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The Most Famous

POLITICIANS from Malaysia

This page contains a list of the greatest Malaysian Politicians. The pantheon dataset contains 15,577 Politicians, 28 of which were born in Malaysia. This makes Malaysia the birth place of the 84th most number of Politicians behind Guatemala and Somalia.

Top 10

The following people are considered by Pantheon to be the top 10 most legendary Malaysian Politicians of all time. This list of famous Malaysian Politicians is sorted by HPI (Historical Popularity Index), a metric that aggregates information on a biography’s online popularity. Visit the rankings page to view the entire list of Malaysian Politicians.

1. Mahathir Mohamad (1925 - )

With an HPI of 71.26, Mahathir Mohamad is the most famous Malaysian Politician. His biography has been translated into 82 different languages on wikipedia.

Mahathir bin Mohamad (Jawi: محاضير بن محمد; IPA: [mahaðɪ(r) bɪn mohamad]; born 10 July 1925) is a Malaysian politician, author, and physician who served as the fourth and seventh prime minister of Malaysia. He held office from 1981 to 2003 and later from 2018 to 2020 for a cumulative total of 24 years, making him the country's longest-serving prime minister. Before becoming premier, he served as deputy prime minister and in other cabinet positions. He was a member of Parliament for Langkawi from 2018 to 2022, Kubang Pasu from 1974 to 2004, and Kota Star Selatan from 1964 to 1969. His political career spanned more than 75 years, from joining protests opposing citizenship policies for non-Malays in the Malayan Union in the 1940s to forming the Gerakan Tanah Air coalition in 2022. Born and raised in Alor Setar, Kedah, Mahathir excelled at school and became a physician. He became active in the United Malays National Organisation (UMNO) before entering the parliament of Malaysia in 1964. He served one term before losing his seat, subsequently falling out with Prime Minister Tunku Abdul Rahman and being expelled from UMNO. In 1970, he released the book The Malay Dilemma. When Abdul Rahman resigned, Mahathir re-entered UMNO and parliament, and was promoted to Minister of Education from 1974 to 1978 and Minister of Trade and Industry from 1978 to 1981. He became deputy prime minister in 1976 before being sworn in as prime minister in 1981, succeeding Hussein Onn. During Mahathir's first tenure, Malaysia underwent modernisation and economic growth, and his government initiated widespread industry privatisation and a series of bold infrastructure projects. Mahathir was a dominant political figure, winning five consecutive general elections and fending off several rivals for UMNO's leadership. He centralised power through undermining judicial independence and supporting a constitutional amendment to remove legal immunity for royalty. He continued pro-bumiputera policies, and oversaw Malaysia's relatively fast recovery from the 1997 Asian financial crisis. In 1987, he detained various activists and religious figures under Operation Lalang, and in 1998 had his deputy Anwar Ibrahim arrested. His record of authoritarianism and curtailment of civil liberties strained relationships with the West. As prime minister, he was an advocate of Asian values and development models, and was particularly prominent across the Muslim world. Mahathir unexpectedly stepped down in 2003, but remained politically influential and was critical of his successors. He quit UMNO over the 1MDB corruption scandal in 2016, joining BERSATU and leading the Pakatan Harapan opposition coalition to victory in the 2018 general election. During his second tenure as prime minister, he pledged to investigate the 1MDB scandal, combat corruption, and cut spending on large infrastructure projects. He also secured the pardon and release of Anwar Ibrahim. Mahathir resigned in 2020 amidst a political crisis. Despite losing his parliamentary seat in the 2022 general election, he remained active in politics and shifted party affiliation several times. Mahathir's political views have shifted during his life, and are shaped by his Malay nationalism and Islamic religious beliefs.

2. Tunku Abdul Rahman (1903 - 1990)

With an HPI of 63.87, Tunku Abdul Rahman is the 2nd most famous Malaysian Politician. His biography has been translated into 47 different languages.

Tunku Abdul Rahman Putra Al-Haj ibni Almarhum Sultan Abdul Hamid Halim Shah (Jawi: ‏تونكو عبد الرحمن ڤوترا الحاج ابن سلطان عبد الحميد حليم شاه; 8 February 1903 – 6 December 1990) was a Malaysian statesman and lawyer who served as the first prime minister of Malaysia and the head of government of its predecessor states from 1955 to 1970. He was the first chief minister of the Federation of Malaya from 1955 to 1957. He supervised the independence process that culminated on 31 August 1957. As an independent Malaysia's first prime minister, he dominated the country's politics for the next 13 years. In 1963, he successfully incorporated the Federation of Malaya, British North Borneo (renamed Sabah), Sarawak, and Singapore into the state of Malaysia. However, tensions between the Malay and Chinese communities resulted in Singapore's expulsion in 1965. His poor performance during race riots in Kuala Lumpur in 1969 led to his resignation in 1970. Commonly known simply as "Tunku" (a Malay royal title), Tunku Abdul Rahman is widely regarded, even by his critics, as Malaysia's "founding father", the architect of Malayan independence and of the formation of Malaysia. As such, he is often referred to as Father of Independence (Bapa Kemerdekaan) or Father of Malaysia (Bapa Malaysia).

