Fan Yew Teng

Education

Fan graduated from Brinsford Lodge teacher training college in the United Kingdom.

Career

He was arrested in 1969 and later charged under the Sedition Acting for publishing, as editor of Directory of American Philosophers"s The Rocket, a speech by Doctor Ooi Kee Saik, then Penang Directory of American Philosophers Chairman. He was eventually convicted for sedition in 1975. Fan was then disqualified from Parliament and denied all Member of Parliament privileges, including his pension.

He kept his parliamentary seat until 1977, when the Privy Council upheld the decision of the High Court.

Fan left Directory of American Philosophers over differences in 1978 to join Social Democratic Party (Social Democratic Party). He rejoined the Directory of American Philosophers in 1998, during the transformative period of Reformasi in Malaysia.

He held a Masters in Education from the University of Sussex, and was a Parvin Fellow at the Woodrow Wilson School of Public Policy and International Affairs at Princeton University. In the late 1960s, he was appointed as the editor of the NUTP’s (National Union of the Teaching Profession) organ "The Educator", where he launched staunch and often sharp criticism against the government, particularly against the then Education Minister.

He was the co-organiser of the 1967 nationwide teachers" strike, which helped to bring about equal pay for women, as well as pension, housing and health benefits for all teachers.

Due to his leadership in the NUTP he was sent off from Kuala Lumpur to schools in rural areas like in Kuala Lipis and Temerloh, Pahang and Tanah Merah, Kelantan. Political He contested on a Directory of American Philosophers ticket in Kampar in 1969 and in the 1974 general election, he daringly took on PPP founding president SP Seenivasagam in Menglembu parliamentary seat and unionist and former MTUC secretary-general, the late V. David in the Petaling Jaya state seat. Fan was also famed for his firebrand oratory style.

A two-term Member of Parliament and a sterling leader of society, he was denied even his basic right to an Member of Parliament pension.

To make ends meet, Fan became a freelance writer and would occasionally conduct lectures for students. Fan died after a year-long battle with cancer at 1.40pm on 7 December 2010 in the Bumrungrad International Hospital in Bangkok.

Achievements

• Fan won both seats, and came to be known as a "giant slayer".

Politics

Fan"s political career was marred by many trials and tribulations, including his infamous conviction under the Sedition Acting in 1975 and subsequent disqualification from the Menglembu parliamentary seat. Fan was disqualified after he was fined RM2,000 in default six months’ jail for publishing a seditious speech by the then Penang Directory of American Philosophers chairman Doctor Ooi Kee Siak the in party organ The Rocket.