Saifuddin Abdullah
Dato' Saifuddin bin Abdullah (Jawi: سيف الدين بن عبدالله; born 27 January 1961) is a Malaysian politician and former Minister of Foreign Affairs and the Member of Parliament for Indera Mahkota. He is also a member of the ruling Pakatan Harapan (PH) coalition. Previously, he was the Member of Parliament of Malaysia for the Temerloh constituency in Pahang from 2008 to 2013 representing United Malay National Organisation (UMNO), the leading party in the then-ruling coalition of Barisan Nasional (BN).

Personal life
Saifuddin was born to an ustaz father and a schoolteacher mother in Temerloh near Mentakab, Pahang.

Education
Saifuddin was educated at Sekolah Kebangsaan Abu Bakar Mentakab (1968–73), Malay College Kuala Kangsar - MCKK (1974–80), obtained BA Honors from University of Malaya (1984), Diploma in Translation from Malaysian Translator Association / Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka (1985) and followed by the Executive Course at Harvard Business School (1995).

Political career
Saifuddin was elected to Parliament in the 2008 election, and was immediately appointed as a deputy minister, being cited as a future ministerial prospect. He had previously been the Secretary-General of the Malaysian Youth Council. After the election he was appointed as a deputy minister, and was the Deputy Minister of Higher Education in Najib Razak's first term as Prime Minister. During his ministerial tenure, Saifuddin was one of the more moderate and liberal-progressive politicians in Najib's administration. He criticised his own government's handling of the Bersih 2.0 rally in 2011, in which over 1,600 protestors were arrested on the streets of Kuala Lumpur. In early 2013, he also stood up for a student who was humiliated by a government-linked panellist at a student forum at the Universiti Utara Malaysia (UUM).

Saifuddin's ministerial career was cut short by the 2013 election, when he lost his parliamentary seat to a Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party (PAS) candidate by 1,070 votes.

Saifuddin has written four books on Malaysian politics. After leaving Parliament he joined the University of Malaya as a research fellow, but in 2014, he resigned his position in protest when Malaysia's Education Ministry forced a well-respected professor at the university to resign, reportedly due to research findings critical of the government.

In 2015, Saifuddin quit UMNO and joined the People's Justice Party (PKR) over disagreements with the government's handling of the 1Malaysia Development Berhad scandal.

In February 2020, Saifuddin quit PKR along with deputy president Azmin Ali and 9 other MP's to form an independent parliamentary block.

Election results

Honours
  :
  Knight Companion of the Order of Sultan Ahmad Shah of Pahang (DSAP) - Dato' (2009)
  :
  Knight Commander of the Order of the Perak State Crown (DPMP) - Dato' (2002)