Saifuddin Abdullah who was today appointed as foreign minister in the Pakatan Harapan government is no stranger to governance.

He once held the post of deputy minister during the era of Abdullah Ahmad Badawi and Najib Abdul Razak.

Under Abdullah, he was the deputy minister of entrepreneur and cooperative development from March 19, 2008 until April 9, 2009.

When Najib took over as the sixth prime minister, he changed Saifuddin’s portfolio to that of deputy higher education minister II on April 10, 2009.

His participation in the government stopped when he failed to retain the Temerloh parliamentary seat in GE13 in May 2013, losing to PAS candidate Nasrudin Hassan by 1,070 votes. Saifuddin won the seat in the 12th general election.

In October 2015, Saifuddin, who was Umno supreme council member, was quoted by the media as saying he was quitting the party to join PKR as he said Umno had abandoned its original struggles.

Saifuddin who holds a Degree in Arts from Universiti Malaya as well as a Certificate in Management from Harvard University in the US, is also a former president of the Malaysian Youth Council, member of the National Information Technology Council and chief executive officer of the Global Moderate Movement (GMM).

In his Facebook account, Saifuddin lists reading as his interest, and has produced several books including "Memperkasa Persatuan Belia", "Gerakan Kesukarelaan: Menjana Perubahan Bermakna" and "New Politics -Towards A Mature Malaysian Democracy".

- Bernama