About Teresa

Teresa Kok (郭素沁) is the MP for Seputeh and DAP Vice-chairman.
She won Seputeh for the fourth consecutive term in the 13th general elections by defeating her MCA opponent with a national record majority of 51,522.
In the 2008-2013 term she was Selangor Senior State Executive Councillor for Investment, Industry & Trade and State Assemblyperson for Kinrara.
Born and bred in Kuala Lumpur, Teresa is a second-generation Malaysian of Chinese descent. Her paternal grandparents originated from Hui Zhou in Guangdong province, China.

She attended Kuen Cheng Primary School in Kuala Lumpur and Chung Hwa High School in Seremban.

Her foray into politics began when she was reading communications at Universiti Sains Malaysia in Penang. The wrongful detention of opposition politicians and social activists in the 1987 Operasi Lalang compelled her to organise a signature campaign to plead for their immediate release and organise people to send cards and letters of encouragement to the detainees.

Upon graduation, Teresa assisted human rights activist Dr Kua Kia Soong in his campaign for a parliamentary seat in the 1990 General Election.

After the General Election, she served as political secretary to Parliamentary Opposition Leader Lim Kit Siang from 1990 – 1995. She was the first female to ever hold this position.

In the 1995 General Election, Teresa ran for the Ipoh Barat parliamentary seat but was defeated. Undaunted, she then sought to improve herself by reading her Masters in Political Science at Universiti Malaya. Her thesis was on UMNO, titled “Factionalism in Umno During Dr Mahathir’s Era (1981 – 2001)”.

Her efforts proved fruitful when she was elected Member of Parliament for Seputeh for the first time in 1999 and for the second time running in 2004.

In 2004, she co-founded the ASEAN Inter-Parliamentary Myanmar Caucus (AIPMC) which advocates freedom and democracy for Burma and has been the Secretary of the organisation since its founding.

In the same year, Teresa published a book,琴声剑影, from a collection of articles she wrote for her column in the Chinese daily Sin Chew Jit Poh.

In Malaysia’s 12th General Elections on 8 March 2010, Teresa retained her seat as Member of Parliament for Seputeh for the third consecutive term with a convincing 36,492 vote majority. This was the highest majority in the entire 12th General Election. In addition, she also won the state assemblyperson seat for Kinrara in the state of Selangor.

In 2008, Teresa was wrongfully detained by the police under the Internal Security Act based on a false report published by the Utusan Malaysia newspaper that she had forbidden the Azan call to prayer by Masjid Al-Ehsan in Bandar Kinrara, Puchong.

After being detained for seven days, she was released following widespread public dismay and outcry, including that by foreign embassies in Malaysia. She is now suing the Utusan Malaysia for defamation and the Federal Government and police force for wrongful detention.

She is proficient in Bahasa Malaysia, English, Mandarin, Cantonese and Hakka.

Teresa is Catholic.

民主行动党士布爹区国会议员和金銮区州议员郭素沁，目前在雪州民联政府掌管雪州投资丶工业及商业事务。

祖籍广东省惠州县的郭素沁，在吉隆坡出生和长大， 属於马来西亚的第三代华裔。她毕业于吉隆坡坤城小学和芙蓉中华中学。

当她在马来西亚槟城理科大学就读时，就已经关心政治。她曾经是理大华文学会的活跃领袖。1987年马来西亚政府在茅草行动中逮捕许多在野党与社会活跃份子事件，促使她在校园内进行要求政府释放被扣留者的签名运动，也进一步激发起她对参与民主民权运动的信念。

大学毕业后，郭素沁加入民主行动党。在1990年的全国大选，马来西亚华社号召华裔选民“壮大反对党、 促成两线制”。她在这感召之下她协助人权份子柯嘉逊博士竞逐八打灵国会议席。

郭素沁在1990年大选后才参加民主行动党，并在1990年11月，受委为当时是国会反对党领袖林吉祥的政治秘书，直至1995年。她是民主行动党首位出任该职的女性。

1995年全国大选，郭素沁在怡保西区披甲上阵，惟败北。她并没有气馁，为自我提升，她在马大修读政治学硕士学位。她的硕士论文以巫统政治为题，题为：“马哈迪时代的巫统党派主义（1981-2001）。”

她在2004年大选出征吉隆坡士布爹区国会议席，成功为行动党守土。同一年，她与志同道合者创办了东盟各国议会缅甸核心组织（AIPMC），主旨为提倡和动员缅甸的民主和人权运动。

郭素沁在2004年出版了书名为《琴声剑影》的著作，它收录了刊登在《星洲日报》内的同名专栏文章。

在2008年3月8日举行的第十二届全国大选，郭素沁以3万6千492张多数票击败对手，第三度蝉联为士布爹区国会议员，这也是该届大选的最高多数票。同时，她也中选为雪州金銮区州议员。

《马来西亚前锋报》在2008年的一则报道中，虚假地指控郭素沁禁止蒲种金銮镇的回教堂使用扩音器播放祈祷声，导致郭素沁被当局援引内安法令扣留。

在广大民众，包括驻马的外国大使馆提出强烈抗议後，郭素沁被扣留7天後获得释放。她遂起诉《马来西亚前锋报》诽谤，以及中央政府和大马皇家警察错误扣留她。

 

郭素沁目前是行动党全国组织秘书和全国妇女组秘书。她精通国文丶英文丶中文。她也说粤语和客话。
她是一名天主教徒。