Hassan Abdul Karim

For the Iraqi footballer, see Hasan Abdulkareem.

In this Malay name, there is no surname or family name. The name Abdul Karim is a patronymic, and the person should be referred to by their given name, Hassan. The word "bin" or "binti"/"binte" means 'son of' or 'daughter of', respectively.

Hassan bin Abdul Karim (born 17 October 1951; Jawi: حسن بن عبد الكريم) is a Malaysian politician and lawyer who has served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Pasir Gudang since May 2018. He was chairman of the Federal-State Relations Select Committee from December 2018 to November 2022.

Yang Berhormat Tuan Hassan Abdul Karim MP
حسن بن عبد الكريم
5th President of the Parti Rakyat Malaysia
In office 17 April 2005 – 17 November 2009
Deputy	S. K. Song
Preceded by	Syed Husin Ali
Succeeded by	Ariffin Salimon (Acting President)
State Chairman of the People's Justice Party of Johor
In office 28 December 2018 – 12 July 2019
President	Wan Azizah Wan Ismail (2014–2018) Anwar Ibrahim (2018–2019)
Preceded by	Chua Jui Meng
Succeeded by	Syed Ibrahim Syed Noh
Chairman of the Federal-State Relations Select Committee
In office 4 December 2018 – 19 November 2022
Preceded by	Position established
Succeeded by	Position abolished
Member of the Malaysian Parliament for Pasir Gudang
Incumbent
Assumed office 9 May 2018
Preceded by	Normala Abdul Samad (BN–UMNO)
Majority	24,726 (2018) 31,558 (2022)
Personal details
Born	Hassan bin Abdul Karim (1951-10-17) 17 October 1951 (age 73) Pontian, Johor, Federation of Malaya (now Malaysia)
Citizenship	Malaysian
Nationality	Malaysia
Political party	Parti Rakyat Malaysia (PRM) (1978–2009) People's Justice Party (PKR) (since 2009)
Other political affiliations	Barisan Alternatif (BA) (1998–2004) Pakatan Rakyat (PR) (2009–2015) Pakatan Harapan (PH) (since 2015)
Residence(s)	Pontian Besar, Pontian, Johor, Malaysia
Alma mater	University of Malaya University of London
Occupation	Politician
Profession	Lawyer
Hassan Abdul Karim on Facebook Hassan Abdul Karim on Parliament of Malaysia

He is a member of the People's Justice Party (PKR), a component party of the Pakatan Harapan (PH) coalition, and served as the state chairman of its Johor branch from December 2018 until his resignation in July 2019. Hassan previously led Parti Rakyat Malaysia (PRM) as its president.

Political career

Hassan was educated at the Universiti Malaya, where he was a student activist. He then became a lawyer by profession,^[1]and joined the left-wing Parti Sosialis Rakyat Malaysia (as PRM was then known in 1978.^[2] He went on to become its youth chief and party secretary-general.^[3] In April 2005, Hassan was elected president by a faction of dissident members who were opposed to party's merger with the National Justice Party into the People's Justice Party (PKR).^[4]

Following the rejection of Hassan's proposal that the party enter into the Pakatan Rakyat (PR) opposition coalition at a party congress, he announced his intention to resign on 15 November 2009. The same month, he re-joined PKR, then a Pakatan component party.^[4]

In the 2018 general election, Hassan was nominated by PKR to contest the Pasir Gudang parliamentary seat. Overturning his previous record of five election losses, he defeated incumbent Menteri Besar of Johor Mohamed Khaled Nordin of Barisan Nasional (BN) and three other candidates by a majority of 24,726 votes. On 4 December 2018, Hassan was appointed Chairman of the Federal-State Relations Select Committee, a parliamentary committee.^[5]

Following Anwar's release from prison and return as president of PKR, Hassan was appointed the party's Johor state chairman in 2018.^[6] However, following allegations of nepotism due to some of the appointees being allegedly linked to Anwar, Hassan initially refused the appointment.^[7] On 28 December 2018, he reversed his decision and accepted the position^[8] but later resigned 12 July 2019,^[9] citing differences with the Johor palace.^[10][11]

In the 2022 general election, Hassan successfully defended his seat and was re-elected by a majority of 31,558 votes.

