Actually ah, which political party got the most Tan Sri?

Another day, another memorable one-liner gracing us from former DAP supremo, Lim Kit Siang Kit:

Just a few days back, our Agong honored him with the Darjah Kebesaran Panglima Setia Mahkota award, officially making him a Tan Sri. Woot woot, congrats Kit! 😳 Jokes aside tho, it’s been reported that Kit is in fact the only DAP member to have ever received a Tan Sriship! (Yes, that’s an actual word, plus Hannah Yeo used it too)

Hearing that, we couldn’t help but wonder about the Tan Sris in other political parities in Malaysia. Who has the most? Who has the least? With those questions in mind, we turned to our trusted friend the internet, and clicked through a couple of bajillion politician profiles (public ones only) to see what we could find.

 

Bersatu tops the table with 4 Tan Sris

For a party that’s only 7 years old and still pretty much a toddler compared to some of the ancient ones on this list (UMNO’s been around for a whopping 77 years!), it’s impressive that Bersatu has so many decorated members in their midst 👀 Unless ofc you consider the fact all these Tan Sris actually came from UMNO… in which case, the joke’s on UMNO then cos they could’ve just held it together and taken the Tan Sri championship.

But anyways, here are the 4 Tan Sris from Bersatu:

• Muhyiddin Yassin
• Mohd. Radzi Sheikh
• Syed Hamid Albar
• Rais Yatim

Also interesting to note that Muhyiddin is the only (ex) Malaysian PM with a Tan Sri title. Serious, even Mahathir doesn’t have one, having gone from a Dato’ Seri straight to a Tun– meaning he skipped over the Tan Sri part. Now, doesn’t that make our Abah a real special cookie?

 

UMNO is a close second with 3 Tan Sris

A close fight but a loss nonetheless, as is the case with UMNO these days.  Frankly, we know none of these people…

• Shahrizat Abdul Jalil
• Mohd. Fatmi Che Salleh
• Badruddin Amilrudin

…other than Shahrizat, who may or may not be yesterday’s news. But she definitely adds some diversity by being the only woman on this entire list of Tan Sris and also the only one among her 3 peers with an infamous scandal (re: cowgate) to her name… allegedly la.

 

PAS has 1.5 Tan Sris… ish

Alright, so we’ll give you the names first, then explain why we can’t give you a concrete number.

• Abdul Hadi Awang
• Nik Abdul Aziz Nik Mat

But a quick question before we start– who do you think actually got their Tan Sri first?

Lol, by the way we phrased that, you might guess Hadi Awang and yeh, you’re right. In fact, Nik Aziz, the former Chief Minister of Kelantan, was only just awarded his Tan Sriship despite his tenure in PAS ending over 8 years ago. The reasoning behind this decision remains a bit of a mystery, but here’s the deal: we’re only counting active politicians. So Nik Aziz’s posthumous yet recent title gets him a neither-here-nor-there score of 0.5

 

MIC has a grand total of 1 Tan Sri

Perhaps not quite as well known as Samy Vellu or even G. Palanivel, this MIC leader actually quietly achieved something his 2 predecessors never had… and that’s a Tan Sri title.

• Vigneswaran Sanasee

In fact, among the Tan Sris on this list, he got his title at a comparatively younger age, at just 52! It was around the time he was serving as the speaker of the Dewan Negara, and about a year before he became the President of MIC.

 

PBB also has 1 Tan Sri in their ranks

For all the Semenanjung folks who live in their little Semenanjung bubble, PBB’s actually the largest political party in Sarawak. And their party leader so happens to be a Tan Sri too.

•  Abang Abdul Rahman Johari Abang Openg aka…. Abang Jo 🤙🏼

Now here’s an interesting lil tidbit about PBB: Ever since its founding in 1973, each and every one of their presidents has been awarded the Tan Sri title, and that covers a total of 5 people! It also makes them the only party on this list to actually have a legacy of Tan Sri leaders.

 

DAP takes last place with ~1 Tan Sri

If it isn’t obvious enough, DAP’s Tan Sri is none other than…

• Kit

To clarify that ambiguous count, Kit actually retired last year but seeing that he was also recently awarded, we’ve included him on our list. Now, are you guys ready for the plot twist? Jeng jeng jeng… his retirement may be the very thing that got him his title! You see, DAP party members actually CANNOT receive titles or awards while they’re still active in politics. After retirement, geng la can collect as many as they want, but while still working they have to focus on serving the rakyat.

“DAP… advises its elected representatives and local councillors to receive these honours after they retire from active service, presumably after they have contributed to the society at large,” — Anthony Loke, DAP elected rep, via FMT

Huhu that’s like taking tiger mom to a whole new level 😓

 

At the end of the day, having a Tan Sri doesn’t make the party better

As Shakespeare would say, what’s in a name? And really, it’s just a label. The Tan Sri title, in essence, is to honour individuals who’ve contributed to the country. Simply put, it’s a way to recognize and acknowledge their achievements. But people sometimes tend to make a bigger deal out of it when politics comes into play. When in reality, these titles are only as important as we make them out to be.

Titles aren’t everything… unless ofc we’re talking about Cilisos titles, then it’s everything and beyond since it gets you guys to click in 🫶🏼