Hassan Abdul Karim
Hassan bin Abdul Karim (born 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 served as Chairman of the Federal-State Relations Select Committee from December 2018 to November 2022. He is a member of the People's Justice Party (PKR), a component party of the Pakatan Harapan (PH) coalition and formerly Pakatan Rakyat (PR) coalitions and was a member of the Parti Rakyat Malaysia (PRM), a component party of the Barisan Alternatif (BA) coalition. He served as the State Chairman of PKR of Johor from 2014 to his resignation in July 2019 and the 5th President of PRM from April 2005 to November 2009. He often analyses and comments on Malaysian politics and news as well as advising Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim.

Political career
Hassan, a lawyer by profession, joined PRM in 1978 before rising to become its youth chief. In April 2005, Hassan was elected president of PRM by party members who were against the party's merger with the National Justice Party into the People's Justice Party (PKR).

Following the party's rejection of Hassan's proposal for the party to enter into the Pakatan Rakyat (PR) opposition coalition during a party congress, he announced his intention to resign on 15 November 2009. Hassan then joined PKR later in the month, which was a component party of the PR coalition.

In the 2018 general election, Hassan was nominated by PKR to contest for the Pasir Gudang federal seat. He won the seat and was elected into Parliament as the Pasir Gudang MP for the first term after defeating the 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, one of the Parliamentary Committees of Malaysia.

Following Anwar's release from prison and return to the PKR presidency, Hassan was appointed PKR Johor state chairman in 2018. However, following multiple allegations of nepotism due to some of the appointees being allegedly linked to Anwar, Hassan decided to refuse the appointment on 14 December 2018. On 28 December 2018, he bolted and accepted the position. Hassan finally sent his resignation letter on 12 July 2019. His resignation was only reported a week later on 19 July 2019, citing differences with the Johor Palace.

In the 2022 general election, Hassan was renominated by PKR to defend the seat. He defended the seat and was reelected as the Pasir Gudang MP for the second term after his defeating candidates of Perikatan Nasional (PN), BN and Gerakan Tanah Air (GTA) by a majority of 31,558 votes.

Controversy
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. He was discharged not amounting to an acquittal by the Sessions Court in May 2018, following the prosecution's decision to drop the charges. On 10 May 2019, he was finally granted a full acquittal on the sedition charges by the Shah Alam High Court.

Election results

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

External links

References

Living people
1951 births
Malaysian people of Malay descent
Malaysian Muslims
20th-century Malaysian lawyers
Leaders of political parties in Malaysia
Parti Rakyat Malaysia politicians
People's Justice Party (Malaysia) politicians
Members of the Dewan Rakyat
University of Malaya alumni
Alumni of the University of London
21st-century Malaysian politicians