Anthony Loke Siew Fook (born 28 April 1977) is a Malaysian politician who has served as the Minister of Transport for the first term in the Unity Government administration under Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim since December 2022 and previously in the Pakatan Harapan administration under former Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad from May 2018 to the collapse of the PH administration in February 2020, the Member of Parliament (MP) for Seremban since May 2013, Rasah from March 2008 to May 2013 and Member of the Negeri Sembilan State Legislative Assembly (MLA) for Chennah since May 2013, Lobak from March 2004 to May 2013. He is a member of the Democratic Action Party (DAP), a component party of the PH and formerly Pakatan Rakyat (PR) coalitions. He has served as the 6th Secretary-General of DAP since March 2022, 2nd Parliamentary Leader of DAP from July 2018 to March 2022 and previously as National Organising Secretary of DAP and Youth Chief of DAP or Chief of Socialist Youth (DAPSY). He was also the Leader of the Opposition of Negeri Sembilan and State Chairman of the PR of Negeri Sembilan.

Early life and education

Loke was born as Loke Siew Fook in Seremban, Negeri Sembilan, Malaysia. He was educated at St. Paul's Institution and Seri Ampangan High School. He graduated from Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia in 2000 with a Bachelor Degree of Science (BSc) in development science. His grandfather Loke Ching Fatt is the owner of the Loke Ching Kee restaurant where the now famous Chinese New Year dish yee sang became popular. He presented a history book on the dish in an audience with the Yamtuan Besar Tuanku Muhriz on January 31st 2020.

Political career

In 1994, Loke joined DAP at the age of 17, the minimum age requirement of a DAP member. In the 2004 Negeri Sembilan state election, Loke made his electoral debut after being nominated by DAP to contest for the Lobak state seat. He won the seat and was elected to the Negeri Sembilan State Legislative Assembly as the Lobak MLA for the first term. He retained his seat and was reelected to a second term in the 2008 state election. In the 2008 general election, Loke was also elected to the Parliament as the Rasah MP. In the 2013 general and state election, he switched seats at both state and federal levels, contesting and winning Chennah in the legislative assembly and Seremban in the parliament. Loke apologised to Mahathir after over 40 billboards featuring the latter have to be covered under orders from Election Commission of Malaysia. Loke defended both his Parliament (Seremban) and State (Chennah) seats in 2018 election (GE14) by defeating MCA's candidates, Chong Sin Woon (Parliament) and Seet Tee Gee (State) with a majority of 30,694 votes and 1,115 votes respectively. Following the 2018 general election, Mahathir was appointed as the Prime Minister to lead the PH government. On 21 May 2018, Loke was named as the Minister of Transport by Prime Minister Mahathir. On 24 February 2020, Loke was removed as the Minister of Transport after the PH was ousted from power in the 2020 political crisis. On 20 March 2022 in the 17th DAP National Congress, Loke was reelected into the Central Executive Committee with 1625 votes, the 3rd highest vote, after Gobind Singh Deo who was reappointed the National Deputy Chairman and Chow Kon Yeow who was reappointed the National Vice Chairman. He was then appointed as the 6th Secretary-General of the party, replacing Lim Guan Eng who held the office for 17 years. Loke again defended his Seremban federal seat in the 2022 general election. After that, PH Chairman Anwar was appointed Prime Minister leading a coalition government of PH, Barisan Nasional (BN), Gabungan Parti Sarawak (GPS), Gabungan Rakyat Sabah (GRS) and other parties. On 3 December 2022, Anwar reappointed Loke as the Minister of Transport almost after 3 years. During his second term in the role, Loke introduced many policies to digitalise the transport system. In the 2023 Negeri Sembilan state election, Loke was reelected as the Chennah MLA for the third term after defeating PN candidate.

Controversies and issues

In February 2019, Loke's wife sat next to him during an official meeting with his Chinese counterpart, sparking controversy. Tee Ching Seng, the head of MCA's international communication and diplomacy bureau, questioned why Loke's wife was present at the official meeting.

Election results