Chua Tian Chang, better known as Tian Chua (simplified Chinese: 蔡添强; traditional Chinese: 蔡添強; pinyin: Cài Tiānqiáng; Pe̍h-ōe-jī: Chhòa Thiam-kiông; born 21 December 1963), is a Malaysian politician who served as Special Advisor to the Minister of Works from March 2019 to February 2020 and Member of Parliament (MP) for Batu from March 2008 to May 2018.
He became famous when images of him sitting defiantly in front of a police water cannon truck were splashed across the global media during the height of the movement.
He had much time to read including heavy tomes like Homer's Iliad, and learnt Thai, Norwegian, Arabic, French and Sanskrit, which he has mostly forgotten now.
The constituency has the most Projek Perumahan Rakyat (PPR) public housing apartments and one of the highest rates of petty crime in the city.
Tian Chua won for the second time in the Batu, Kuala Lumpur for the 2013 general election (GE13) defeating BN's Dominic Lau Hoe Chai with 13,284 majority.
Tian Chua was disqualified to contest and unable defend his Batu parliamentary seat in the 2018 general election (GE14) when his nomination was rejected due to a RM2,000 fine from a court case that he paid in 2010.
[8] He instead endorsed one of the independent candidates, 22-year-old law student Prabakaran Parameswaran who later won the seat and jointed PKR as the country's youngest parliamentarian.
[10] Tian Chua was appointed as the Special Adviser to the Minister of Works during the short ruling period of the Pakatan Harapan (PH) administration after GE14 from March 2019 until it collapse due to the political crisis in 2020 in February.
[11] In a 2007 demonstration in front of the parliament, Tian Chua had bit a police constable's arm which had led to him being charged in 2009 under Section 332 of the Penal Code.
[8][10] In 2012, Tian Chua was arrested at the Bersih 3.0 rally and was later detained of committing an offense of trespassing Police Training Centre (PULAPOL), a "Restricted Area".
He was then charged, convicted and sentenced by the Sessions Court in 2014 to one-month's imprisonment and a RM1,000 fine for refusing a police order to leave the PULAPOL.
[16] In another 2014 incident, Tian Chua had insulted a policeman in front of a hotel where he was then charged for outraging the modesty of the police officer by using foul language and ordered by the court in 2017 to pay a total of RM3,000 following his conviction.
[18] Following the 2013 Lahad Datu standoff, Tian Chua commenting through his Twitter hinted that the country standoff with the defunct-Sultanate of Sulu throne claimants followers from the southern Philippines was staged by the Malaysian ruling government party of United Malays National Organisation (UMNO), where he was then heavily criticised by the party politicians as well the public for his lacking of "sensitiveness" on the issue.
[24] In 2009, Tian Chua took the lead role in a science fiction short film titled One Future, which depicted Malaysia as an Orwellian dystopia.