Teo Nie Ching (; born 27 January 1981) is a Malaysian politician and lawyer who has served as the Deputy Minister of Communications under Minister Fahmi Fadzil since December 2023 and previously served as the Deputy Minister of Communications and Digital, also under Minister Fahmi Fadzil from December 2022 to December 2023 in the Unity Government administration under Prime Minister

Anwar Ibrahim Anwar bin Ibrahim (; born 10 August 1947), also known by his abbreviation as DSAI and PMX, is a Malaysian politician who is the 10th prime minister of Malaysia since 2022. A member of the People's Justice Party (Malaysia), People's Justice P ...

. She had served as Deputy Minister of Education in the PH administration under former Prime Minister

Mahathir Mohamad Mahathir bin Mohamad (; ; born 10 July 1925) is a Malaysian politician, author and doctor who was respectively the fourth and seventh Prime Minister of Malaysia, prime minister of Malaysia from 1981 to 2003 and from 2018 to 2020. He was the ...

, former Minister Maszlee Malik and former Acting Minister Mahathir from July 2018 to the collapse of the PH administration in February 2020. She served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Serdang from March 2008 to May 2013 and then the MP for Kulai since May 2013. She is a member of the

Democratic Action Party The Democratic Action Party (DAP; ) is a social democracy, social democratic and Secularism, secular political party in Malaysia, sitting on the Centre-left politics, centre-left of the political spectrum. As one of four component parties of ...

(DAP), a component party of the PH coalition. She has also served as the National Vice Chairman of DAP since March 2025, Women Chief of DAP since September 2023 and State Chairperson of DAP of

Johor Johor, also spelled Johore,'' is a States and federal territories of Malaysia, state of Malaysia in the south of the Malay Peninsula. It borders with Pahang, Malacca and Negeri Sembilan to the north. Johor has maritime borders with Singapore ...

since October 2024. She also served as the National Publicity Secretary of DAP from March 2022 to March 2025, International Secretary of DAP from November 2017 to March 2022, Assistant National Publicity Secretary of DAP and Assistant State Organising Secretary of DAP of

Selangor Selangor ( ; ), also known by the Arabic language, Arabic honorific Darul Ehsan, or "Abode of Sincerity", is one of the 13 states of Malaysia. It is on the west coast of Peninsular Malaysia and is bordered by Perak to the north, Pahang to the e ...

from 2008 to 2011.

Personal life

Teo was born to a political family. Her father was Secretary of the Labis Campaign Committee of DAP, while her sister and brother-in-law were Chief and Deputy Chair of the DAPSY Johor State Council. Teo completed her secondary school education in Chinese High School, Batu Pahat, Johor. She pursued her tertiary education under a twinning programme and obtained her law degree from the

University of the West of England The University of the West of England (also known as UWE Bristol) is a Public university, public research university, located in and around Bristol, England, UK. With more than 39,912 students and 4,300 staff, it is the largest provider of hi ...

, in 2002. After graduating from the university, she spent one year to work as a librarian in UK and travel around Europe. In 2004, she received her Certificate in Legal Practice from the

University of Malaya The Universiti Malaya (lit 'University of Malaya'; abbreviated UM) is a public university, public research university located in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. It is the oldest Malaysian institution of higher education, and was the only university in ...

Political career

Prior to the GE-14, Teo recorded a video promising to recognize Malaysia

Chinese independent high school A Chinese independent high school () is a type of private school, private high school in Malaysia. They provide secondary education in the Chinese language as the continuation of the primary education in Chinese national-type primary schools ...

Unified Examination Certificate once

Pakatan Harapan Pakatan Harapan (PH; stylised as HARAPAN; ) is a Malaysian Parliamentary group, political coalition consisting of Centre-left politics, centre-left political parties which was formed in 2015 to succeed the Pakatan Rakyat coalition. It has led ...

formed the federal government.

Deputy Minister of Education (2018-2020)

As a Chinese-ethnic, and being appointed as the deputy minister of education, Teo is urged by MCA to fulfill her promise and strengthen the Chinese education. Education Minister Dr Maszlee Malik confirmed that Pakatan Harapan will stick to its manifesto and recognise the UEC as a legitimate entry requirement for tertiary studies. However, there is no specific timeline set for this manifesto to be fulfilled.

Deputy Minister of Communications (2022-)

On 30 October 2023, Teo has told organisers of foreign artistes concert to create a ‘Kill Switch’ to avoid repeating the incident by The 1975 at Good Vibes Festival 2023.

Controversies and issues

On 25 July 2019,

Sin Chew Daily ''Sin Chew Daily'' (), formerly known as ''Sin Chew Jit Poh'', is a leading Chinese-language newspaper in Malaysia. According to report from the Audit Bureau of Circulation for the period ending 31 December 2011, ''Sin Chew Daily'' has an avera ...

front-paged that the following year's Standard 4 Bahasa Malaysia syllabus would contain six pages of introduction to Jawi script in all vernacular schools. Following the rejection from NGOs such as Dong Zong, the cabinet approved that the Ministry of Education to allow vernacular schools teaching only Jawi script as a basic level, and not khat calligraphy with the consent of the students, parents as well as each school's Parent Teacher Association (PTA).

Election results

In the 2008 general election, Teo ran for the Parliamentary seat of Serdang on a DAP ticket. She won against the candidate from

Barisan Nasional Barisan Nasional (BN; ) is a political coalition of Malaysia that was founded in 1974 as a coalition of centre-right and right-wing political parties to succeed the Alliance Party. It is the third largest political coalition with 30 seats in ...

, Datuk Hoh Hee Lee, with a majority of 21,025 votes. She obtained 47,444 votes comparing to her opposing candidate who only collected 26,419 votes. In the 2013 general election, Teo switched to the state of

, in the Barisan Nasional stronghold Kulai, and defeated their candidate Tay Chin Hein by 13,450 out of 43,338 votes. In the 2017 DAP re-elections, Teo received 1080 votes and was appointed International Secretary. In the 2018 general election, Teo reelected for the Parliamentary seat of Kulai in the state of Johor. She defeated her 2 opponents, Tang Nai Soon (MCA) and Juwahir Amin (PAS) by 32,748 (64.68%, up 6.9%) out of 55,312 votes majority.

Honours

* : **

MY Pingat Pertabalan Yang di-Pertuan Agong XVII ribbon

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

Notes and references

External links

Teo Nie Ching's Blog

Democratic Action Party Malaysia
{{DEFAULTSORT:Teo, Nie Ching Living people 1981 births People from Batu Pahat Malaysian politicians of Chinese descent Democratic Action Party (Malaysia) politicians Women members of the Dewan Rakyat Women in Selangor politics Women in Johor politics Alumni of the University of the West of England, Bristol 21st-century Malaysian women politicians Malaysian MPs 2008–2013 Malaysian MPs 2013–2018 Malaysian MPs 2018–2022 Malaysian MPs 2022–