Shahrir Abdul Samad

source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shahrir_Samad

Datuk Seri Utama Shahrir Abdul Samad (born 22 November 1949) is the former Malaysian Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs Minister, a member of Parliament, and the former chairman of the Barisan Nasional Backbenchers Club (BNBBC). He is a member of the United Malays National Organisation, the largest political party in the ruling Barisan Nasional coalition. In Parliament — specifically the lower house of Parliament, the Dewan Rakyat — he represents the constituency of Johor Bahru in the state of Johor.
PAS politician and Member of Parliament for Shah Alam Khalid Abdul Samad is the younger brother of Shahrir.



Shahrir was born in Kuantan, Pahang, and attended local primary schools. He later attended the Malay College Kuala Kangsar for his secondary education. He went on to gain a B.Ec. from the University of Malaya in Statistics, and a Masters of Business Administration from the International Institute for Management Development in Lausanne, Switzerland.
In 1973 he became the youngest political secretary in the country when he became political secretary to Musa Hitam, later Deputy Prime Minister. After his tenure expired in 1975, he became political secretary to Prime Minister Tun Abdul Razak till 1976. Shahrir first ran for public office in the 1978 general election, when he won the Parliamentary seat of Johor Bahru. He was initially appointed Deputy Minister, of Trade and Industry, but later became minister of welfare, youth and sports, and in 1987 took up the post of Federal Territory Minister. He also served as political secretary to Prime Minister Tun Hussein Onn from 1983 to 1986.^[1] Shahrir was sacked that year in the events leading up to the 1988 Malaysian constitutional crisis and Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah's challenge to Prime Minister and UMNO President Mahathir Mohamad. In 1988, Shahrir resigned from his Parliamentary seat, and ran for reelection in the resulting by-election as an independent. A year later, he rejoined UMNO, while Razaleigh went on to form Semangat 46.^[2]

In 2004, he ran for election in Johor Bahru on a BN-UMNO ticket, and won. He later claimed that then Prime Minister Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi had offered him a post in the Cabinet, but declined, citing the large number of qualified MPs.^[1] Instead, he went on to chair the Public Accounts Committee in the Dewan Rakyat.^[2]

In 2008, following the election which saw BN's majority significantly slashed, Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi appointed Shahrir as Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs Minister.^[15] In the 2009 UMNO General Assembly, Shahrir lost his bid for a place in the Supreme Council and consequently resigned from the Cabinet.^[16]