Maszlee Malik

Maszlee bin Malik (Jawi: مزلي بن مالک) is a Malaysian politician who served as the Chairman of the International Institute of Advanced Islamic Studies (IAIS) since March 2023. He served as the Minister of Education in the Pakatan Harapan (PH) administration under former Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad from May 2018 to his resignation in January 2020, 7th President of the International Islamic University Malaysia (IIUM) from September 2018 to his resignation in November 2018 and the Member of Parliament (MP) for Simpang Renggam from May 2018 to November 2022. He is a member and Division Chief of Simpang Renggam of the People's Justice Party (PKR), a component party of the PH coalition, and professor at the psychology and social sciences faculty at the University of Cyberjaya. He was an independent politician, and Malaysian United Indigenous Party (BERSATU), then a component party of the PH coalition, as well as a lecturer at the IIUM.

Background
Born in Johor Bahru, Johor, in 1974, he is of Hakka Chinese (mother) and Bugis (father) descent. He attended the English College (now Sultan Abu Bakar College) and Maahad Johor. He obtained his bachelor's degree in the Islamic Jurisprudence from University of Al-Bayt, Jordan and his master's degree in the same field from University of Malaya, Malaysia. Furthermore, he completed his doctorate in Political Science from Durham University with his doctoral thesis titled "Constructing the Architectonics and Formulating the Articulation of Islamic Governance: A Discursive Attempt in Islamic Epistemology".

Before being elected, he taught at the International Islamic University Malaysia and studied Islam and the Middle East. Apart from speaking fluent Malay, Arabic, and English, he also speaks moderate French, German, simple Mandarin Chinese, and Hokkien.

Politics
Maszlee made his political debut by registering as a member of PKR Ampang branch in 2017. But he later joined another PH coalition's component party, BERSATU in March 2018 ahead of the 2018 general election (GE14) 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 some 20 months of his appointment, he rendered the ministerial position in January 2020 to the Prime Minister as requested by the latter.

His BERSATU membership was then canceled in May 2020 after the collapsed of PH government following the party's decision to leave PH in the so-called 'Sheraton Move' 2020 political crisis and he became an Independent MP. After being PH-friendly independent for more than 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, who is former Johor menteri besar. Hasni polled 18,312 votes to Maszlee 16,491 for a 1,821-vote majority.

After the Malaysian 15th general election, due to his loss in Simpang Renggam, Maszlee was without any government and official position. He was later 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 'International Institute of Advanced Islamic Studies' (IAIS), to advise the Prime Minister on Global Muslims Affairs.