KUALA LUMPUR, March 9 — Former Foreign Minister Datuk Saifuddin Abdullah today named as the new Communications and Multimedia Minister under Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin leadership.
The Temerloh native was born in 1961 in Kampung Sungai Ara, Mentakab and is the son of Abdullah Long and Ramlah Uda, both of whom were teachers.
The former student of the Malay College of Kuala Kangsar holds a Degree in Arts from Universiti Malaya (UM) as well as a Certificate in Management from Harvard University, US.
He is also a former president of the Malaysian Youth Council, member of the National Information Technology Council and chief executive officer of the Global Moderate Movement Foundation (GMM).
Saifuddin is married to Norlin Shamsul Bahri and they have a daughter Nur Madihah.
Saifuddin began his political career with UMNO and won Temerloh parliamentary seat in the 12th General Election (GE12) under the Barisan Nasional ticket and retained the seat in GE13.
He, however, left Umno and join PKR. He was appointed as the Pakatan Harapan Secretariat head prior GE14. In GE14 he contested and won the Indera Mahkota seat.
In terms of the Federal administration, Saifuddin used to serve under the Ministry of Entrepreneur Development and Cooperatives as deputy minister (2009), Higher Education deputy minister II (2014) and Foreign Minister (2018).
On Feb 24, Saifuddin and eight other PKR members left the party and announced support for Bersatu which leads the new ruling coalition. — Bernama
