Hee Yit Foong

Hee Yit Foong (simplified Chinese: 许月凤; traditional Chinese: 許月鳳; pinyin: Xǔ Yuèfèng; born 4 December 1963) is a Malaysian politician who is infamous for her role in the 2009 Perak constitutional crisis by resigning from the Democratic Action Party which she represented in the Malaysia General Election in 2008 and becoming an independent aligned with the ruling Barisan Nasional. Her dramatic action was seen as an act of betrayal by many in her Jelapang constituency and has earned her unpleasant nicknames from the angry voters and Malaysian public such as 'traitor' and 'frog'. She served as Deputy Speaker of the Perak State Legislative Assembly from March 2008 to February 2009. She was a member of the opposition Democratic Action Party from the late 1980s until her resignation in February 2009 which subsequently caused the 2009 Perak constitutional crisis.

Hee walks with a limp from a case of polio she contracted at the age of 4. She was state assemblywoman for Jelapang and was the first disabled woman to become the speaker of a Malaysian legislative body.

On 4 February 2009, Hee was one of four assembly people who withdrew their support from the incumbent Pakatan Rakyat government. She announced that she would support the Barisan National coalition instead. This prompted a political crisis in the state.

In an interview with Sin Chew Daily, Hee defended her defection on the grounds that she felt sidelined by the leaders of the Democratic Action Party (DAP) in her state. The following day, Perak DAP secretary Nga Kor Ming told Sin Chew that DAP not only had groomed her from a largely unknown person into a state assemblywoman, but had also made her the first non-Malay female deputy speaker in the country's history and he would have nothing further to comment if Hee still insisted that her action was right. Some people in her constituency reacted with anger at her defection. Many different objects have been thrown, hung and left at her home and service centre while an effigy of her was also burnt in a mock Chinese funeral rite following her defection and resignation from DAP.

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