The Hon. Nurul Izzah Anwar

Madam Nurul Izzah Anwar is a political activist and former three-term Member of Parliament in Malaysia, with a long-standing dedication to socio-economic reforms. She currently serves as the Executive Chairperson of POLITY (since January 2025), and Advisor to Malaysian Humanitarian Aid and Relief (MAHAR) beginning April 2024. She was also Chairperson of the Social and Economic Research Initiative (SERI) from March to December 2024 and previously co-chaired the Secretariat of the Finance Advisory Panel at the Ministry of Finance (2023 – February 2024), where she led research initiatives focused on revenue, debt, and reform of government-linked companies.

Her parliamentary journey began in 2008 when she was elected as the Member of Parliament for Lembah Pantai, a seat she held until 2018. She then served as the Member of Parliament for Permatang Pauh from 2018 to 2022. During her tenure, she was an active member of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC), playing a vital role in scrutinising government expenditures and Auditor General reports, including those related to 1MDB and the LCS scandal. She was also part of the All-Party Parliamentary Group Malaysia on Prison and Detention Centre Reforms, and in 2021, launched the PermatangPauh Multidimensional Poverty Study, which aimed to influence national household survey practices.

In Parliament, Nurul Izzah championed legislative reform by bringing forward seven Private Member’s Bills, including those focused on vocational education, emergency law repeal, and abolishing the Sedition Act. She was a founding member of the TPPA Caucus, and also chaired the Technical, Vocational and Educational Training (TVET) Empowerment Committee. Her policy advocacy extended to harm reduction programmes for drug addiction, the development of conditional cash transfer mechanisms in collaboration with MyKasih Foundation, and grassroots initiatives such as the Permatang Pauh Women’s Project, designed to empower women through entrepreneurship.

She currently serves as Vice President of the People’s Justice Party (KEADILAN), a position she previously held from 2010 to 2018 before resuming the role in 2022.

Nurul Izzah holds a Master’s degree in International Relations (Southeast Asia Studies) from the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS), Johns Hopkins University, and a Bachelor of Science in Electrical and Electronics Engineering from Universiti Tenaga Nasional (UNITEN).

She has also delivered several prominent public lectures, including at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS) on economic policy in post-pandemic Malaysia (2022), and at the Institute for Research & Development of Policy (IRDP) on institutional reform and governance (2022). She delivered a keynote address at the UNFPA Malaysia Intimate Partner Violence Forum in 2021, and participated in the UK Foreign & Commonwealth Office’s International Leaders Programme in 2017.

Her writings have appeared in both academic and global publications. These include a co-authored article in the Journal of the Malaysian Parliament (2021) on strengthening parliamentary democracy, as well as opinion pieces for Project Syndicate and The Guardian, addressing issues such as poverty measurement, prison reform during COVID-19, and Malaysia’s political transformation.