Christina Liew (also known as Liew Chin Jin; ) (born 14 September 1952) is a Hong Kong-born Malaysian

politician A politician is a person who participates in Public policy, policy-making processes, usually holding an elective position in government. Politicians represent the people, make decisions, and influence the formulation of public policy. The roles ...

who has served as the State Minister of Tourism, Culture and Environment of Sabah for the second term in the

Gabungan Rakyat Sabah Gabungan Rakyat Sabah (GRS; ) is a Malaysia, Malaysian Parliamentary group, coalition of Sabah-based parties. It was established in 2020 and then registered in 2022 by former United Alliance of Sabah (GBS) and United Borneo Alliance (UBA) compon ...

(GRS) state administration under

Chief Minister A chief minister is an elected or appointed head of government of – in most instances – a sub-national entity, for instance an administrative subdivision or federal constituent entity. Examples include a state (and sometimes a union ter ...

Hajiji Noor since January 2023 and the first term in the Heritage Party (WARISAN) state administration under former Chief Minister Shafie Apdal from May 2018 to the collapse of the WARISAN administration in September 2020 as well as Member of the Sabah State Legislative Assembly (MLA) for Api-Api since May 2013. She also served as the Deputy Chief Minister III in the WARISAN administration under Shafie from May 2018 to September 2020, and the Member of Parliament (MP) for Tawau from May 2018 to November 2022. She is a member and the Division Chief of Api-Api of the People's Justice Party (PKR), a component party of the

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 ...

(PH) coalition and formerly Barisan Alternatif (BA) and Pakatan Rakyat (PR) coalitions. She has served as Vice President of PH since September 2017. She has also served as Member of the Central Leadership Council (MPP) of PKR and Division Chairperson of

Kota Kinabalu Kota Kinabalu (; formerly known as Jesselton), colloquially referred to as KK, is the state capital of Sabah, Malaysia. It is also the capital of the Kota Kinabalu District as well as the West Coast Division of Sabah. The city is located on the ...

of PKR since July 2022. She also served as the State Chairperson of PH of

Sabah Sabah () is a States and federal territories of Malaysia, state of Malaysia located in northern Borneo, in the region of East Malaysia. Sabah has land borders with the Malaysian state of Sarawak to the southwest and Indonesia's North Kalima ...

from August 2017 to December 2024 and State Chairperson of PKR of Sabah from October 2016 to her removal from the position in August 2022. She was also the Vice President of PKR. She was a member of the United Sabah Party (PBS) and

Malaysian Chinese Association The Malaysian Chinese Association (Abbreviation, abbrev: MCA; Malay language, Malay: ''Persatuan Cina Malaysia''), formerly known as the Malayan Chinese Association, is an ethnic List of political parties in Malaysia, political party in Malaysi ...

(MCA), component parties of the Gagasan Rakyat (GR) and Barisan Nasional (BN) coalitions.

Personal life

Christina was born in

British Hong Kong Hong Kong was under British Empire, British rule from 1841 to 1997, except for a Japanese occupation of Hong Kong, brief period of Japanese occupation during World War II from 1941 to 1945. It was a crown colony of the United Kingdom from 1841 ...

Hakka The Hakka (), sometimes also referred to as Hakka-speaking Chinese, or Hakka Chinese, or Hakkas, are a southern Han Chinese subgroup whose principal settlements and ancestral homes are dispersed widely across the provinces of southern China ...

Chinese parents. Her parents migrated to Tawau in British Crown Colony of North Borneo when she was a few months old. She is married to a Chinese Indonesian of

Hokkien Hokkien ( , ) is a Varieties of Chinese, variety of the Southern Min group of Chinese language, Chinese languages. Native to and originating from the Minnan region in the southeastern part of Fujian in southeastern China, it is also referred ...

origin who migrated to the United States but travels often to live with her and their children.

Political career

In 1986, Christina stood as a United Sabah Party (PBS) candidate in the Tawau parliamentary seat but lost. After nine years with the party, she left before joining

(MCA) in 1995 and became the party State Women chief for Sabah until her resignation in January 1999. Due to her frustration with the detention of People's Justice Party (PKR) activists under the Internal Security Act, she then joined PKR in 2002. In 2013, Christina was appointed as the Deputy Chairman of Sabah State PKR. She is also the State Assemblywomen for Api Api for the state of Sabah. In 2017, she was appointed as the

(PH) state chief for Sabah.

