Hannah Yeoh

Hannah Yeoh Tseow Suan (born 9 January 1979) is a Malaysian politician and lawyer who has served as the Minister of Youth and Sports in the Unity Government administration under Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim since December 2022. She served as the Deputy Minister of Women, Family and Community Development in the PH administration under former Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad and former Minister Wan Azizah Wan Ismail from July 2018 to the collapse of the PH administration in February 2020. She has served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Segambut since May 2018. She also served as 10th Speaker of the Selangor State Legislative Assembly from June 2013 to April 2018 and Member of the Selangor State Legislative Assembly (MLA) for Subang Jaya from March 2008 to May 2018. She is a member of the Democratic Action Party (DAP), a component party of the PH coalition. She has served as the Assistant National Publicity Secretary of DAP since March 2022.

Background
Born in Subang Jaya, Yeoh studied at SK Sri Subang Jaya, SRK SS19 and SMK Subang Utama, after which she continued her studies at the University of Tasmania in Australia and obtained her law degree in 2001. She was recognized as a lawyer by the Malaysian Bar in January 2003 and was subsequently admitted to the Supreme Court of Tasmania after obtaining a Certificate of Legal Practice in Tasmania. Yeoh then served as a lawyer in Petaling Jaya for three years before moving to the ceremony management company in 2006.

Political career
Driven by Edward Ling, her schoolmate, to join the world of politics, both Yeoh and Ling joined the Damansara DAP Branch in the late 2006. Yeoh opted to join the DAP even though the party was an opposition party as she felt that the stand of the political party is the most consistent, though its leaders are often threatened by the Internal Security Act (ISA) which allowed arrests and imprisonments without any trial.

Inspired by Damansara DAP Branch Chief Tony Pua who resigned to join DAP full-time, Yeoh followed Pua's footsteps and resigned shortly before the March 2008 general election to become a full-time politician.

Yeoh was elected as the MLA for Subang Jaya in the 2008 Selangor state election. In the 2013 Selangor state election, Yeoh was reelected as Subang Jaya MLA. After her reelection, she was also elected as the first ever female Speaker of the Selangor State Legislative Assembly. At the age of 34, she became the youngest speaker of any state legislative assembly in Malaysia.

In the 2018 general election, Yeoh was nominated by her party to contest for the Segambut federal seat and was elected. When PH took over the federal government, she was appointed as the Deputy Minister of Women, Family, and Community Development by Prime Minister Mahathir.

In the 2022 general election, Yeoh was renominated by her party to contest for the same seat and was reelected. After PH formed the coalition government with BN and other political coalitions and parties, Yeoh was appointed as Minister of Youth and Sports by Prime Minister Anwar on 3 December 2022. As the minister, Yeoh introduced the "Road to Gold" (RTG) high performance training programme in an effort to train athletes and olympians on becoming first ever gold medalists of the 2024 Summer Olympics in the Malaysian history. The programme listed 15 badminton players, divers and cyclists ranging from Aaron Chia, Soh Wooi Yik, Pandelela Rinong, Azizulhasni Awang to others.

Personal life
Yeoh has 4 siblings. She is a former lawyer and event manager. She is married to Ramachandran Muniandy (born 1982; 3 years her junior) with whom she has two daughters, Shay Adora Ram and Kayleigh Imani Ram.