The year 2020, without a doubt had been a challenging year for all of us. Even though we've been through tough strides this year, some women have gone on to make the country proud with their outstanding achievements for the year! From having the first female Chief of Justice to some of them bagging awards in their fields of expertise - these inspirational women have made history!
The women on our list hail from different backgrounds and fields of expertise (science, literature, politics and so forth). But where they differ in age, ethnicity and social status, these women have paved the way in their own right to bring hope, fame and cheer to the nation. May these women serve as inspirations for women to challenge themselves, strive for their goals and aspirations as well as work their way to the top! As the former first lady of the United States Michelle Obama quoted; “There is no limit to what we as women can accomplish”.
Behold, the Malaysian Women of The Year 2020;
1. Tun Tengku Maimun Tuan Mat
Tun Tengku Maimun Tuan Mat is the tenth and current Chief of Justice of Malaysia. Tengku Maimun was announced as the new Chief of Justice, succeeding Richard Malanjum who retired in April 2019, in a statement released by the Prime Minister's Department on 2nd May 2019 making her the first woman to ascend to the highest judicial office of the country.
A graduate with a Bachelor of Laws (Honours) (LL.B) from the University of Malaya in 1982, Tengku Maimun began her career a legal officer for the Southern Kelantan Development Board (KESEDAR) and later the Seremban Municipal Council. After a career that included postings at the Attorney General's Chambers, Magistrates and Sessions Courts, Tengku Maimun was appointed as a judicial commissioner in 2006.
Prior to her appointment as a judge of the Federal High Court of Malaysia, she was first elevated as a judge of the Court of Appeal of Malaysia where she served for almost six years. Her most notable high profile cases include; the murder of the Mongolian model, Altantuya Shaaribu and the conviction of then Democratic Action Party (DAP) chairman, the late Dato' Seri Utama Karpal Singh of sedition.
2. Senator Ras Adiba
Veteran newscaster Ras Adiba Mohd Radzi was appointed as Senator of the Dewan Negara to represent the persons with disabilities in May 2020. Ras Adiba who heads the non-governmental organisation OKU Sentral has been wheelchair bound following injuries on her spine due to an accident in 1995 and from an assault during a robbery attempt six years later.
Since then, she has undergone physiotherapy and even participated in shooting events including at the 2015 Para Asean Games in Singapore. Due to the struggles brought upon many due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Ras Adiba and her team at OKU Sentral had sought out to lend a helping hand to persons of disabilities in need including national para athletes. On 23rd November 2020, she was elected as the new chairman of BERNAMA making her the first woman in history to hold that position throughout its 53 years of operation.
3. Dzuleira Abu Bakar
Dzuleira Abu Bakar is the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Malaysian Global Innovation and Creativity Centre (MaGIC). Since her appointment two years ago, she has gone on to make amazing strides for the organisation.
Before her appointment at MaGIC, she held the position of CEO and General Partner at Cradle Seed Ventures, where she was tasked with scouting high-growth tech businesses around the regions nearby Malaysia. She also had previous roles at Malaysia Venture Capital Management Berhad (MAVCAP) where she was vice president of investments, Usaha Tegas Management, Maybank Investment Bank and also Khazanah Nasional.
Apart from growing profitable businesses, Dzuleira was also involved in the growing of non-profit organisations and social enterprises for a period of time. During her tenure at Khazanah Nasional, she was part of the Hasanah Foundation where she helped establish non-profit organisations and social enterprises. Advocacy for women empowerment? Think Dzuleira Abu Bakar. She is a vocal supporter for equal gender opportunities in the workplace, having participated as a panelist in events such as Standard Chartered’s Press For Progress Women Forum—an event meant to create discussion about women leadership and to inspire the next generation of female leaders.
4. Tengku Puteri Raja Tengku Putri Iman Afzan
Tengku Putri Iman Afzan is a Malaysian princess and mental health activist. She is the oldest daughter of the current Yang di-Pertuan Agong of Malaysia, Al-Sultan Abdullah Ri'ayatuddin Al-Mustafa Billah Shah ibni Almarhum Sultan Haji Ahmad Shah Al-Musta'in Billah. The princess gave a boost to Malaysia's advocacy work in mental health last year after she was appointed as the international patron of World Mental health Day 2020.
Her appointment was recommended by the World Federation for Mental Health and acknowledged by the World health Organisation (WHO). She has been a strong advocate for mental health in the past years.
5. Datuk Nor Shamsiah Mohd Yunus
Datuk Nor Shamsiah Mohd Yunus is the 9th Governor of the Central Bank of Malaysia (Bank Negara Malaysia) and the second woman to be appointed as Governor after Tan Sri Dr Zeti Akhtar Aziz. Upon joining Bank Negara in 1987, she has served in various areas including prudential, legislation, policies and guidelines for the financial sector and supervision.
