Mohd Amar Abdullah

Mohd Amar bin Abdullah (born 29 July 1959) is a Malaysian politician and lecturer who has served as Speaker of the Kelantan State Legislative Assembly since September 2023 and Member of the Kelantan State Legislative Assembly (MLA) for Panchor since March 2004. He served as the Deputy Menteri Besar of Kelantan and Member of the Kelantan State Executive Council (EXCO) in the Pakatan Rakyat (PR), Gagasan Sejahtera (GS) and Perikatan Nasional (PN) state administrations under Menteris Besar Nik Abdul Aziz Nik Mat and Ahmad Yakob from May 2013 and from March 2004 to August 2023 respectively as well as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Pengkalan Chepa from April 1995 to March 2004. He is a member and Vice President of the Malaysian Islamic Party (PAS), a component party of the PN, formerly PR, GS, Barisan Alternatif (BA) and Angkatan Perpaduan Ummah (APU) coalitions.

Family background
Dato' Amar is the eldest child of the late Haji Abdullah bin Haji Arshad (known as Pak Nik Lah) and Hajjah Tengku Chik binti Tengku Ibrahim. Dato' Amar's mother was the great-granddaughter of Sultan Muhammad III through his grandmother YM Tengku Halimah binti Tengku Long Zainal Abidin ibni Sultan Muhammad III.

He was given the title Nik Mat (Nik Mohd) by Tok Ku Puan who took care of him as a child. The local community in Kampung Panchor is more friendly calling him Nik Amar until now. Similarly, his father, nicknamed Pak Nik Lah, was taken from the wife of his grandfather Haji Arshad bin Muhammad Tahir bin Tera a scholar better known as Tok Ayah Kedah who married YM Raja Meriam binti Raja Daud who was a descendant of Raja Jembal.

Dato' Amar has 4 children (2 sons and 2 daughters) as a result of his marriage with Datin Hajjah Hasmani Binti Hussain. His eldest son Taqiyuddin Mohd Amar a Hafiz Al-Quran and an outstanding student at MTAQ Pulai Chondong passed away in June 2004.

Education
Since childhood, Dato' Amar was educated by his father and lived together and received his early education at Sekolah Menengah Ugama (Agama) Tarbiah Mardhiah, Panchor. At the same time Dato' Nik Amar studied in Sekolah Melayu Council (1965 - 1971) and proceed to the Master of Philosophy (MPhil) in United Kingdom.


 * 1965 - 1971 : Sekolah Melayu Majlis - Primary School
 * 1972 - 1977 : SMU (A) Tarbiah Mardhiah - Secondary School (Lower 6)
 * 1978 - 1979 : Maahad Muhammadi Men - Secondary School (Upper 6)
 * 1979 - 1983 : Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM) - Bachelor of Islamic Studies
 * 1985 - 1988 : University of Birmingham, UK - MPhil in Theological Studies

Career and politics
Before being active in politics, Dato' Amar was a Lecturer in the Department of Revelation, International Islamic University Malaysia (IIUM), Petaling Jaya, Selangor and served for 10 years (1985-1995). He also previously served as the Superintendent of Customs (Sangkut) for a year in Penang. He was subsequently called by the PAS Kelantan leadership to contest in the Pengkalan Chepa parliamentary seat and then contest as Panchor ADUN until now. Apart from being in the Kelantan State Assembly, Dato' Nik Amar is also a Member of the PAS Central Working Committee and Deputy Commissioner I of PAS Kelantan until now.

Speaker of the Kelantan State Legislative Assembly (since 2023)
On 5 September 2023, Mohd Amar, after leaving the Kelantan state government as the Deputy Menteri Besar and EXCO Member, was appointed as the Speaker of the Kelantan Assembly. As Speaker, Mohd Amar vacated the Nenggiri state seat held and represented by its MLA Mohd Azizi Abu Naim of PN and the Malaysian United Indigenous Party (BERSATU) at the Kelantan state level, who was also the Gua Musang MP in the opposition at the federal level, who declared his support for the federal government and Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim. His support was a switch of political allegiance as Pakatan Harapan (PH) led by Anwar and PN were opposing politically at both levels. Mohd Amar declared the vacancy of the Nenggiri state seat on 19 June 2024 that led to the 2024 Nenggiri by-election after Mohd Azizi was terminated as a BERSATU member due to his switch of political allegiance. Mohd Azizi had challenged the decision of Mohd Amar by filing an interim injunction but it was dismissed by the High Court.

Honours

 * Kelantan :
 * My-KEL_Order_of_the_Life_of_the_Crown_of_Kelantan_1925-2006.svg Companion of the Order of the Life of the Crown of Kelantan (JMK) (2006)
 * My-KEL Order of the Life of the Crown of Kelantan 2006.svg Knight Commander of the Order of the Life of the Crown of Kelantan (DJMK) – Dato' (2009)
 * My-KEL Order of the Life of the Crown of Kelantan 2006.svg Knight Grand Commander of the Order of the Life of the Crown of Kelantan (SJMK) – Dato' (2015)
 * Dato' Sri Amar D'Raja (2023)