| Honorific-Prefix: | Yang Berhormat Dato' Sri |
| Saifuddin Abdullah | |
| Native Name: | Malay: {{Script|Arab|سيف الدين عبدالله |
| Birth Name: | Saifuddin bin Abdullah |
| Birth Date: | 27 January 1961 |
| Birth Place: | Kampung Sungai Ara, Mentakab, Pahang, Federation of Malaya (now Malaysia) |
| Office: | Minister of Foreign Affairs |
| Term Start: | 30 August 2021 |
| Term End: | 24 November 2022 |
| Primeminister: | Ismail Sabri Yaakob |
| Deputy: | Kamarudin Jaffar |
| Predecessor: | Hishammuddin Hussein |
| Successor: | Zambry Abdul Kadir |
| Constituency: | Indera Mahkota |
| Term Start1: | 2 July 2018 |
| Term End1: | 24 February 2020 |
| Primeminister1: | Mahathir Mohamad |
| Deputy1: | Marzuki Yahya |
| Predecessor1: | Anifah Aman |
| Successor1: | Hishammuddin Hussein |
| Constituency1: | Indera Mahkota |
| Monarch1: | Muhammad V Abdullah |
| Office2: | Minister of Communications and Multimedia |
| Term Start2: | 10 March 2020 |
| Term End2: | 16 August 2021 |
| Primeminister2: | Muhyiddin Yassin |
| Deputy2: | Zahidi Zainul Abidin |
| Predecessor2: | Gobind Singh Deo |
| Successor2: | Annuar Musa |
| Constituency2: | Indera Mahkota |
| Monarch2: | Abdullah |
| Office3: | Deputy Minister of Higher Education II |
| Primeminister3: | Najib Razak |
| Alongside3: | Hou Kok Chung |
| Minister3: | Mohamed Khaled Nordin |
| Constituency3: | Temerloh |
| Predecessor3: | Idris Haron |
| Successor3: | Mary Yap Kain Ching |
| Monarch3: | Mizan Zainal Abidin Abdul Halim |
| Term Start3: | 10 April 2009 |
| Term End3: | 15 May 2013 |
| Office4: | Deputy Minister of Entrepreneur and Co-operatives Development |
| Primeminister4: | Abdullah Ahmad Badawi |
| Minister4: | Noh Omar |
| Constituency4: | Temerloh |
| Predecessor4: | Khamsiyah Yeop |
| Monarch4: | Mizan Zainal Abidin |
| Term Start4: | 19 March 2008 |
| Term End4: | 9 April 2009 |
| Office5: | Chief Secretary of Pakatan Harapan |
| 1Blankname5: | Chairman |
| 1Namedata5: | Mahathir Mohamad |
| Leader5: | Anwar Ibrahim |
| President5: | Wan Azizah Wan Ismail |
| Term Start5: | 19 October 2015 |
| Term End5: | 24 February 2020 |
| Predecessor5: | Position established |
| Successor5: | Saifuddin Nasution Ismail |
| Constituency5: | Indera Mahkota |
| Term Start6: | 9 May 2018 |
| Constituency Mp6: | Indera Mahkota |
| Parliament6: | Malaysian |
| Majority6: | 10,950 (2018) 8,399 (2022) |
| Predecessor6: | Fauzi Abdul Rahman (PR–PKR) |
| Constituency Mp7: | Temerloh |
| Parliament7: | Malaysian |
| Term Start7: | 8 March 2008 |
| Term End7: | 5 May 2013 |
| Majority7: | 2,441 (2008) |
| Predecessor7: | Mohd Sarit Yusoh (BN–UMNO) |
| Successor7: | Nasrudin Hassan (PR–PAS) |
| Office9: | Faction represented in Dewan Rakyat |
| Subterm9: | 2008–2013 |
| Suboffice9: | Barisan Nasional |
| Subterm10: | 2018–2020 |
| Suboffice10: | Pakatan Harapan |
| Subterm11: | 2020 |
| Suboffice11: | Malaysian United Indigenous Party |
| Subterm12: | 2020– |
| Suboffice12: | Perikatan Nasional |
| Party: | United Malays National Organisation (UMNO) People's Justice Party (PKR) Malaysian United Indigenous Party (BERSATU) |
| Otherparty: | Barisan Nasional (BN) Pakatan Harapan (PH) Perikatan Nasional (PN) |
| Occupation: | Politician |
| Spouse: | Norlin Shamsul Bahri |
| Children: | 1 |
| Alma Mater: | University of Malaya |
| Footnotes: | |
| Native Name Lang: | ms |
Dato' Sri Saifuddin bin Abdullah (Jawi: سيف الدين بن عبدالله; born 27 January 1961) is a Malaysian politician who has served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Indera Mahkota since May 2018. He served as Minister of Foreign Affairs for the second term in the Barisan Nasional (PN) administration under former Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob from August 2021 to the collapse of the BN administration in November 2022 and the first term in the Pakatan Harapan (PH) administration under former Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad from July 2018 to the collapse of the PN administration in February 2020, the Minister of Communications and Multimedia in the Perikatan Nasional (PN) administration under former Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin from March 2020 to the collapse of the PN administration in August 2021, Deputy Minister of Higher Education II and Deputy Minister of Entrepreneur and Co-operatives Development in the BN administration under former Prime Ministers Abdullah Ahmad Badawi and Najib Razak as well as former Ministers Noh Omar and Mohamed Khaled Nordin from March 2008 to May 2013 and MP for Temerloh from March 2008 to May 2013. He is also a member of the Malaysian United Indigenous Party (BERSATU), a component party of the PN coalition, was member of the People's Justice Party (PKR), a component party of the PH coalition and was member of the United Malays National Organisation (UMNO), a component party of the BN coalition. He is also the State Chairman of BERSATU and PN of Pahang.
