Noraini Ahmad

Noraini binti Ahmad (Jawi: نورعيني بنت أحمد; born 7 November 1967) is a Malaysian politician who has served as Deputy Minister of Women, Family and Community Development in the Unity Government administration under Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim and Minister Nancy Shukri since December 2023, and the Member of Parliament (MP) for Parit Sulong since March 2008. She served as the Minister of Higher Education for the second term under the Barisan Nasional (BN) administration under former Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob from August 2021 to the collapse of BN administration in November 2022, the first term in the Perikatan Nasional (PN) administration under former Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin from March 2020 to her resignation in August 2021. She is a member of the United Malays National Organisation (UMNO), a component party of the BN coalition. She has also served as the 10th Women Chief of UMNO since June 2018 and 2nd Women Youth Chief of UMNO from 2004 to 2009 and 1st Deputy Women Youth Chief from 2001 to her promotion to women youth chief in 2004. She is formerly a Chairperson of the Rubber Industry Smallholders Development Authority (RISDA) from March 2023 to January 2024. She is also the first female PAC chairperson in Malaysian history. Her appointment as a deputy minister in December 2023 is a rare occurrence in Malaysian politics since she was a former federal minister in the Muhyiddin cabinet and Ismail Sabri cabinet. She is one of the three deputy ministers who were previously a federal minister alongside Shamsul Anuar Nasarah and M. Kulasegaran.

Early life and education
She is a graduate of the University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, Canada where she obtained her Bachelor of Commerce (double major in quantitative analysis and finance) in 1991, followed by a master's degree in business administration (MBA) from Universiti Tun Abdul Razak (UNIRAZAK) in 2005. She subsequently obtained her Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) in Development Management from Universiti Utara Malaysia (UUM) in 2016. She then enrolled into the Doctor of Business Administration (DBA) program at Asia e-University (AeU). The title of her DBA dissertation is “The Phenomenological Study of Women Entrepreneurs and their Impact on Socio-Economic Growth in Malaysia”. She will be one of the first Malaysians to complete the DBA in AeU via the APEL Q system. She completed her viva on 11 November 2021 and received positive feedback on her dissertation from examiners who requested no further amendments/corrections upon submission. She completed her second PhD in April 2022.

Political career
Noraini was first elected to federal Parliament in the 2008 general election, replacing incumbent Syed Hood Syed Edros. Immediately after the election, she was named Deputy Minister of Human Resources in the government of Abdullah Ahmad Badawi and served under the post until Abdullah's successor Najib Razak named his first cabinet in April 2009.

In the 2013 general election, Noraini won re-election to Parliament and was then appointed by the government as the Chairperson of the Malaysia External Trade Development Corporation (MATRADE). In the 2018 general election, she was re-elected once again albeit with a decreased majority.

Noraini was also the chairman of Commonwealth Women Parliamentarians from 2016 to 2019. The Commonwealth Women Parliamentarians (CWP) is a network of the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association that campaigns for gender equality and equal representation in Parliaments. On the international fora she became the first Malaysian to be elected as chairman of Commonwealth Women Parliamentarians (CWP) from 2016 to 2019. She was elected through voting at the 62nd Commonwealth Parliamentarians' Conference in London, United Kingdom. She garnered 53 votes beating Joyce Watson of Wales who received 15 votes, Poto Williams of New Zealand (10 votes) and Linda Reid from Canada who received 9 votes.

Honours of Malaysia

 * Malacca :
 * MY-MAL Exalted Order of Malacca.svg Companion Class I of the Exalted Order of Malacca (DMSM) – Datuk (2005)
 * MY-MAL Exalted Order of Malacca.svg Grand Commander of the Exalted Order of Malacca (DGSM) – Datuk Seri (2020)
 * Pahang :
 * MY-PAH Order of Sultan Ahmad Shah of Pahang - Knight Companion - DSAP.svg Knight Companion of the Order of Sultan Ahmad Shah of Pahang (DSAP) – Dato' (2005)

Honorary degrees

 * 🇮🇩 Indonesia :
 * Honorary Ph.D. degree in Management and Leadership from Indonesian Muslim University (2022)

Others

 * 21st Century Partnership Program from Japanese Government - (2005)
 * New Zealand's Prime Minister ASEAN Fellowship - (2005)
 * Chosen as 1990s' 10 People 10 Decades University of Saskathewan - (2017)

Publications and appearances

 * A Change in Narrative to Break the Bias – BERNAMA & The Malaysia Reserve, 2022
 * Let's Call Out Gender Bias Daily - New Straits Times, 2022
 * Pushing Education for Sustainable Development to Greater Heights - New Straits Times, 2022
 * Sustainable Higher Education in Malaysia – BERNAMA, 2022
 * Appreciating Our Language, Our Cultural Heritage - The Malaysia Reserve, 2021
 * Honouring Higher Education Educators - The Star, 2021
 * Where Ideas Become Reality - New Straits Times, 2021
 * Students Rise by Lifting Others - Free Malaysia Today, 2021
 * Varsities Develop Future Leaders - New Straits Times, 2021
 * Celebrating the Success of Women in Higher Education - The Star, 2021
 * Simplifying Accommodation Search - New Straits Times, 2021
 * PENJANA KPT-CAP to Boost Graduate Employability - New Straits Times, 2020
 * Speech at the opening of the CWP Conference - The Parliamentarian, 2019
 * The Commonwealth: Adding political value to global affairs in the 21st century - The Parliamentarian, 2019
 * Women's Suffrage: A prerequisite to the gender equality agenda - The Parliamentarian, 2019
 * Cyber Harassment Against Woman on Social Media - The Parliamentarian, 2019
 * Economic Rights for Women - The Parliamentarian, 2018
 * View from the CWP Chairperson - Women and democracy in Malaysia - The Parliamentarian, 2018
 * If we want genuine positive change in the world, we need more women leaders. How can we persuade the word that the future is dependent on gender equality? - The Parliamentarian, 2017
 * Women and Disabilities - The Parliamentarian, 2017
 * Networking between Parliaments and creating alliances - The Parliamentarian, 2017
 * Job creation and growth: solutions to inequality - The Parliamentarian, 2017
 * Parliamentary Conference on the WTO - The Parliamentarian, 2017