.
On 14 February 2022, he was confirmed to be contesting for the Layang-Layang state seat representing PH and PKR in the 2022 Johor state election. The state seat is within his Simpang Renggam federal seat. He lost to the UMNO incumbent, Abd. Mutalip Abd. Rahim.
In the Malaysian 15th general election in November 2022, Maszlee lost his Simpang Renggam seat to Hasni Mohammad, the former Johor menteri besar. Hasni polled 18,312 votes to Maszlee's 16,491 for a 1,821-vote majority.
After the loss in the Malaysian 15th general election, he was appointed as a Professor at the University of Cyberjaya to give lectures on selected topics in humanities and education-related subjects at the 'Psychology and Social Sciences Faculty' in April 2023. He was also appointed by the Prime Minister as the chairman of an Islamic think tank called the 'International Institute of Advanced Islamic Studies' to advise the Prime Minister on Global Muslim Affairs.