Gan Peck Cheng Explained

Honorific-Prefix:Yang Berhormat Puan
Gan Peck Cheng
Native Name Lang:zh-my
Honorific-Suffix:MLA
Birth Name:Gan Peck Cheng
Birth Date:21 November 1966
Term Start:28 June 2018
Term End:22 January 2022
1Blankname:Menteri Besar
1Namedata:Osman Sapian

Sahruddin Jamal

Hasni Mohammad
2Blankname:Speaker
Office2:State Leader of the Opposition of Johor
Term Start2:12 October 2015
Term End2:28 June 2018
Predecessor2:Boo Cheng Hau
Successor2:Hasni Mohammad
Monarch2:Ibrahim Iskandar
2Blankname2:Menteri Besar
Constituency2:Penggaram
Constituency Am3:Penggaram
Assembly3:Johor State Legislative
Term Start3:5 May 2013
Predecessor3:Koh Chee Chai
(BNMCA)
Majority3:10,051 (2013)
17,205 (2018)
9,956 (2022)
Party:Democratic Action Party (DAP)
Otherparty:Gagasan Rakyat (GR)

Barisan Alternatif (BA)

Pakatan Rakyat (PR)

Pakatan Harapan (PH)
Occupation:Politician
Profession:Kindergarten teacher
Citizenship:Malaysian
Nationality:Malaysia
Website:Facebook

Gan Peck Cheng (born 21 November 1966) is a Malaysian politician and kindergarten teacher who has served as Member of the Johor State Legislative Assembly (MLA) for Penggaram since May 2013. She served as Deputy Speaker of the Johor State Legislative Assembly from June 2018 to January 2022 and State Leader of the Opposition of Johor from October 2015 to May 2018. She is a member of the Democratic Action Party (DAP), a component party of the Pakatan Harapan (PH) and formerly Pakatan Rakyat (PR), Barisan Alternatif (BA) and Gagasan Rakyat (GR) coalitions.

Personal life

She was born in Kampung Minyak Beku, Batu Pahat, Johor. She got her secondary education in Chinese High School Batu Pahat.

Earlier career

Before she served as a state assemblywoman, she have been working as a kindergarten teacher.

Political career

Gan contested for the Pontian federal seat and Penggaram state seat in the 1990 general and Johor state elections and again only for the Penggaram state seat in the 1995, 1999, 2004 and 2008 Johor state elections which she suffered from electoral defeats. In the 2013 general election, she finally broke her streak of five electoral defeats and ended her 23-year wait to be elected as an MLA. She gained her long-awaited victory in the same seat of Penggaram by defeating her opponents King Ban Siang from Malaysian Chinese Association (MCA) of Barisan Nasional (BN) with 10,051 majority votes.[1]

In 2014, Gan came out tops in the Johor DAP state committee polls, receiving 271 votes.[2] Gan, a former DAP state secretary, was appointed as the new State Leader of the Opposition of Johor on 27 October 2015 to replace Boo Cheng Hau who had resigned.[3] [4]

In the 2018 Johor state election, she retained her Penggaram state seat for her second term with higher majority of votes and was then appointed to be the first ever female Deputy Speaker of the Johor State Legislative Assembly in the history after PH took over the Johor state administration led by Menteri Besar Osman Sapian.[5] In February 2020, the PH state administration was overthrown and replaced with the new BN state administration led by new Menteri Besar Hasni Mohammad and PH returned to the state opposition after only 22 months in power. However, given by her identity as an opposition MLA, she was not removed from the deputy speakership and retained by the new administration along with Speaker Suhaizan Kayat who is also from the opposition. This became one of a very rare cases which the speakers are from the opposition instead of the government in Malaysia.

In the 2022 Johor state election, she retained her Penggaram state seat and was reelected for her third term by defeating all of her opponents but with a significantly lessened majority of only 9,952 votes compared to her last victory in 2018. After BN returned to the state government after its victory, she and Suhaizan were not reappointed as the speaker and deputy speaker of the assembly.

Election results

Year!
ConstituencyCandidateVotesPctOpponent(s)VotesPctBallots castMajorityTurnout
1990P133 Pontian (DAP)14,97838.07% (MCA)24,36261.93%41,6379,38475.06%
Year!Constituency! colspan=2
CandidateVotesPctOpponent(s)VotesPctBallots castMajorityTurnout
1995N23 Penggaram (DAP)6,137 21.99% (MCA)20,17472.30%27,905 14,03773.97%
1999Gan Peck Cheng (DAP)7,34924.87%Chua Soi Lek (MCA)20,80970.41%29,552 13,46074.95%
2004Gan Peck Cheng (DAP)6,24725.40% (MCA)16,84568.51%24,59810,59874.68%
2008Gan Peck Cheng (DAP)12,18646.42%Koh Chee Chai (MCA)12,76148.61%26,252 57576.05%
2013 (DAP)24,27761.60%King Ban Siang (MCA)14,22636.10%39,40810,051 87.30%
2018Gan Peck Cheng (DAP)26,82563.79%Kang Beng Kuan (MCA)9,62022.88%42,05017,20584.52%
Misran Samian (PAS)5,18512.33%
Gan Peck Cheng (DAP)18,20853.67%Ter Hwa Kwong (MCA)8,25224.32%33,9269,95648.19%
Ronald Sia Wee Yet (BERSATU)5,27615.55%
Zahari Osman (IND)2,1906.46%

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Malaysia General Election . undiinfo Malaysian Election Data . . 4 February 2017. Results only available from the 2004 election.
  2. Web site: Johor DAP polls: Gan Peck Cheng comes out tops - Nation. The Star. Mohd Farhaan Shah. 12 January 2014. www.thestar.com.my. 15 March 2018.
  3. Web site: DAP pilih Gan Peck Cheng ketua pembangkang Johor yang baru. BORHAN AHMAD. Malaysia Dateline. Malay. 28 October 2015. 18 May 2016. 31 May 2016. https://web.archive.org/web/20160531033222/http://malaysiadateline.com/index.php/berita-list/15-berita/171-dap-pilih-gan-peck-cheng-ketua-pembangkang-johor-yang-baru. dead.
  4. Web site: Adun Penggaram dilantik Ketua Pembangkang DUN Johor. Roketkini. Malay. 27 October 2015. 18 May 2016.
  5. News: Johor state assembly appoints first female deputy speaker. 28 June 2018. The Sun Daily. Low Sock Ken. 1 September 2018.