3. Abdul Halim of Kedah (1927 - 2017)

With an HPI of 60.27, Abdul Halim of Kedah is the 3rd most famous Malaysian Politician. His biography has been translated into 41 different languages.

Al-Mu’tassimu Billahi Muhibbuddin Sultan Abdul Halim Mu'adzam Shah ibni Almarhum Sultan Badlishah (Jawi: المرحوم السلطان المعتصم بالله محب الدين توانکو الحاج عبدالحليم معظم شاه ابن المرحوم سلطان بدلي شاه; 28 November 1927 – 11 September 2017) was the 28th Sultan of Kedah from 1958 until his death in 2017, the fifth Yang di-Pertuan Agong from 1970 to 1975, and again as the fourteenth from 2011 to 2016. He was the first and only ruler to reign as Yang di-Pertuan Agong twice, as well as the oldest elected to the office. Immediately prior to his death, he was the second longest-reigning living monarch in the world after Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom.

4. Abdul Razak Hussein (1922 - 1976)

With an HPI of 58.75, Abdul Razak Hussein is the 4th most famous Malaysian Politician. His biography has been translated into 33 different languages.

Tun Haji Abdul Razak bin Dato' Hussein (Jawi: عبد الرزاق بن حسين; 11 March 1922 – 14 January 1976) was a Malaysian lawyer and politician who served as the second prime minister of Malaysia from 1970 until his death in 1976. He also served as the first deputy prime minister of Malaysia from 1957 to 1970. He is referred to as the Father of Development (Bapa Pembangunan). Abdul Razak was the figure responsible for setting up Barisan Nasional (BN), which is the ruling coalition of political parties that held power in Malaysia. Abdul Razak is also renowned for launching the Malaysian New Economic Policy (MNEP). His eldest son, Najib Razak, became the sixth prime minister in 2009; Najib is the first prime minister of Malaysia to be a descendant of a former prime minister.

5. Abdullah Ahmad Badawi (1939 - )

With an HPI of 58.00, Abdullah Ahmad Badawi is the 5th most famous Malaysian Politician. His biography has been translated into 43 different languages.

Tun Abdullah bin Ahmad Badawi (Jawi: عبد الله بن احمد بدوي, Malay pronunciation: [abdullah]; born 26 November 1939) is a Malaysian politician who served as the fifth Prime Minister of Malaysia from 2003 to 2009. He was also the sixth president of the United Malays National Organisation (UMNO), the largest political party (at the time) in Malaysia, and led the governing Barisan Nasional (BN) parliamentary coalition. He is informally known as Pak Lah, Pak meaning 'Uncle' or 'Sir', while Lah is taken from his name 'Abdullah'. He was also a Member of Parliament (MP) for Kepala Batas for eight consecutive terms, from 1978 to 2013. During the later part of Abdullah's administration, his government faced criticism for economic policies and performance, including concerns about inflation and the rising cost of living.

6. Hussein Onn (1922 - 1990)

With an HPI of 57.33, Hussein Onn is the 6th most famous Malaysian Politician. His biography has been translated into 30 different languages.

Tun Hussein bin Dato' Onn (Jawi: حسين بن عون; 12 February 1922 – 29 May 1990) was a Malaysian lawyer and politician who served as the third prime minister of Malaysia from the death of his predecessor Abdul Razak Hussein in 1976 to his retirement in 1981. Moreover, he was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Sri Gading from 1974 to 1981, representing Barisan Nasional (BN) and United Malays National Organisation (UMNO). He was granted the soubriquet Father of Unity (Bapa Perpaduan).

7. Muhyiddin Yassin (1947 - )

With an HPI of 56.97, Muhyiddin Yassin is the 7th most famous Malaysian Politician. His biography has been translated into 35 different languages.