Among her notable milestones throughout her career is her involvement in the financial sector resolution initiatives during the Asian Financial Crisis as well as the formulation and implementation of the Financial Sector Masterplan (2001-2010) and Financial Sector Blueprint (2011-2020) that charts the development of the Malaysian Financial System.
It is without a doubt that she has tackled a couple of headwinds as Governor, standing by her priorities at all times. The world felt a harsh blow in terms of economy due to the pandemic. To tackle the struggles faced by businesses and many individuals, the bank introduced a six-month moratorium on loan repayments to ease their financial burdens amid the pandemic.
6. Dato' Sri Azalina Othman
Dato' Sri Azalina binti Othman Said is a Malaysian politician who has served as the Deputy Speaker of the Dewan Rakyat in the Perikatan Nasional (PN) administration since July 2020. She made history by being the first woman to hold the role of a Deputy Speaker.
7. Dato Sri' Siti Nurhaliza
Malaysia's very own nightingale, Dato Sri' Siti Nurhaliza made her debut after she won a local singing competition show, Bintang HMI in 1995 at the tender age of 16. Her debut single, Jerat Percintaan, won the 11th Anugerah Juara Lagu and another two awards for Best Performance and Best Ballad. Throughout her career in the music industry she has won numerous music awards in Malaysia and its neighbouring countries. In 2020, she released her 18th album, ManifestaSITI2020.
A philanthropist - she has been known to be involved in a number of charity related events, open houses and launching her own charity funds. In March 2004, she launched Tabung Prihatin Siti, making her the first Malaysian artist to have a charity fund named after her whose aim was to raise at least RM50,000 for children's education and medical treatment. The following year in January, Siti donated RM35,000 to three different organisations for the 2004 Tsunami victims before her concert at the Royal Albert Hall in April. In February 2006, she donated a hefty sum of RM500,000 for the National Anti-Drug campaign where she was also appointed as the ambassador for the campaign.
8. Surina Shukri
Surina Shukri is the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Malaysia Digital Economy Corporation (MDEC), an agency under the Ministry of Communications and Multimedia Malaysia (KKMM) with a close to 25-year track-record of successfully leading the ICT and digital economy growth in the country.
In December 2020, she was named among the World's 50 Most Influential People Revolutionsing Governance in the inaugural Agile 50 list - a joint initiative by Apolitical and the World Economic Forum's Global Future Council on Agile Governance. The list was created from over 300 nominations from governments, international organisations, NGOs and companies across the world. It seeks to shine a spotlight on the crucial work performed by those driving the widespread digital transformation of government.
9. Dr Chan Yoke Fun
Dr Chan Yoke Fun, an Associate Professor and head of University of Malaya's (UM) Medical Microbiology Department from its Faculty of Medicine was declared the winner of the 2020 ASEAN-US Science Prize for Women - an award that honors Southeast Asian's female scientific minds for their academic and professional achievements.
She was credited for her research, the Enterovirus A71 (EV-A71) - a commonly preventable virus that causes hand, foot an mouth diseases (HFMD) and severe neurological diseases.
10. Tan Sri Dato' Sri Michelle Yeoh
Tan Sri Dato' Sri Michelle Yeoh rose to fame in the 1990s as an actress in Hong Kong action films. She is well-known internationally for her roles in Tomorrow Never Dies (1997) and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000) along with recent international films and series in the English language. She made it to BBC's 100 Women List for being one of the most inspiring and influential women of 2020. BBC's 100 Women highlights figures who are leading change and making a difference during the COVID-19 pandemic and calls for racial justice. She was applauded by BBC for speaking about the lack of Asian representation in Hollywood and for her being UN's goodwill ambassador to eradicate poverty by 2030. However, her achievements for the year do not end here.
On December 10, 2020, Disney officially announced that she will be starring in Marvel's Asian superhero flick, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings.
11. Professor Dr April Camilla Roslani
Professor Dr April Camilla Roslani from University of Malaya was awarded the American College of Surgeons (ACS) Fellowship on 5 October 2020. A colorectal surgeon and medical oncologist, she was the only female surgeon to be presented with the Honorary Fellowship. The American College of Surgeons (ACS) is the largest organisation of surgeons in the world with over 82,000 members globally.
Becoming a part of the organisation or a "Fellow" as they call it is no easy feat because of the high standards held by ACS in their membership vetting process. Fellowships are only awarded to surgeons whose education, training, personal qualification, surgical competence and ethical conduct have passed a rigorous evaluation and are found to be consistent with the high standards established and demanded by the college.
12. Renee Pillai
Renee Pillai became the first Malaysian screenwriter to win the Academy Nicholl Fellowships in Screenwriting, a prestigious screenwriting program administered by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in November 2019. Renee joined the annual screenwriting competition where she submitted her film script, Boy with Kite and emerged as one of the five winners whose submission beat out over a total of 7,300 scripts from across the world.
