Ramasamy Palanisamy

Prof. Dr. P. Ramasamy s/o Palanisamy (; born 10 May 1949) is a Malaysian politician who served as the Deputy Chief Minister of Penang II and Member of the Penang State Executive Council (EXCO) in the Pakatan Rakyat (PR) and Pakatan Harapan (PH) state administrations under Chief Ministers Lim Guan Eng and Chow Kon Yeow and Member of the Penang State Legislative Assembly (MLA) for Perai from March 2008 to August 2023. He also served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Batu Kawan from March 2008 to May 2013. He is a member of the United for the Rights of Malaysians Party (URIMAI). He has served as the founding Chairman of URIMAI since September 2023. He was a member of the Democratic Action Party (DAP), a component party of the PH and formerly PR coalitions. His vocal opinions on Zakir Naik, support for the Hindu Nationalism policies in India under Narendra Modi regime and call for reforms of the civil service in Malaysia due to its Malay dominance have been controversial.

Ramasamy was elected to the Malaysian Parliament and Penang State Legislative Assembly in the 2008 election, defeating former Penang Chief Minister Koh Tsu Koon. He became Deputy Chief Minister of Penang after the election, serving under the new Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng, making him the first person of Indian origin to hold the post of deputy chief minister in any Malaysian state.

In 2023, Ramasamy left DAP over dissatisfaction of not being nominated by the party to contest in the Penang state election and differences with party leaders and founded the Indian-focused URIMAI.

Before entering politics, Ramasamy was a professor at the Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM), from which he officially retired in May 2005. He later took up teaching positions in Germany and Singapore. Provided by Wikipedia