Tan Sri Dato' Haji Mahiaddin bin Md. Yasin (born 15 May 1947), commonly known as Muhyiddin bin Mohd. Yassin (Jawi: محيي الدين بن محمد ياسين; IPA: [muhjɪddɪn bɪn ˈmuɦɑmmæd jɑ̀ssɪn]), is a Malaysian politician who served as the eighth Prime Minister of Malaysia from 2020 to 2021. Appointed as prime minister amid a political crisis, Muhyiddin served for 17 months and resigned after losing parliamentary support. Muhyiddin grew up in the state of Johor and joined the state public service after graduating from University of Malaya (UM). He assumed management positions at various state-owned companies. In 1978, he was elected as the Member of Parliament for Pagoh. During this term, he was appointed parliamentary secretary to the minister of foreign affairs, deputy minister of federal territories and later deputy minister of trade and industry. As the Johor UMNO chief, he was the state's Menteri Besar from 1986 to 1995. He returned to federal politics in 1995. He was appointed to the Cabinet as Minister of Youth and Sports. He was appointed Minister of Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs after the 1999 general election and became a vice president of UMNO in 2000. Under the premiership of Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, Muhyiddin served as Minister of Agriculture and Agro-based Industry from 2004 to 2008, and then as Minister of International Trade and Industry from 2008 to 2009. In 2008, he contested and won the UMNO deputy presidency and was appointed Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Education by Prime Minister Najib Razak in 2009. As Minister of Education, Muhyiddin ended the use of English as the medium of instruction for science and mathematics in public schools. He also attracted controversy after describing himself as "Malay first" when challenged by the Opposition to pronounce himself as "Malaysian first". Muhyiddin was a vocal critic of his government and party over the 1MDB scandal; as a result, he was dropped from his position during Najib's mid-term cabinet reshuffle in July 2015, marking the first incumbent UMNO deputy president to be left out of the president's cabinet. In June 2016, he was expelled from UMNO. He participated in founding the political party Malaysian United Indigenous Party (BERSATU) under Mahathir in 2016. He returned to the cabinet after his coalition of parties Pakatan Harapan won the 2018 Malaysian general election. In February 2020, BERSATU withdrew from Pakatan Harapan, culminating in a political crisis as the coalition lost its majority in the Dewan Rakyat. Following Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad's subsequent resignation, Muhyiddin successfully formed a new coalition Perikatan Nasional by receiving support from enough MPs to form a majority government and was appointed Prime Minister on 1 March. Much of his premiership was overseeing Malaysia's response to the COVID-19 pandemic, which became a major crisis shortly after he took office. This included enacting several iterations of the Movement Control Order (MCO), a vaccination programme and declaring a 2021 state of emergency, where parliament and elections were suspended. Although his government's initial response was praised by the WHO and had high local approval ratings, the worsening of the COVID-19 crisis in 2021 attracted criticism and destabilised the coalition. On 16 August 2021, he resigned after attempts to regain support from MPs were unsuccessful. He remained caretaker Prime Minister until his replacement Ismail Sabri Yaakob was selected on 21 August 2021. Muhyiddin unsuccessfully ran as the prime ministerial candidate for Perikatan Nasional in the 2022 general election. In March 2023, Muhyiddin was arrested by the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission as part of a corruption investigation on several counts of money laundering and abuse of power, making him the second former prime minister after Najib Razak to be prosecuted.

8. Najib Razak (1953 - )

With an HPI of 56.39, Najib Razak is the 8th most famous Malaysian Politician. His biography has been translated into 53 different languages.

Mohammad Najib bin Tun Haji Abdul Razak (Jawi: محمد نجيب بن عبد الرزاق, Malay pronunciation: [muhammad nadʒɪb]; born 23 July 1953) is a Malaysian politician who served as the sixth Prime Minister of Malaysia from 2009 to 2018. In 2020, he was convicted of corruption in the 1Malaysia Development Berhad scandal, one of the largest money-laundering and embezzlement scandals in history. He is the son of former prime minister Abdul Razak Hussein. Najib Razak was the chairman of the Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition from April 2009 to May 2018 and the president of the United Malays National Organisation (UMNO) from November 2008 to May 2018, which had maintained control of Malaysia's government with a parliamentary majority for more than sixty years until the coalition's defeat in the 2018 general election. Najib was elected to the Parliament of Malaysia in 1976, at the age of 23, replacing his deceased father in the Pahang-based seat of Pekan. In the same year, he was appointed the head of UMNO Youth's Pekan branch and became a member of the youth wing's Executive Council. In the early years of his political career, Najib took on a deputy minister role in 1976, and between 1982 and 1986, he was the Menteri Besar of Pahang. Thereafter, until 2009, he was rotated throughout the Cabinet of Malaysia, taking on various ministerial portfolios in defence, education, culture, youth and sports, and finally finance. Between 1993 and 2009, Najib was a vice-president of UMNO. Najib's tenure as prime minister, between 2009 and 2018, was marked by economic liberalisation measures, such as cuts to government subsidies, loosening of restrictions on foreign investment, and reductions in preferential measures for ethnic Malays in business. After the 2013 election, his government pursued a number of its critics on sedition charges, the imprisonment of opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim following a conviction for sodomy and the implementation of a Goods and Services Tax (GST). He also led the country through the Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 disaster and a dispute with North Korea following the assassination of Kim Jong-nam. In 2015, Najib became implicated in a major corruption scandal involving state investment firm 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) which led to rallies calling for his resignation, spearheaded by the grassroots movement Bersih. These protests culminated in the Malaysian Citizens' Declaration by Mahathir Mohamad, Pakatan Harapan and NGOs which sought to oust Najib. Najib's response to the corruption accusations was to tighten his grip on power by replacing then-deputy prime minister Muhyiddin Yassin, suspending two newspapers and pushing through parliament a controversial National Security Council Bill that provides the prime minister with unprecedented powers. Najib's various subsidy cuts have contributed to soaring living costs, while fluctuating oil prices and the fallout from the 1MDB scandal led to a depreciation of the Malaysian currency. These ended with BN's loss in the 2018 general elections, the results of which Najib then accepted and promised to help facilitate a smooth transition of power. On 3 July 2018, Najib was arrested by the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC), which investigated how RM42 million (US$10.6 million) went from SRC International, a company related to 1MDB, into Najib's bank account. In the process, the police seized a number of fashion accessories worth $273 million while searching through his properties. Najib was subsequently charged and convicted by the High Court on abuse of power, money laundering and criminal breach of trust, becoming the first Prime Minister of Malaysia to be convicted of corruption, and was sentenced to 12 years' imprisonment and fined RM210 million. The sentence was upheld by the Federal Court on 23 August 2022. He is currently serving his sentence in Kajang Prison.

