Mohamed Khaled bin Nordin (Jawi: محمد خالد بن نورالدين; born 30 November 1958) is a Malaysian politician who has served as the Minister of Defence since December 2023 and previously served as the Minister of Higher Education for the second term from December 2022 to December 2023 in the Unity Government administration under Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim. He had previously served as Deputy Minister of Works, Minister of Entrepreneur and Co-operatives Development and his first term as Minister of Higher Education in the Barisan Nasional (BN) administration under former Prime Ministers Mahathir Mohamad, Abdullah Ahmad Badawi and Najib Razak from 1999 to 2013. Additionally, he served as the 15th Menteri Besar of Johor after he contested and became a Member of the Johor State Legislative Assembly (MLA) for Permas from May 2013 to May 2018. Throughout his political career, he has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for 3 different Johorean federal constituencies, which are Johor Bahru from October 1990 to March 2004, Pasir Gudang from March 2004 to May 2013 and currently for Kota Tinggi since November 2022. He is a member and the Division Chief of Pasir Gudang of the United Malays National Organisation (UMNO), a component party of the Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition. He has served as a Vice President of UMNO since June 2018 and had also served as the State Chairman of UMNO of Johor from January to December 2023. In his corporate career he had served as Non-independent and Non-executive Chairman of the Boustead Holdings from May 2020 to his resignation in August 2022 and had also served as Chairman of the Johor Corporation Berhad.

Early life

Khaled is of Banjar descent. He was born in Muar, Johor, Malaysia. He received his early education at Sekolah Rendah Ledang Tangkak and High School Muar later before continued to English College Johore Bahru. Khaled further his studies at University of Malaya and graduated with a law degree in 1982.

Career

Before entering politics, Khaled worked for the Malaysian oil giant Petronas. In the 1980s he worked as an adviser to Shahrir Abdul Samad, a federal minister.

Politics

Khaled entered the federal parliament himself in the 1990 election, at the age of 31, winning the seat of Johor Bahru against a Parti Melayu Semangat 46 (S46) candidate. In 2004 he became the Minister of Entrepreneur and Co-operatives Development, and in 2008 was appointed as the Minister of Higher Education. After 23 years at federal politics, he shifted to the Johor State Legislative Assembly in the 2013 election, winning the seat of Permas. The Barisan Nasional coalition held its majority in the assembly, and Khaled took over as the state's 15th Menteri Besar of Johor. In the 2018 election somehow, Khaled contested concurrently the Pasir Gudang parliamentary and Permas state seats but was defeated both which also witnessed BN lost in the federal and state governments to Pakatan Harapan (PH). Khaled decided not to contest the 2022 Johor state election which will be for the first time held separately for the federal and state elections.

Election results

Honours

Honours of Malaysia