Ariffin Deraman

Ariffin bin Deraman is a Malaysian politician who has served as Member of the Terengganu State Executive Council (EXCO) in the Perikatan Nasional (PN) state administration under Menteri Besar Ahmad Samsuri Mokhtar since May 2018 as well as Member of the Terengganu State Legislative Assembly (MLA) for Alur Limbat since May 2013. He is a member of the Malaysian Islamic Party (PAS), a component party of the PN coalition. During his tenure as the Terengganu EXCO Member in charge of Tourism, he oversaw the recognition of Kenyir Lake as the national geopark of Malaysia.

Political career Member of the Terengganu State Legislative Assembly (since 2013) In the 2013 Terengganu state election, Ariffin made his electoral debut after being nominated to contest for the Alur Limbat seat. He won the seat and was elected to the Terengganu State Legislative Assembly as the Alur Limbat MLA for the first term after defeating defending MLA Alias Abdullah of Barisan Nasional (BN) and independent candidate Ja'afar Jambol by a majority of 645 votes.

In the 2018 Terengganu state election, Ariffin was renominated by PAS to defend the Alur Limbat seat. He defended the seat and was reelected as the Alur Limbat MLA for the second term after defeating Saiful Bahri Baharuddin of BN and Ahmad Sabri Ali @ Mamat of Pakatan Harapan (PH) by a majority of 4,194 votes.

In the 2023 Terengganu state election, Ariffin was renominated by PN to defend the Alur Limbat seat. He defended the seat was reelected as the Alur Limbat MLA for the third term after defeating Mohd Yuseri Isa of BN by a significantly increased majority of 12,656 votes.

Member of the Terengganu State Executive Council (since 2018) On 16 May 2018 after PAS took over the state administration from BN after PAS defeated BN in the 2018 state election, Ariffin was appointed as Terengganu EXCO Member in charge of Tourism, Culture and Information Technology by Menteri Besar Ahmad Samsuri. On 15 August 2023, PN was reelected to power in the 2023 state election, Ariffin was reappointed to the position but was given different portfolios of Entrepreneurship, Human Resources, Cooperatives and Consumer Affairs the following day.

Recognition of Kenyir Lake as the national geopark As the Terengganu EXCO Member in charge of Tourism, Ariffin declared the Kenyir Lake as the national geopark and renamed it to the Kenyir Geopark. He added that this recognition was given by the National Geopark Committee. Ariffin described it as one of the best achievements of the state administration which has been working hard to establish the lake as a geopark since 2015 as one of the initiatives of the "2030 Terengganu Sejahtera Master Plan" (PITAS 2030). He also fixed 2027 to hold a reassessment of its geopark status. He stressed that the recognition would open up a new dimension for the tourism sector, create various job and economic opportunities and develop the socioeconomics.

Election results

Honours