1986 general election

In the 1986 election, PBS fielded her in the Tawau parliamentary against Democratic Action Party (DAP) candidate Samson Chin Chee Tsu but she lost.

2002 general by-election

Following the disqualification of

Yong Teck Lee Yong Teck Lee or also better known as ''Malay titles#Datuk Sri, Datuk Seri Panglima Mr.'' YTL ''(name abbreviation)'' ( zh, t=楊德利, s=杨德利, p=Yáng Délì; born 3 October 1958) is a Malaysian politician and lawyer who has served as t ...

as Gaya member of parliament and Likas assemblyman since September 2002 due to being found guilty of corruption according to the Election Offences Act 1954, a by-election was held in that year with Christina contesting the election under PKR party. The seat was however regained by Yong party of Sabah Progressive Party (SAPP) with Liew Teck Chan won the seat while Christina came in third place.

2008 general election

In the 2008 election, PKR fielded her to contest the Kota Kinabalu parliamentary seat but she lost to DAP candidate Hiew King Cheu. Percentage figures based on total turnout (including votes for candidates not listed).

2018 general election

In the 2018 election, her party fielded her to contest the Tawau parliamentary seat facing the defending candidate from United Sabah Party (PBS), Yap Kain Ching. She won and became the new Member of Parliament (MP) for Tawau. She was also appointed as one of the Deputy Chief Ministers and State Tourism Minister for Sabah following the victory of Sabah Heritage Party (WARISAN) with PH coalition of DAP and PKR to forming a new state government, becoming the second woman in the history of Sabah Deputy Chief Minister as well the first Chinese woman to hold the position.

2022 general election

In the 2022 general election, PKR fielded her to defend the Tawau seat and seek reelection as the Tawau MP. However, she failed to do so by losing the election to Lo Su Fui of PBS by a minority of 3,800 votes.

2023 Sabah political crisis

In the 2023 Sabah political crisis, Liew, as the Sabah PH Chairperson, led Sabah PH to support Hajiji Noor as the Chief Minister of Sabah, allowing Hajiji to regain the majority support in the Sabah state assembly after the partial withdrawal of support of Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition led by Deputy Chief Minister, State Minister of Works and Lamag MLA Bung Moktar Radin. Following this, Sabah PH left the state opposition and joined the state government. 13 BN MLAs led by Bung Moktar left the state government and joined the state opposition. 5 BN MLAs led by State Minister of Community Development and People's Wellbeing and Tanjung Keramat MLA Shahelmey Yahya remained in the state government. On 11 January 2023, Hajiji also reshuffled his cabinet after the change, Liew was reappointed as the State Minister of Tourism, Culture and Environment. Shahelmey was promoted to the Deputy Chief Minister and appointed as the State Minister of Works replacing Bung Moktar.

Election results

Lawsuit

In 2014, Christina is one of three people that were ordered to pay damages to Borneo Samudera Sdn Bhd (BSSB) for unlawfully inducing the Bahagak Smallholders Scheme participants to breach their joint venture agreement (JVA) with BSSB.

Honours

* : **

Grand Commander of the Order of Kinabalu (SPDK) – Datuk Seri Panglima (2024) ** MY-SAB Order of Kinabalu - PGDK

Commander of the Order of Kinabalu (PGDK) – Datuk (2018)

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Liew, Christina Living people 1953 births Sabah politicians Malaysian people of Hakka descent Hong Kong emigrants to Malaysia Leaders of the opposition in the Sabah State Legislative Assembly Women in Sabah politics Women members of the Dewan Rakyat Malaysian politicians of Chinese descent United Sabah Party politicians Former Malaysian Chinese Association politicians People's Justice Party (Malaysia) politicians Commanders of the Order of Kinabalu 21st-century Malaysian women politicians Grand Commanders of the Order of Kinabalu Malaysian MPs 2018–2022