Azalina Othman Said

Biography

Azalina binti Othman Said (born 31 December 1963 in Johor Bahru) is Minister in the Prime Minister's Department responsible for law and institutional reform, and has been the Member of Parliament for Pengerang since 2004. She is a member of UMNO. Azalina grew up in Penang, where she attended Convent Green Lane. Her father is of Buginese descent and her mother of Hadrami Arab descent. She took a diploma in public administration at Universiti Teknologi MARA, a law degree at the University of Malaya in 1988, a diploma in Sharia law at the International Islamic University Malaysia, and a master's in law at the London School of Economics in 1990. Admitted to the Malaysian Bar in 1989, she practised in women's affairs, civil claims and corporate banking, becoming a partner at several firms including the Singapore branch of Zaid Ibrahim & Co. She joined UMNO in 1990 and was elected to its supreme council in 2000, then the youngest woman to hold the position. She was founding head of Puteri UMNO, the party's wing for women under 35, from 2001 to 2004. Winning Pengerang unopposed in 2004, she became Malaysia's first female Minister of Youth and Sports, and was Minister of Tourism from 2008 to 2009. Dropped from cabinet under Najib Razak, she returned in 2015 as Minister in the Prime Minister's Department overseeing legal affairs, and publicly defended Najib during the 1MDB scandal. She was the first woman to serve as Deputy Speaker of the Dewan Rakyat, from 2020 to 2021, and advised the prime minister on law and human rights before her current appointment in 2022. In 2024 she became the first Malaysian to preside over the Assembly of Parties of the International Anti-Corruption Academy.

Constituencies (1)

Electoral track record

605 mentions across 12 months

News mentions