Adly bin Zahari (Jawi: عدلي بن ظهري; born 15 February 1971) is a Malaysian politician who has served as the Deputy Minister of Defence in the Unity Government administration under Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim and Minister Mohamad Hasan since December 2022, Member of Parliament (MP) for Alor Gajah since November 2022 and Member of the Malacca State Legislative Assembly (MLA) for Bukit Katil since May 2018. He served as the 11th Chief Minister of Malacca from May 2018 to March 2020 and State Leader of the Opposition of Malacca from April 2020 to December 2022.[1] He is a member of the National Trust Party (AMANAH), a component party of the PH coalition and was a member of the Malaysian Islamic Party (PAS), a component party of formerly the Pakatan Rakyat (PR) coalition. In AMANAH, he has served as its Vice-President since September 2021 and State Chairman of Malacca since August 2017. He was also the Treasurer-General of AMANAH prior to his promotion to the party vice presidency. He is also the sole Malacca AMANAH MLA.[2][3]
Adly obtained his Bachelor of Engineering (BEng) in electrical engineering from Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM).[4] He became an engineer, served in the corporate sector and started his own business before joining the politics.[5]
He was a member of the Malaysian Islamic Party (PAS)[6] prior to joining its new splinter party AMANAH in 2015.[7]
In the 2018 Malacca state election, Adly made his electoral debut after being nominated by PH to contest for the Bukit Katil state seat. He won the seat and was elected to the Malacca State Legislative Assembly as the Bukit Katil MLA for the first term. In the snap 2021 Malacca state election, Adly was renominated by PH to defend the Bukit Katil seat. He defended the seat and was reelected to the assembly for the second term. However, he was the only winner of his party and he was left as the only Malacca MLA of AMANAH after the snap election.
On 11 May 2018, a historic and first ever transition of power took place in Malacca as the State Chairman of PH of Malacca Adly being sworn in as the new Chief Minister of Malacca after BN lost to PH in 2018 state election where PH won a simple majority in the assembly by taking 15 of the 28 state seats to form the new state government.[1] During his tenure as Chief Minister, he reportedly rejected an offer for a Datukship.
After PH lost power to BN, PH returned to the Opposition. On 24 April 2020, Adly, the State Chairman of PH of Malacca, became the new State Leader of the Opposition, in line with the Westminster parliamentary convention, where the leader of the largest party or coalition that is not in the government becomes the Leader of the Opposition. On 13 December 2022, Adly relinquished the position to Mohd Yadzil Yaakub after Chief Minister Sulaiman confirmed that PH had left the opposition and supported his government as a strategic partner.
In the 2022 general election, Adly was nominated by PH to contest for the Alor Gajah federal seat. He narrowly won the seat and was elected to Parliament as the Alor Gajah MP after defeating Shahril Sufian Hamdan of BN by a majority of only 820 votes.
On 10 December 2022, Adly was appointed as the Deputy Minister of Defence to deputise for Minister Mohamad Hasan by Prime Minister Anwar. It was speculated that Adly was to be promoted to replace Salahuddin Ayub who died in office in July 2023 as the Minister of Domestic Trade and Costs of Living in a cabinet reshuffle. However, Armizan Mohd Ali of the Gabungan Rakyat Sabah (GRS) was instead appointed to position and Adly remained the Deputy Minister of Defence after the reshuffle.
Media related to Adly Zahari at Wikimedia Commons
