Larry Sng

Sng was born on 14 September 1979 in Taipei to a Sarawakian businessman-politician father Sng Chee Hua and Taiwanese-born mother Susan Sng.[5] His father is the former one-term Julau MP from 1995 to 1999, two-term Pelagus assemblyman from 1991 to 2001 and a renowned corporate player. Meanwhile, his grandfather, Sng Chin Joo was also a Member of Parliament and Council Negri (now Sarawak State Legislative Assembly) member in 1963 and the Kapitan Cina in Kapit in the mid-80s.[2][6] Their family has a good long track record with the Iban community in Sarawak, having resided in Jalan Airport, Kapit for a long time and are non-native fluent speakers of the local native Iban language despite being of ethnic unmixed full-blooded Chinese descent (since he is of paternal Teochew and maternal Hokkien ancestry, for Datin Susan Sng was a Hoklo Taiwanese married to Dato' Sng, who was a local-born Chinese of Teochew ancestry).[5][7]

Sng grew up in Kuala Lumpur and in England and studied at London School of Economics (LSE).[5]

Sng joined the Sarawak Native People's Party (PBDS) in 2001 when he was 22.[2] He first stood on the PBDS ticket in 2001 state election, replacing his father as the Pelagus representative. He had served two terms as Barisan Nasional (BN) state assemblyman of Sarawak for Pelagus from 2001 to 2011.[8] Under the Chief Minister Abdul Taib Mahmud BN's administration in 2004, he was the Sarawak's youngest assistant minister when appointed the Assistant Minister in the Chief Minister's Office (Economic Planning) as well as Assistant Minister of Industrial Development (Planning).[6][9][7]

Sng joined the new Parti Rakyat Sarawak (PRS) in 2004 which was founded by James Jemut Masing and his father the senior Sng in the wake of the de-registration of PBDS and succeeded it as a component of BN. In 2006 state election, he retained his Pelagus seat as a PRS candidate. He had been the PRS deputy secretary general under the presidency of Masing until a leadership tussle between them resulted in the revocation of Sng's party membership for insubordination in 2007.[6][10]

In 2009, he was given additional portfolio of Assistant Minister of Youth (Training) albeit being a 'partyless independent' pro-BN status. He was subsequently dropped from contesting and defending the Pelagus state assembly seat under BN's banner in 2011 state election.[11] Sng retained his position as the deputy chairman of Sarawak Convention Bureau (SCB) as well as Sarawak Convention Centre (now Borneo Convention Centre Kuching, BCCK) and was appointed Youth Affairs advisor to the Chief Minister Taib Mahmud's state government in 2012 amid his BN-friendly status.[7]

Sng resigned from all his government appointments in 2013 to assume the position of founding president of the just formed Sarawak Workers Party (SWP) which proclaimed to be BN-friendly too.[12] In the 2013 general election (GE13), he contested as SWP candidate in Lubok Antu parliamentary seat but lost.[6] In March 2016, while serving as the SWP party president Sng had initially planned to contest the newly created state constituency of Bukit Goram in upcoming 2016 state election,[13] but later in April he unexpectedly resigned from the party instead thus renouncing his candidacy.[14] He explained he has quits although he could have won because he felt he could not truly serve the constituents without being in BN in an emotional post on his Facebook.[15]

In the 2018 general election (GE14), Sng had contested as an Independent candidate and elected the MP for the Julau federal constituency by 10,105 of the 18,279 votes cast.[16] He defeated Joseph Salang Gandum the four-term incumbent and PRS deputy president.[17] He joined the PKR which is part of new Pakatan Harapan (PH) ruling coalition shortly after his victory in the election.[18] He was picked during the PH's rules as chairman of the Malaysian Pepper Board (MPB) under the federal Ministry of Plantation Industries and Commodities from May 2018 to April 2020.[19][20]

Following the collapse of PH in the February 2020 Malaysian political crisis also dubbed as 'Sheraton Move', Sng was then appointed as the Sarawak chief of PKR left vacant by incumbent Baru Bian who had turn to be independent and joined Parti Sarawak Bersatu (PSB).[3][21] He announced on 21 December he was stepping down from the post only to retract it after persuasion including by Anwar Ibrahim later.[22] Somehow in February 2021 he eventually quit PKR to revert to be an independent MP but supports the new Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin and his led Perikatan Nasional (PN) administration.[23] Sng explained that he just wanted a stable government and continued backing UMNO's Ismail Sabri Yaakob as the new PN's Prime Minister following the resignation of Muhyiddin as the PN chairman on 16 August.[24] Sng has been appointed as the new chairman of Malaysian Palm Oil Council (MPOC), a GLC to promote the market expansion of Malaysian palm oil and its products with effect from 1 October.[25]

Together with Steven Choong, he announced the formation of Parti Bangsa Malaysia (PBM) on 19 November 2021.[26]

Sng was appointed as the chairman of the Malaysian Timber Industry Board on 5 May 2023.[27]

Sng was 27 years old when he married May Ting (born 1977), then aged 29, on 14 October 2006. Ting is a political science and economics graduate from the National University of Singapore (NUS) and holds a Masters in commerce from an Australian university.[32] She is the eldest daughter of Sarawak business magnate cum construction tycoon, the late Tan Sri Dato' Paduka Ting Pek Khiing (known for his timber business and the Bakun Dam project) and his second wife Tan Sri Datin Paduka Chai Yu Lan.[33]

Sng is known for his corporate social responsibility (CSR) and community services. He runs the Larry Sng Education Fund which has given over RM1 million to students from Pelagus and Bukit Goram pursuing higher learning.[7][34] Sng was once touted as Sarawak's richest MP after he declared his and his wife's assets to be around RM11.78 million to the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) in November 2018.[35]

•  Malacca :
  • Companion Class II of the Exalted Order of Malacca (DPSM) – Datuk (2022)

• Julau (federal constituency)
• Pelagus (state constituency)
• Parti Bangsa Malaysia (PBM)

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Larry Sng.

• Larry Sng on Facebook