Politeknik Tun Syed Nasir Syed Ismail

Tun Dato' Syed Nasir bin Ismail was a Speaker of the Dewan Rakyat, the lower house of the Parliament of Malaysia. During his lifetime, he was known as a nationalist who sought to fight for the primacy of the national language in Malaysia as a means to create a national identity through the closing down of public-funded Mandarin and Tamil vernacular schools.

Tun Syed Nasir sees a common education system for all as a solution to this dilemma. A prominent politician from the United Malays National Organisation (UMNO) – the leading party of he governing Barisan Nasional coalition – he served as the 5th Speaker of the Dewan Rakyat from 1978 till his death in 1982.

He was born in Batu Pahat, Johor, Malaysia, and is of Hadhrami Arab descent.