Wee Choo Keong | |
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黄朱强 | |
Member of the Malaysian Parliament for Wangsa Maju |
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In office 8 March 2008 – 5 May 2013 |
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Preceded by | Yew Teong Look (MCA) |
Succeeded by | Tan Kee Kwong (PKR) |
Member of the Malaysian Parliament for Bukit Bintang |
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In office 1990–1995 |
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Preceded by | Lee Lam Thye (DAP) |
Succeeded by | Lee Chong Meng (MCA) |
Personal details | |
Born |
Kelantan, Federation of Malaya (now Malaysia) |
26 June 1953
Nationality | Malaysian |
Political party |
DAP (1990-1998) MDP (1999-2008) PKR (2008–2010) Independent (2010–2013) |
Occupation | Politician, lawyer |
Website | weechookeong |
Wee Choo Keong (simplified Chinese: 黄朱强; traditional Chinese: 黃朱強; pinyin: Huáng Zhū Qiáng; born 26 June 1953) is a Malaysian politician. He was the Member of Parliament for Bukit Bintang from 1990 to 1995 and for Wangsa Maju from 2008 to 2013. Wee has been a member of the Democratic Action Party (DAP), the Malaysian Democratic Party (MDC) which he formed, and the People's Justice Party (PKR) which he tried to join before turning independent eventually. Wee was appointed by the government as Tourism Malaysia chairperson on 17 June 2015.
Wee started his political career as a member of the DAP and in 1990 was elected as member of parliament for the Bukit Bintang constituency (earlier was Kuala Lumpur Bandar before been renamed).
In 1993, an injunction was issued against Wee and two other defendants from "printing, circulating or publishing any allegation of impropriety about the companies" after a case was brought by MBf alleging the defendants "unlawfully conspired with each other with the predominant purpose of injuring the companies by unlawful means". MBf later applied to have the defendants (including Wee) held in contempt of court for failing to obey the injunction. The application succeeded against Wee and another of his co-defendants and Wee was eventually ordered to pay a RM7,000 fine on appeal. The injunction against Wee brought by MBf was set aside in 2007 with the Court of Appeal ruling "The injunction was too wide in its terms and almost oppressive". He later sought damages against MBf and AmBank (who had acquired MBf) for loss of income due his inability to be an MP and the damage to his professional standing as a lawyer.
Wee was removed from the Bukit Bintang seat in 1995 after a controversial court case which nullified his re-election that year due to the fine he had received. He was ejected from the DAP in 1998 after being accused of damaging the party's image and went on to form the Malaysian Democratic Party (MDP). He later attempted to join Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) but was rejected by the party who stated at the time they did not want renegades from DAP. Due to the ruling against him in the 1995 court case, he was unable to contest the 1999 election. He contested the 2004 elections but did not even receive enough votes to keep his deposit. Wee Choo Keong was later referred to by V.K. Lingam in the Lingam tape. After the video tape was made public in 2007, Wee stated he intended to file for judicial review of the 1995 decision. Later, he also lodged a report with Suhakam over the tape arguing it demonstrated his human rights had been infringed.