Saifuddin was born to an ustaz father and a schoolteacher mother in Temerloh near Mentakab, Pahang.[1]
Saifuddin was educated at Sekolah Kebangsaan Abu Bakar Mentakab (1968–73), Malay College Kuala Kangsar - MCKK (1974–80), obtained BA Honors from University of Malaya (1984), Diploma in Translation from Malaysian Translator Association / Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka (1985) and followed by the Executive Course at Harvard Business School (1995).
Saifuddin was elected to Parliament in the 2008 election,[2] and was immediately appointed as a deputy minister,[3] being cited as a future ministerial prospect.[4] He had previously been the Secretary-General of the Malaysian Youth Council.[5] After the election he was appointed as a deputy minister, and was the Deputy Minister of Higher Education in Najib Razak's first term as Prime Minister. During his ministerial tenure, Saifuddin was one of the more moderate and liberal-progressive politicians in Najib's administration.[6] [7] He criticised his own government's handling of the Bersih 2.0 rally in 2011, in which over 1,600 protestors were arrested on the streets of Kuala Lumpur.[8] In early 2013, he also stood up for a student who was humiliated by a government-linked panellist at a student forum at the Universiti Utara Malaysia (UUM).[9] Saifuddin's ministerial career was cut short by the 2013 election, when he lost his parliamentary seat to a Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party (PAS) candidate by 1,070 votes.
Saifuddin has written four books on Malaysian politics.[10] After leaving Parliament he joined the University of Malaya as a research fellow, but in 2014, he resigned his position in protest when Malaysia's Education Ministry forced a well-respected professor at the university to resign, reportedly due to research findings critical of the government.[11] [12]
In 2015, Saifuddin quit UMNO and joined the People's Justice Party (PKR) over disagreements with the government's handling of the 1Malaysia Development Berhad scandal.[13] [14]
In the February 2020 political crisis dubbed "Sheraton Move", Saifuddin quit PKR along with deputy president Azmin Ali and 9 other MP's to form an independent parliamentary block.[15]
In April 2021, he was tested positive for COVID-19 and was admitted in the Sungai Buloh Hospital.[16] He was discharged from the hospital after his full recovery 16 days of treatments.[17]
| Constituency | Candidate | Votes | Pct | Opponent(s) | Votes | Pct | Ballots cast | Majority | Turnout | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2008 | P088 Temerloh | (UMNO) | 21,381 | 53.03% | Ahmad Nizam Hamid (PKR) | 18,940 | 46.97% | 41,463 | 2,441 | 76.77% | ||||
| 2013 | Saifuddin Abdullah (UMNO) | 27,197 | 49.04% | (PAS) | 28,267 | 50.96% | 56,595 | 1,070 | 85.61% | |||||
| 2018 | P082 Indera Mahkota | (PKR) | 28,578 | 44.85% | (UMNO) | 17,628 | 27.66% | 64,612 | 10,950 | 83.70% | ||||
| (PAS) | 17,515 | 27.49% | ||||||||||||
| 2022 | (BERSATU) | 41,692 | 44.65% | Zuraidi Ismail (PKR) | 33,293 | 35.65% | 93,379 | 8,399 | 77.46% | |||||
| Quek Tai Seong (MCA) | 16,530 | 17.70% | ||||||||||||
| bgcolor= | Mohamad Nor Sundari (PEJUANG) | 1,860 | 2.00% | |||||||||||
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