Abdul Aziz Bari

Dr. Abdul Aziz Bari is a Malaysian politician and academic of Malay ethnicity currently serving as the Member of the Perak State Executive Council for Education, Environment, Green Technology and Information under Menteri Besar Ahmad Faizal Azumu since 2018 and the incumbent Member of the Perak State Legislative Assembly for the constituency of Tebing Tinggi since 2018 and he is a member of the Democratic Action Party (DAP), a component of Pakatan Harapan (PH) coalition.

While lecturing in UNISEL, Aziz was probed for sedition arising from an online newsportal report '‘Sultan Selangor terikat Deklarasi 1992, perlu lantik Wan Azizah, kata Aziz Bari’ and ‘Only God, not Sultan, has absolute powers.’ This resulted in almost 100 police reports made against Aziz, and he was then investigated by the police. He responded by remaining silent during investigations

He is often quoted based on his knowledge of the law, however he has also been known to give his personal opinion on matters including quotes that often puts him in loggerheads with religious movements and leaders. In the leadup to the GE14, he publicly stated that PAS should not even dream of being in government. In 2015, he also commented that the Crown Prince of Johor should be investigated on charges of sedition, responding to social media posting by the Crown Prince on Johor's right to separate from Malaysia

Purportedly arising from underlying currents in the 14th State Assembly sitting of the Perak Legislative Assembly, in which Kota Tampan State Assemblyman Saarani Mohamad referred to when he made a statement to the media that the MB of the seating Ahmad Faizal Azamu would face a vote of no confidence lead by State EXCO member Aziz Bari. Member of Parliament of Batu Gajah V.Sivakumar in a response to the initial media statement, lodged a police report citing the Malaysian Penal Code at the Dang Wangi Police Station Other response included one from fellow Perak State EXCO member A.Sivanesan who claimed that UMNO was 'daydreaming' With one day to the end of the 4th meeting of the 14th session of state assembly, Aziz denied the claims by stating that he would never have achieved anything citing only getting 18 votes of support from his party, whereas as claimed, another further 5 from UMNO and would still be short of 7 votes. The talk of the purported vote of no confidence first emerged in mid August when State Public Accounts Committee Chairman Abdul Yunus Jamhari publicly stated that it was mere speculation by the opposition

Aziz stood as People's Justice Party (PKR) candidate for the Sabak Bernam parliamentary seat in the 2013 general election (GE13) contesting against Mohd Fasiah Fakeh from United Malays National Organisation (UMNO) of Barisan Nasional (BN) and lost by 1644 votes from the 31,697 polled. He subsequently revived his political ambitions by joining the Democratic Action Party (DAP) in 2015. and stood as a candidate in the Perak state assembly seat of Tebing Tinggi in the 2018 general election (GE14), and this time winning the seat against Malaysian Chinese Association (MCA)'s Khoo Boon Chuan and Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party (PAS)'s Mazlan Md Isa with a majority of 3927 votes against closest challenger Khoo. Having won the Tebing Tinggi State Seat and thus being an assemblyman in the Perak State Assembly Aziz Bari was appointed as the EXCO Chairman for Education, Environment, Green Technology & Information for the 2018-2023 session after being officially sworn in by the Sultan of Perak in May 2018.At 9th of May 2020,he was chosen as the leader of opposition of Perak.

But none was as controversial as his earlier comments in 2011, when he commented on the Sultan of Selangor's defense of Muslim Religious Officials raiding a Methodist Church. That resulted in his suspension as a law lecturer in IIUM, and then reinstatement upon widespread protests by students. He however subsequently chose to resign from his position at IIUM. His outspoken views also often put him in trouble with the law, and he was probed further for illegal assembly in 2014 as well as a sedition probe. His comments on the right to criticise the monarchy remains one of his most controversial statements

On 20 Oct 2011, he was issued a show cause letter by IIUM and suspended from work 'to facilitate investiogations' as announced by the rector of IIUM, Zaleha Kamaruddin. She also clarified that his suspension was not without pay, and his rights to associate himself with the faculty remained open despite rumours against it. In the course of his suspension, other politicians clamoured for his resignation, including MP of Kulim-Bandar Baharu Zulkifli Noordin, which resulted in a lawsuit against the MP and the Malay newspaper Utusan Malaysia by Aziz

His main contention and comments that under the Sedition Act 1948 saying that the rights in the constitution allows anyone to critic the monarchy, and that the right cannot be denied