13. Hanna Alkaf
Malaysian author, Hanna Alkaf made waves in the Malaysian literary scene when her debut novel The Weight of Our Sky bagged the Freeman Book Awards for the Young Adult/High School Literature category. In September, her second fiction The Girl and the Ghost became a finalist for the American Kirkus Prize under the Young Reader's Literature Category. Based on an article from The Star, Hanna shared that The Girl and the Ghost is a story about a little girl who inherits a dark spirit from a grandmother she never knew and turns it into a friend and companion she never had.
14. Liutenant Lohappriya Manisegaran
Liutenant Lohappriya Manisegaran gained fame on social media this year for becoming the first Malaysian-Indian woman to become a pilot of the Royal Malaysian Air Force (RMAF). She was one of the 38 trainees who was presented with Flight Wings at a ceremony of the Air Force College in Alor Setar, Kedah on 9th October 2020.
15. Dr Raja Rajeswari Seetha Raman
Dr Raja Rajeswari Seetha Raman bagged the Suryodaya Literary Excellence Award 2020. The Suryodaya Literary Excellence Award 2020 organised by the Suryodaya Literary Foundation in Odisha, India is an international award dedicated to authors, writers and poets to ignite and expand their credibility, creativity and vision of life, conferred for their outstanding contribution to the world of literature and incessant endeavour for excellency to envisage a better world of tomorrow.
The recognition was bestowed on three of her poems in the English language entitled; COVID-19: A Game Changer for Humanity, The Universe: A New Abode and The Serene Beauty of Nature in the sound of Silence.
16. Ravinder Kaur
Malaysian wildlife researcher, Ravinder Kaur gained fame when she won the Terrestrial Conservation Leadership Award from the Marsh Christian Trust for her contributions to sustainable biodiversity that was done locally. The award which partnered with Fauna and Flora International honours individuals who play important roles in their communities and features leaders or organisations who make special contributions to conservation.
17. Prof Datuk Dr Adeeba Kamarulzaman
Infectious diseases specialist, Prof. Datuk Dr Adeeba Kamarulzaman became the first Asian to lead the International AIDS Society after she was appointed as the president in July 2020. A renowned figure in Malaysia and globally for her efforts as a medical expert and HIV/AIDS advocate, Dr Adeeba will lead the society for two years until 2022.
18. Farah Ann Abdul Hadi
Farah Ann is a Malaysian artistic gymnast. She took up gymnastics at a tender age of three. She made her first appearance at the 2010 Commonwealth Games in New Delhi scoring 12.050 points (floor exercise), 10.500 (beam) and 10.250 (uneven bars) as Malaysia finished fourth in the team event. She took the bronze medal in floor exercise and team event at Artistic Celtic Cup-Commonwealth Invitational in Perth, Scotland in 2014. She has competed at the Asian Games in Incheon, South Korea, Southeast Asian Games (SEA Games), the 2019 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships in Stuttgart, Germany as well as the Tokyo 2020 Olympics.
Farah has won 13 SEA Games medals and one medal at the World Cup level thus far. The gymnast even has her own Barbie doll made by Mattel as part of their Barbie's Dream Gap project that seeks to inspire young girls around the world.
19. First Admiral Rohana Jupri
Rohana Jupri made a mark in the history of the Royal Malaysian Navy (RMN) when she was promoted from the rank of Captain to First Admiral making her the first woman to be promoted to the rank in the RMN. She was among the four senior officers that were promoted in a ceremony launched by RMN Commander, Admiral Tan Sri Mohd Reza Mohd Sany at KD Sri Gombak in Jalan Padang Tembak, Kuala Lumpur on December 18, 2020.
According to Mohd Reza, Rohana's selection proved that her ability and efforts were recognised by the top management of RMN apart from being a sign of appreciation for her efforts and ability during her 36 years of service. Rohana joined the RMN on December 20, 1984 and had held several positions such as Senior Director of Materials at the RMN Headquarters, Assistant Chief of Staff (AKS) J4 (Logistics) in the National Task Force (NTF), Commanding Officer of KD Sultan Abdul Aziz Shah, Staff Officer 1 Women's Affairs of the Malaysian Armed Forces and Commanding Officer of the Western Naval Supply Depot.
20. Nurul Aina Abdul Ghani
Aina Abdul is an up-and-coming Malaysian singer-songwriter. Her career in the music industry began after coming in 2nd on the reality TV show, Mentor Legend in 2014. She then represented Malaysia at the World Championship of Performing Arts (WCOPA) 2014 in Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, US and emerged as the Vocalist of the World. She even emerged as the winner of The Masked Singer Malaysia.
The 27-year old has since then been trailblazing the Malaysian music scene with two songs that topped the charts: Sumpah (2019) and Semalam (2020).
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