Legal issues

On 16 November 2015, Hassan was charged at the Shah Alam Sessions Court with three counts of making seditious statements via his public Twitter account in which he was alleged to have criticised the Selangor Sultan Sharafuddin Idris Shah being abroad during Selangor Mentri Besar crisis in 2014.^[12] He was discharged not amounting to an acquittal by the Sessions Court in May 2018, following the prosecution's decision to drop the charges.^[13] On 10 May 2019, he was finally granted a full acquittal on the sedition charges by the Shah Alam High Court.^[14]

Election results

Parliament of Malaysia^{[15][16][17][18][19]}

Year	Constituency	Candidate		Votes	Pct	Opponent(s)		Votes	Pct	Ballots cast	Majority	Turnout
1986	P129 Tebrau		Hassan Abdul Karim (PSRM)	16,085	37.21%		Siti Zainabon Abu Bakar (UMNO)	27,138	62.79%	45,497	11,053	69.78%
1999	P140 Tebrau		Hassan Abdul Karim (PRM)	13,799	21.87%		Mohd. Ali Hassan (UMNO)	49,284	78.13%	65,572	35,485	75.19%
2004	P164 Pontian		Hassan Abdul Karim (PKR)	5,509	17.12%		Hasni Mohammad (UMNO)	26,667	82.88%	33,460	21,158	75.40%
2008	P160 Johor Bahru		Hassan Abdul Karim (PRM)	17,794	29.20%		Shahrir Abdul Samad (UMNO)	43,143	70.80%	62,440	25,349	69.59%
2013	P144 Ledang		Hassan Abdul Karim (PKR)	28,652	48.34%		Hamim Samuri (UMNO)	30,619	51.66%	60,382	1,967	87.11%
2018	P159 Pasir Gudang		Hassan Abdul Karim (PKR)	61,615	58.68%		Mohamed Khaled Nordin (UMNO)	36,889	35.13%	106,576	24,726	85.83%
							Ab Aziz Abdullah (PAS)	6,278	5.98%
							Sey Jock @ Chee Jock (IND)	227	0.21%
2022			Hassan Abdul Karim (PKR)	71,233	47.72%		Mohamad Farid Abdul Razak (BERSATU)	39,675	26.58%	149,280	31,558	75.21%
							Noor Azlen Ambros (UMNO)	37,369	25.03%
						Mohammad Raffi Beran (IMAN)	1,003	0.67%

Honours

•  Malaysia :
  • Recipient of the 17th Yang di-Pertuan Agong Installation Medal (2024)

See also

• Federal-State Relations Select Committee
• Pasir Gudang (federal constituency)

External links

• Hassan Abdul Karim on Facebook
• Hassan Abdul Karim on Parliament of Malaysia

References

1. "PKR: Pasir Gudang voters more welcoming this time around". V Anbalagan. Free Malaysia Today. 23 November 2009. Retrieved 2 May 2018.
2. Vengadesan, Martin (25 March 2023). "Pasir Gudang MP, PSM mourn passing of veteran lawyer Rajamoorthy". Malaysiakini. Retrieved 16 February 2025.
3. "Lonely crusade to revive PRM". JOCELINE TAN. The Star. 17 April 2005. Retrieved 4 May 2019.
4. "PRM chief joins PKR". Sira Habibu. The Star. 23 November 2009. Retrieved 4 May 2019.
5. "Six new select committees announced, Anwar heads reforms caucus". Malaysiakini. 4 December 2018. Retrieved 26 April 2019.
6. "Some obscure faces made PKR state chiefs". Andrew Ong. Malaysiakini. 16 December 2018. Retrieved 4 May 2019.
7. "Hassan Karim rejects Johor PKR chief post". Royce Tan. The Star. 17 December 2018. Retrieved 4 May 2019.
8. "Hassan terima semula jawatan pengerusi PKR Johor". Muhammad Zikri (in Malay). Utusan Malaysia. 1 January 2019.
9. "Hassan Karim quits as PKR Johor chief". Azril Annuar. Malay Mail. 19 July 2019. Retrieved 20 July 2019.
10. "Anwar: Johor PKR chief resigned over party issues and spat with ruler". Yiswaree Palansamy. Malay Mail. 20 July 2019. Retrieved 25 July 2019.
11. "Hassan adamant on quitting as Johor PKR chief, admits to differences with palace". Lu Wei Hoong. Malaysiakini. 24 July 2019. Retrieved 25 July 2019.
12. "Johor PKR leader pleads not guilty to making seditious statements against Selangor Sultan". Firdaous Fadzil. The Star. 16 November 2015. Retrieved 20 July 2019.
13. "Court discharges Johor PKR chief over charge related to tweets on sultan". Free Malaysia Today. 27 July 2018. Retrieved 20 July 2019.
14. "Pasir Gudang MP wins full acquittal on sedition charges". Ng Xiang Yi. Malaysiakini. 11 May 2019. Retrieved 20 July 2019.
15. "Keputusan Pilihan Raya Umum Parlimen/Dewan Undangan Negeri" (in Malay). Election Commission of Malaysia. Retrieved 4 February 2017. Percentage figures based on total turnout.
16. "Malaysia General Election". undiinfo Malaysian Election Data. Malaysiakini. Retrieved 4 February 2017. Results only available from the 2004 election.
17. "KEPUTUSAN PILIHAN RAYA UMUM 13". Sistem Pengurusan Maklumat Pilihan Raya Umum. Election Commission of Malaysia. Archived from the original on 1 May 2017. Retrieved 24 March 2017.
18. "The Star Online GE14 Johor results". election.thestar.com.my.
19. "The Star Online GE15 Johor results". election.thestar.com.my.