Fong Po Kuan

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Fong Po Kuan (Chinese : 冯宝君; pinyin: Féng Bǎojūn) (born 15 September 1973 in Perak) is a Malaysian politician from the Democratic Action Party (DAP) political party. She is able to communicate in Chinese, English, Malay and Arabic.

She attended the International Islamic University Malaysia (IIUM) from 1993 to 1997, and graduated with a law degree. Initially she avoided the university because the Arabic language was a mandatory subject and she feared she would have to wear the tudung (Malay headscarf). However, she was eventually attracted by the prospect of interacting with foreign students without having to study overseas, which she could not afford.

In the 1999 Malaysian general election, Fong won the Batu Gajah parliamentary seat in the Dewan Rakyat, and became the youngest Member of Parliament (MP) in Malaysia. She won 19867 out of 38774 votes, winning by a majority of 2071 with 67.5% turnout. During her first term, she was suspended for six months from Parliament without wages or allowances for criticising the Speaker of the House. Her suspension was unique in that the Speaker had waived the seven day notice period required to raise the issue, and that the matter was never brought to the Parliamentary Committee of Privileges. The 83 MPs, all from the Speaker's party, who voted for suspension only constituted 43% of parliament; while this was a majority of those present in the hall, it did not have a simple majority of the total number of MPs. The suspension was widely seen to be vindictive.

In 2003, Fong inquired in parliament why she had been compelled to wear the tudung for her graduation ceremony at IIUM. The Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Education, Mahadzhir Mohammad Khir, stated wearing the tudung was encouraged but not mandatory. A year later, the IIUM Senate made it compulsory for female students to wear the tudung to their convocation ceremony.

In 2005, having noticed a few non-Muslim women wearing the tudung in the gallery, she raised a point of order about whether wearing the tudung was compulsory in Parliament. It was not.