Richard Riot Jaem


Richard Riot anak Jaem is a Malaysian politician. He is the incumbent seven-term Member of Parliament of Malaysia for Serian constituency in the state of Sarawak. He is appointed as Malaysia's special envoy to East Asia covering Japan, South Korea and Taiwan by Prime Minister of the federal ruling Perikatan Nasional coalition, Muhyiddin Yassin in May 2020. Riot was previously the Minister of Human Resources of Malaysia in former Prime Minister Najib Razak's cabinet. He has also served as chairman of the Sarawak Rivers Board. He is a member and deputy president of the Sarawak United People's Party ; a component of Sarawak Parties Alliance.

Political career

Party posts

During SUPP's triennial assembly in 2011, Riot was elected as the party's first non-Chinese deputy president.

Parliamentary career

Riot first contested and won the Serian parliamentary seat in 1990 as an independent candidate. He was later re-elected for six consecutive terms beginning in 1995, all on a National Front ticket.

Ministerial career

After serving for more than 20 years as a government backbencher, Riot was appointed as Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs in a minor cabinet reshuffle on 1 June 2010.
In 2013 he was promoted to a full ministerial position as Minister for Human Resources.

Controversy

After the 12th Malaysian general election in March 2008, there was speculation that Riot would defect to the opposition People's Justice Party ; however, Riot denied the speculation and the move did not materialised.
In September 2017, Riot was engulfed in a corruption allegation after 40 million was found to be missing from the Skills Development Fund Corporation under the Ministry of Human Resources which he helmed as its minister. Among those arrested by the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission included his political secretary. Riot himself was called in by the MACC and questioned for 10 hours.
Following the historic 14th Malaysian general election in May 2018 which saw the fall of the BN coalition from power, rumours swirled around with speculation that Riot was looking to, yet again, join the PKR, which was now a component party of the ruling Alliance of Hope coalition. This was denied by PKR Sarawak state liaison committee chairperson Baru Bian. Moreover, PH Sarawak chairperson, Chong Chieng Jen, advised his allied parties against accepting Riot in a statement declaring that his own, the Democratic Action Party, will not.
Less than a year later in February 2019, Riot was again surrounded by speculation that he may jump ship, this time to the United Sarawak Party which is a splinter party of the SUPP.
On 29 February during the 2020 Malaysian political crisis, Riot was reported to has left SUPP to join PKR again. Somehow the inaccurate rumour was quickly quashed after a video clip of him denying the claims has gone viral the next day.

Election results

Honours