Chua Jui Meng
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| Dato' Chua Jui Meng 蔡锐明 (Chinese) |
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Malaysian Chinese Association
National Vice President |
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| In office 1990 – 2005 |
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Malaysian Minister of Health
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| In office May 1995 – 23 March 2004 |
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| Preceded by | Tan Sri Lee Kim Sai |
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| Succeeded by | Datuk Seri Dr. Chua Soi Lek |
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Member of Parliament
for Bakri |
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| In office 1986 – 13 March 2008 |
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| Preceded by | None (constituency created) |
| Succeeded by | Er Teck Hwa |
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| Born | 22 October 1943  Muar, Johor |
| Political party | Malaysian Chinese Association (MCA) part of Barisan Nasional |
| Spouse | Datin Honey Hum Chun Bang |
| Children | 5 Children |
| Occupation | Lawyer |
| Religion | Christian (no specific denomination) |
Dato' Chua Jui Meng (Simplified Chinese: 蔡锐明; born 22 October 1943) is a former Malaysian politician from the state of Johor. He is married to Datin Honey Hum Chun Bang. They have five children.
Dato' Chua is a lawyer called to the British Bar as a Barrister-at-law at the Inner Temple, one of the four Inns of Court before entering politics through his involvement with the Malaysian Chinese Association (MCA). He held the post of Minister of Health from 1990 until 2004. He was the longest serving Minister of Health for Malaysia since independance in 1957.
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[edit] Political career
Chua began his political career in 1976 when he became a member of the Malaysian Chinese Association, a part of the ruling National Front (Barisan Nasional). In 1978, he was elected the chairman of Tanjung Branch of the MCA in the Muar division. In 1986, he was elected to the Dewan Rakyat of the Malaysian Parliament as the Member of Parliament for Bakri, a seat he will hold for the next 22 years (five consecutive terms).
He contested in the party elections in 1990 and emerged as the MCA's Vice-President. He would hold the vice-presidency of the party until 2005 when he challenged Ong Ka Ting for the presidency.
In 1989, Chua was appointed by the Prime Minister Mahathir Mohd into the Malaysian cabinet as Parliament Secreatary to the Minister of Health. He was consequently promoted to be the Deputy Minister of International Trade & Industry in 1990 and as the Minister of Health in 1995. He held that position until he was not recommended to the cabinet by the party president of the day - Ong Ka Ting.
[edit] Political Milestones[1]
1988
2 hour speech in Parliament on the Malaysian Chinese Dilemma[2] as a result of the deviations and misimplementation of the New Economic Policy. As a result of this speech, the Malaysian Government responded quickly and sensitively by calling for the 1st National Economic Consultative Council[3] in 1989 -1990 of 150 representatives, half Bumiputras and half non Bumiputras. The fruit of the deliberations behind closed doors was the replacement of the NEP with the National Development Policy 1990-2000 - an era of liberalisation in economies, education and culture.
1989
Appointed Parliamentary Secretary of the Ministry of Health
1990
Appointed Deputy Minister of International Trade and Industry
He made it his main focus to promote and develop the SMIs, organising workshops, seminars and national conferences, and providing necessary information to them on Government policies, incentives, loan schemes and on how to develop their enterprises. He also worked closely with associations representing the SMIs.
1992
Led a delegation with journalists to China visiting Beijing, Shanghai, Hangzhou, Suzhou, Guangzhou. At that time there was little publicity on China and the Western news continued to portray China as a backward communist country. Returned home with positive reports on China urging Malaysians to engage China especially in people to people relationship and for tourism, investment and trade. Since then Malaysia's bilateral trade and investments and the people to people including Government to Government relationship has developed by leaps and bounds.
1995
Appointed Minister of Health (See next section for details)
1998
1997-1998 economic crisis leads to a credit crunch that pulls down Malaysian SMIs (Small, Medium Industries). As a result, the Malaysian Minisry of Finance set up an SMI fund to assist Bumiputra SMIs (an extension of the NEP. Chua (as MCA Trade & Industry Bureau chief), together with the Associated Chinese Chamber of Commerce & Industry Malaysia (ACCCIM) and the Federation of Chinese Associations Malaysia (Hua Zhong), organized a dialogue session within 5 days chaired by MCA's President, Dato' Seri Ling Leong Sik, with the then Minister of Finance, Dato' Seri Anwar Ibrahim with 1,000 Chinese businessmen in attendance. The dialogue resulted with the Minister announcing that the SMI Fund was open to all races. A further result of this cooperation was the formation of NASMIC (National SMI Consultative Centre) with Chua as Chairman.
[edit] 2005 Challenge for MCA President
On the 1st of July 2005, Chua announced his candidature for the MCA Presidency against incumbent president Ong Ka Ting.
[edit] References
- ^ Track Record of Dato Chua Jui Meng, New Politics-New Vision-New MCA
- ^ Ling, Liong Sik; Kok Wee Kiat; Michael Yeoh Oon Kheng; Lim Lin Lean; David Chua; and Chua Jui Meng. 1988. The Future of Malaysian Chinese. Kuala Lumpur: Malaysian Chinese Association
- ^ HENG Pek Koon, The Developing Economies, XXXV-3 (September 1997): 262–92 THE NEW ECONOMIC POLICY AND THE CHINESE COMMUNITY IN PENINSULAR MALAYSIA
