Teresa Kok

Born and raised in Kuala Lumpur, Teresa is a third generation Malaysian of Chinese descent. Kok is a member of the Hakka dialect group and her ancestors were from Huizhou, Guangdong Province, China. She commands Malay, English and Chinese Languages with fluency in Hakka and Cantonese dialects. Kok is a Catholic by religion.[1]

She graduated with a Bachelor of Communication from Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) in 1990, and obtained a Master of Philosophy from University of Malaya. Her thesis was on United Malays National Organization (UMNO), titled "Factionalism in Umno During Dr Mahathir's Era (1981–2001)".

Kok writes in weekly column for Chinese newspaper Sin Chew Daily. In 2004, she published a book compiling articles she wrote for the then Chinese daily.

Kok was political secretary to Opposition Leader Lim Kit Siang from 1990 to 1995. In 1995 general election, she contested the Ipoh Barat Parliamentary seat on a DAP ticket but was defeated by the Malaysian Chinese Association (MCA) candidate. Kok resigned as political secretary after that to further her studies and worked part-time at the Secretariat of the Political Leaders Network Promoting Democracy in Burma (PD Burma) from 1996 till 1998.

In the 1999 general election, Kok won the Parliamentary seat of Seputeh in Kuala Lumpur with a majority of 5,200 and was re-elected in 2004 with a majority of 12,895, the largest winning margin among the 13 elected DAP MPs.

In the 2008 general election, Kok retained the Seputeh seat with a majority of 36,492, the largest majority in any constituency and won the Kinrara seat in Selangor State Legislative Assembly at the same time. She was elected in the new Selangor State Executive Council, and was named senior executive councillor who was put in charge of investment, trade and industry to ensure all funds are directed to Malaysians.

In 2013 general election, she won re-election to Parliament, garnering over 86 percent of the formal votes cast in her Seputeh constituency.

Kok was re-elected to Seputeh seat for the fifth term in the 2018 general election but on the ticket of People's Justice Party (PKR) as the move of Pakatan Harapan using a common symbol in the election.

In view of the bad market of palm oil, she launches few palm oil drinking campaign to boost the market demand on the palm oil and further inviting local tour guide to become the ambassadors for palm oil.[2]

In 2008, she was arrested under the Internal Security Act (ISA). Under the act, the police have no obligation to disclose the alleged offence if any at all. The Malay newspaper Utusan Malaysia had reported she had "advised" a mosque in Puchong not to use loudspeakers while making the azan. She denied the allegation.[3] It was found out later that a faulty loudspeaker system was the reason why the mosque did not broadcast the azan.[4] Furthermore, while there was a petition sent to the mosque, the petition requested for the mosque to lower the volume during 'ceramah' or sermons and not during the azan.[5] The administrator of the mosque, as well as the petitioners, confirmed that Kok was not involved in the petition.[6] She was released on 19 September 2008.[7][8] On 27 September, two Molotov cocktails were thrown into the compound of her family residence, accompanied by a warning letter. No-one was hurt.[9]

In May 2014, Kok was charged with sedition for making a Chinese New Year video posted on YouTube which allegedly contained seditious elements. Kok was among the first of several other opposition politicians to be caught in a nationwide sedition dragnet.[10][11]

• Kok, Teresa (2002). "Government Should Not Send The Rohingya Refugees Who Broke Into The UNHCR Office Back To Burma". Retrieved 5 November 2005.
• Kok, Teresa (2005). "Teresa Kok Suh Sim". Retrieved 29 October 2005.

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• Teresa Kok's blog.
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