Reezal Merican Naina Merican


Reezal Merican bin Naina Merican is a Malaysian politician who has served as the Minister of Youth and Sports in the Perikatan Nasional administration under Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin since March 2020 after the implosion of the Pakatan Harapan administration in February 2020. He has been the Member of Parliament for Kepala Batas since May 2013 after the retirement of 5th and former Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi as the MP from politics. He is also a member of the Supreme Council of the United Malays National Organisation. He is Malay but from Indian descent.
Before entering Parliament, Reezal worked in the bank sector. Reezal took over Abdullah as the party's Division Head of Kepala Batas and as the Barisan Nasional candidate for the parliamentary seat. Reezal won the seat in the 2013 Malaysian general election while defeated a candidate from the Malaysian Islamic Party by 4,176 majority of the votes. In October 2013, he was elected to Supreme Council of UMNO, the highest-ranking body of the party.
In a Cabinet reshuffle on 28 July 2015, Reezal was handpicked as Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs by former Prime Minister Najib Razak. In the 2018 Malaysian general election, Reezal was re-elected.

Controversies

On 29 August 2015, Reezal intimated Malaysians participating in the Bersih 4 demonstrations abroad that the Foreign Ministry would gather their information for eventual legal action against them, without even citing which law the citizen abroad violated.

Family

Reezal was rumoured to marry a third wife, a former actress in the nineties Mas Anizan. After first wife Ismalina Ismail and second wife Sharifah Norhaslinda which once filed for divorce with Reezal but retracted.

Election results

Honours