Shafie Apdal

Datuk Seri Haji Mohd. Shafie bin Haji Apdal (born 20 October 1957) is a Malaysian politician. He was the federal Minister of Rural and Regional Development and currently serves as the Member of Parliament for Semporna, Sabah. He was one of the three vice-presidents of the United Malays National Organisation (UMNO), the leading party in the Barisan Nasional coalition that governs Malaysia.

Born on 20 October 1957 Shafie Apdal is the native of Semporna, Sabah. He is the nephew of Sakaran Dandai, who was the sixth Chief Minister of Sabah.

Education

Shafie has a Diploma in Shipping Management from the London Business College (not to be confused with the more prestigious London Business School). In 1992, he received his Bachelor in Economics (Hons) from North Staffordshire Polytechnic, England.

He is married to Shuryani binti Shuaib and has six children.

Political career

Shafie started his political career with the United Sabah National Organisation (USNO). The party dissolved in 1994, and Shafie joined UMNO, which was then only starting to gain a presence in the state. In 1995 he was elected to federal Parliament as an UMNO member, for the seat of Semporna. He was appointed a parliamentary secretary before becoming Deputy Minister of Housing and Local Government in 1999. From 1999 to 2004 he was Deputy Minister for Defence.

After the 2004 election, he was appointed Minister of Domestic, Trade and Consumer Affairs in Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi's Cabinet and was later given the Ministry of Unity, Culture, Arts and Heritage. On 10 April 2009, he became the Minister of Rural and Regional Development in the first Cabinet of Prime Minister Najib Razak. This coincided with his election to one of the party's three vice-presidential posts, polling in third place behind Ahmad Zahid Hamidi and Hishammuddin Hussein. He was re-elected as an UMNO vice-president in 2013, this time polling in second place, behind Ahmad Zahid and ahead of Hishammuddin. He is the first Sabahan to hold a vice-presidency of UMNO.

On 28 July 2015 — Datuk Seri Mohd Shafie Apdal was removed in the Cabinet reshuffle by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak thus losing his rural and regional development portfolio. Following this, he formed a new Sabah-based opposition party known as Sabah Heritage Party (WARISAN) that was approved by Registrar of Societies (RoS) in 17 October 2016.

Election results