Parliamentary cooperation within the Commonwealth – House of Commons Speaker visits Malaysia
24 February 2025
Rt Hon Sir Lindsay Hoyle MP visited Malaysia from 17-21 February 2025 to further strengthen the ties between the two countries with a particular focus on parliamentary governance.
The Speaker’s visit follows on from recent visits to the House of Commons from HE Tan Sri Dato’ Dr Johari Bin Abdul, the Speaker of the House of Representatives of Malaysia in April 2024 and the visit of Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim, Prime Minister of Malaysia in January 2025.
The Speaker met with his counterpart, Dr Johari bin Abdul, and also met with Senator Datuk Awang Bemee, the President of Upper House of the Parliament of Malaysia and Law Minister, Azalina Othman Said. Mr Speaker joined roundtables with the Chairs of the Select Committees of the House of Representatives and with Members of Parliament and observed a session of the House of Representatives.
The Speaker was visiting to further parliamentary relations, building on the success of the previous visits, and to share best practice on parliamentary governance and the functioning of select committees in how they scrutinise the work of government.
The visit also included time in Sarawak, the largest state of Malaysia, where he met with the Governor of Sarawak, Tan Sri Wan Junaidi and the Speaker of Sarawak, Tan Sri Asfia, the longest serving Speaker of a Commonwealth legislature.
With 2025 marking the 80th anniversary of the end of the Second World War, the Speaker also paid a special visit to the Kuala Lumpur Civil Cemetery.
This visit marked an important moment in the relationship between the two countries and their parliaments and built on the visits to London of Malaysia’s Speaker and Prime Minister by reaffirming the Speakers’ commitments to further opportunities for collaboration between the two parliaments.