Gan Peck Cheng (, born 21 November 1966) is a 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 ...

and

kindergarten Kindergarten is a preschool educational approach based on playing, singing, practical activities such as drawing, and social interaction as part of the transition from home to school. Such institutions were originally made in the late 18th cen ...

teacher A teacher, also called a schoolteacher or formally an educator, is a person who helps students to acquire knowledge, competence, or virtue, via the practice of teaching. ''Informally'' the role of teacher may be taken on by anyone (e.g. w ...

who has served as Member of the

Johor State Legislative Assembly The Johor State Legislative Assembly () is the unicameral legislature of the Malaysian state of Johor. It is composed of 56 members who are elected from single-member constituencies throughout the state. Elections are held no more than five yea ...

(MLA) for Penggaram since May 2013. She served as Deputy

Speaker Speaker most commonly refers to: * Speaker, a person who produces speech * Loudspeaker, a device that produces sound ** Computer speakers Speaker, Speakers, or The Speaker may also refer to: Arts and entertainment * "Speaker" (song), by David ...

of the

from June 2018 to January 2022 and State

Leader of the Opposition The Leader of the Opposition is a title traditionally held by the leader of the Opposition (parliamentary), largest political party not in government, typical in countries utilizing the parliamentary system form of government. The leader of the ...

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 ...

from October 2015 to May 2018. 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

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) and formerly

Pakatan Rakyat Pakatan Rakyat (PR; ) was an informal Malaysian political coalition and successor to Barisan Alternatif (BA). The political coalition was formed by the People's Justice Party (PKR), Democratic Action Party (DAP), and Pan-Malaysian Islamic Par ...

(PR),

Barisan Alternatif The Alternative Front ( Malay: ''Barisan Alternatif''; abbrev: BA) was a coalition of Malaysian opposition parties, formed as a counterweight to the ruling Barisan Nasional. Disbanded after the 2004 general elections, all 4 former component ...

(BA) and

Gagasan Rakyat The Gagasan Rakyat (GR or ''People's Might'') was an opposition Malaysian political coalition. The now defunct political coalition was founded by Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah's formation of Parti Melayu Semangat 46 (S46 or Semangat 46) after leaving ...

(GR) coalitions.

Personal life

She was born in

Kampung Minyak Beku Minyak Beku is a mukim in Batu Pahat District, Johor, Malaysia. Kampung Minyak Beku is where the famous chiseled rock is located, a big rock about ten feet in size (beside the police station). The big rock was chiselled by the Siamese ( Ayudhy ...

Batu Pahat The Batu Pahat District is a district in the state of Johor, Malaysia. It lies southeast of Muar, southwest of Kluang, northwest of Pontian, south of Segamat and Tangkak District. The capital of the district is Bandar Penggaram. Geograph ...

, Johor. She got her secondary education in Chinese High School Batu Pahat.

Earlier career

Before she served as a state assemblywoman, she has been working as a kindergarten teacher.

Political career

Gan contested the Pontian federal seat and Penggaram state seat in the

1990 Important events of 1990 include the Reunification of Germany and the unification of Yemen, the formal beginning of the Human Genome Project (finished in 2003), the launch of the Hubble Space Telescope, the separation of Namibia from South ...

general and Johor state elections and again only for the Penggaram state seat in the

1995 1995 was designated as: * United Nations Year for Tolerance * World Year of Peoples' Commemoration of the Victims of the Second World War This was the first year that the Internet was entirely privatized, with the United States government ...

1999 1999 was designated as the International Year of Older Persons. Events January * January 1 – The euro currency is established and the European Central Bank assumes its full powers. * January 3 – The Mars Polar Lander is launc ...

2004 2004 was designated as an International Year of Rice by the United Nations, and the International Year to Commemorate the Struggle Against Slavery and Its Abolition (by UNESCO). Events January * January 3 – Flash Airlines Flight 60 ...

and

2008 2008 was designated as: *International Year of Languages *International Year of Planet Earth *International Year of the Potato *International Year of Sanitation The Great Recession, a worldwide recession which began in 2007, continued throu ...

Johor state elections in which she suffered electoral defeats. In the 2013 general election, she finally broke her streak of five electoral defeats and ended her 23-year wait to be elected as an MLA. She gained her long-awaited victory in the same seat of Penggaram by defeating her opponents King Ban Siang from

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) of

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 ...

(BN) with 10,051 majority votes. Results only available from the

2004 election The following elections occurred in the year 2004. Africa * 2004 Algerian presidential election * 2004 Botswana general election * 2004 Cameroonian presidential election * 2004 Comorian legislative election * 2004 Equatorial Guinean legislativ ...

. In 2014, Gan came out tops in the Johor DAP state committee polls, receiving 271 votes. Gan, a former DAP state secretary, was appointed the new State Leader of the Opposition of Johor on 27 October 2015 to replace Boo Cheng Hau who had resigned. In the

2018 Johor state election The 14th Johor State election was held on 9 May 2018, concurrently with the 2018 Malaysian general election. The previous state election was held on 5 May 2013. The state assemblymen is elected to 5 years term each. The Johor State Legislative A ...

, she retained her Penggaram state seat for her second term with higher majority of votes and was then appointed to be the first ever female Deputy Speaker of the Johor State Legislative Assembly in history after PH took over the Johor state administration led by Menteri Besar

Osman Sapian Osman bin Sapian (; 25 December 1951 – 21 December 2021) was a Malaysian politician who served as the 16th Menteri Besar of Johor from May 2018 to his resignation in April 2019 and Member of the Johor State Legislative Assembly (MLA) for Kem ...

. In February 2020, the PH state administration was overthrown and replaced with the new BN state administration led by new

Menteri Besar head of government, Heads of government in Malaysia's many states of Malaysia, states take on various titles. Seven out of nine in the Peninsular Malaysia, Peninsular who each have Monarchies of Malaysia, historical monarchs are known as the Men ...

Hasni Mohammad Hasni bin Mohammad ( Jawi: حسني بن محمد; born 27 March 1959) is a Malaysian politician and engineer who has served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Simpang Renggam since November 2022 and Member of the Johor State Legislative A ...

and PH returned to the state opposition after only 22 months in power. However, given her identity as an opposition MLA, she was not removed from the deputy speakership and retained by the new administration along with Speaker Suhaizan Kayat who is also from the opposition. This became one of a very rare cases in which the speakers are from the opposition instead of the government in

Malaysia Malaysia is a country in Southeast Asia. Featuring the Tanjung Piai, southernmost point of continental Eurasia, it is a federation, federal constitutional monarchy consisting of States and federal territories of Malaysia, 13 states and thre ...

. In the

2022 Johor state election The 2022 Johor state election, formally the 15th Johor general election, took place on 12 March 2022. The election was to elect 56 members of the 15th Johor State Legislative Assembly. The previous assembly was dissolved on 22 January 2022. T ...

, she retained her Penggaram state seat and was reelected for her third term by defeating all of her opponents but with a significantly lessened majority of only 9,952 votes compared to her last victory in 2018. After BN returned to the state government after its victory, she and Suhaizan were not reappointed the speaker and deputy speaker of the assembly respectively.

Election results

External links

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gan, Peck Cheng Living people 1966 births People from Batu Pahat Malaysian schoolteachers Malaysian politicians of Chinese descent Democratic Action Party (Malaysia) politicians Women MLAs in Johor Members of the Johor State Legislative Assembly Leaders of the opposition in the Johor State Legislative Assembly 21st-century Malaysian women politicians 21st-century Malaysian politicians