Liew Chin Tong is the Deputy Minister of Finance of Malaysia, appointed on 16 December 2025. He is currently the Member of Parliament for Iskandar Puteri, after being elected on 19 November 2022. He was also the State Assemblyperson for Perling, Johor, from March 2022 to May 2026.
From December 2022 to December 2025, he was Deputy Minister of Investment, Trade and Industry, where he worked closely with Minister Tengku Zafrul Aziz. With the New Industrial Master Plan (NIMP 2030) as the guiding document, both of them worked hard to shape the strategic directions of Malaysia’s industrial development, especially for the semiconductor, iron and steel, and automotive sectors.
Chin Tong was appointed Senator from 2018 to 2021, and served as Deputy Minister of Defence from July 2018 to February 2020. He help to assist Minister Datuk Seri Mohamad Sabu to come up with Malaysia’s first ever Defence White Paper in 2019.
He was first elected Member of Parliament for Bukit Bendera (2008-2013) and subsequently Member of Parliament for Kluang (2013-2018). Since 1999, he has served the Democratic Action Party (DAP) in various capacities and is now a member of its Central Executive Committee, serving as the Strategic Director.
He graduated with a degree in Political Science and an honours degree in Asian Studies from the Australian National University, and holds an International Masters in Regional Integration from the Asia-Europe Institute, University of Malaya.
Chin Tong was the Chairman of Research for Social Advancement (REFSA) from 2012 to May 2025. Prior to that, he was the Executive Director of Penang Institute from 2009 to 2012. He was also formerly a Visiting Senior Fellow at the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies (ISEAS), Singapore.
He recently published Second Takeoff: Strategies for Malaysia’s Economic Resurgence which outlines his visions for the nation’s second economic takeoff, better jobs with better pay for Malaysians, and the emergence of a Malaysian middle-class society.
For Malaysia to move forward, we need to have a new framing for our political and economic discourses. Progressive forces need to hold the center together with a national conversation on what we, as Malaysians, aspire to be.
There is a need for political leaders and opinion leaders who aspire for Malaysia to be a stable democracy to realise that to defeat the extreme positions is to stand steadfastly in the middle.
The middle ground may sound like drinking coffee without sugar. But for the health of the nation, this is the best place to be.
Whichever the permutations, a progressive coalition must resist the extremes and keep in mind that we cannot be able to be more Malay in orientation than UMNO can be, more Islamic than PAS can be, more Chinese than MCA or more Indian than MIC can be. The middle ground is where we build the nation together as a people.
For the progressives to thrive and to have our voice heard, it is not about ignoring identity but about building an inclusive Malaysian identity based on citizenship, a Malaysian civic nation and solidarity; it is about Malaysian citizens, as one people, facing the peoples of the world.
For Malaysian democracy to have a future, the unit forming the democratic nation should not be race but citizenship. The citizen is the basic and indispensable unit of Malaysian democracy.
The collective identity of Malaysian citizens, or something like “Bangsa Malaysia”, does not mean that one loses his or her cultural identity as a Malay, Chinese, Indian, Kadazan or Iban. Collectively, we take part in the political process as Malaysian citizens, as one people, as a civic nation.
Building consensus through consultative efforts guided by the constitution as the pillar of our country’s democracy.
Help those who are in need. Championing the fate of the underprivileged and in the middle in the name of shared prosperity.
Fellowship among the people regardless of religion and culture in order to ensure the interests of all Malaysians.
REFSA is a progressive, not-for-profit think tank that promotes social advancement in Malaysia. Since its inception in 2004, REFSA has been at the forefront of policy discussions and debates in the important political and socio-economic issues of the nation.
In this book, Liew Chin Tong contextualizes the collapse of the Pakatan Harapan coalition and the new government’s political consolidation. This work is a documentation of events and policy recommendations for the 100 days following the installation of a new government in March 2020, the mitigative efforts to contain the spread of COVID-19 and the lasting economic impact on the nation.