9. Abdullah of Pahang (1959 - )

With an HPI of 55.16, Abdullah of Pahang is the 9th most famous Malaysian Politician. His biography has been translated into 39 different languages.

Al-Sultan Abdullah Ri'ayatuddin Al-Mustafa Billah Shah ibni Almarhum Sultan Haji Ahmad Shah Al-Musta'in Billah (Jawi: السلطان عبدﷲ رعاية الدين المصطفى بالله شاه ابن المرحوم سلطان حاج أحمد شاه المستعين بالله; ; born 30 July 1959) is the Sultan of Pahang since the abdication of his father in 2019. He was the sixteenth Yang di-Pertuan Agong (King) of Malaysia, from 2019 to 2024, being sworn in just a few weeks after ascending to the throne as Sultan of Pahang. Notably, just days after being proclaimed Sultan of Pahang, Abdullah was elected as the sixteenth Yang di-Pertuan Agong, the paramount constitutional monarch of Malaysia, a role he assumed on 31 January 2019. Abdullah played an unusually prominent role domestic politics, particularly during the 2020–22 Malaysian political crisis and the intricate negotiations that followed the 2022 general election, which resulted in a hung parliament. As a result of this, he is the Yang di-Pertuan Agong who reigned over the most prime ministers during his tenure (Mahathir Mohamad, Muhyiddin Yassin, Ismail Sabri Yaakob and Anwar Ibrahim). Beyond his royal responsibilities, Abdullah was actively engaged in the realm of international sports governance, serving as a distinguished member of the FIFA Council from 2015 to 2019.

10. Yusof Ishak (1910 - 1970)

With an HPI of 54.89, Yusof Ishak is the 10th most famous Malaysian Politician. His biography has been translated into 32 different languages.

Yusof bin Ishak ( YUUSS-off bin ISS-hahk; 12 August 1910 – 23 November 1970) was a Singaporean journalist and senior civil servant who served as the first president of Singapore between 1965 and 1970. Prior to his appointment as Singapore's head of state, Yusof was a well-known journalist who co-founded Utusan Melayu, which was in circulation until 9 October 2019. He started his career in journalism after his graduation from Raffles Institution in 1929. In 1932, he joined Warta Malaya, a well-known Malay newspaper company at that time, before leaving in 1938 and co-founded Utusan Melayu. Yusof held many appointments within the Singapore Government. He served on the Film Appeal Committee from 1948 to 1950 and was a member of both the Nature Reserves Committee and Malayanisation Commission for a year. In July 1959, he was appointed Chairman of the Public Service Commission. On 3 December 1959, Yusof succeeded Sir William Goode as Yang di-Pertuan Negara (English: Head of State) after the People's Action Party (PAP) won the 1959 general election. Yusof was subsequently appointed as the first president of Singapore by Parliament after the independence of Singapore on 9 August 1965. Yusof served three terms in office before he died on 23 November 1970 due to heart failure. His portrait appears on the Singapore Portrait Series currency notes introduced in 1999. He was succeeded by Benjamin Sheares on 2 January 1971.

People

Pantheon has 28 people classified as politicians born between 1895 and 1969. Of these 28, 12 (42.86%) of them are still alive today. The most famous living politicians include Mahathir Mohamad, Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, and Muhyiddin Yassin. The most famous deceased politicians include Tunku Abdul Rahman, Abdul Halim of Kedah, and Abdul Razak Hussein. As of April 2022, 6 new politicians have been added to Pantheon including Ismail Sabri Yaakob, Ling Liong Sik, and Putra of Perlis.