Nik Nazmi - A young leader with vast experience

KUALA LUMPUR, Dec  3  (Bernama) -- Nik Nazmi Nik Ahmad,  who was appointed as the Minister of Natural Resources, Environment and Climate Change, is a young leader with extensive experience in administrative affairs.

The 40-year-old Setiawangsa Member of Parliament is among the 28  Cabinet members in the unity government announced by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim.

A law graduate from King's College London, Nik Nazmi began his career as a Legal Executive at Permodalan Nasional Berhad (PNB) before becoming Anwar’s private secretary in 2006.

His first feat at becoming an elected representative was in GE12 in 2008 when he contested and won the Seri Setia state seat in Selangor.  He was then the youngest PKR candidate.

 After that, he was appointed as political secretary to then Selangor Menteri Besar Tan Sri Abdul Khalid Ibrahim and held the post until 2010.

In the 2013 general election,  Nik Nazmi defended the Seri Setia state seat and was elected Deputy Speaker of the Selangor State Assembly.

He was Selangor Education, Human Capital Development, Science, Technology and Innovation Standing Committee chairman when the state was under Menteri Besar Datuk Seri Mohamed Azmin Ali from 2014 to 2018.

In  GE14 in 2018, he represented PH in the contest for the Setiawangsa parliamentary seat, which was a UMNO stronghold then, and won with a 14,372 majority vote, defeating Tan Sri Zulhasnan Rafique of Barisan Nasional and PAS candidate Ubaid Abdul Akla.

Nik Nazmi had also served in several Parliamentary Special Select Committees, including as the chairman of the Special Select Committee on Defense and Home Affairs in 2019-2020 and a member of the Special Select Committee on Education in 2019-2022.

In GE15 last Nov 19, the PKR vice-president won the Setiawangsa parliamentary seat with a majority of 12,164 votes, defeating his five challengers, namely  from BN, Perikatan Nasional (PN), Pejuang and two independent candidates.

He also played an important role, being among the founding members of the “Program ADUN Muda Selangor”, which is a platform for students to gain experience as lawmakers. The programme was introduced in 2014.

Besides being active in politics, and steadfast in the struggle for the reform agenda initiated by Anwar, Nik Nazmi has also written several books in Malay and English including “9 Mei 2018: Catatan Dari Garis Depan” and “Malaysian Son: A Progressive's Political Journey in the Heart of Southeast Asia”, which were published in 2019 and 2022, respectively.

-- BERNAMA