The recent Lamag election saw a 6-cornered fight. The incumbent was the late Datuk Seri Panglima Bung Moktar Radin who died barely days after the election.
Bung Moktar needed no introduction in Sabah politics. He was the Member of Parliament for Kinabatangan from 1999 to 2025. That’s a quarter of a century. Not many Malaysians, let alone Sabahans, got to be an MP for that long.
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Since 2020 when the State Constituency of Lamag was created, Bung was also elected an Assemblyman. That made him both an MP and an Assemblyman. After that election, he was made Deputy Chief Minister cum Minister of Public Works.
In early 2023, he was dropped from the State Cabinet and the rest is history. By the way, he was Sabah Umno chief from 2019 till his death.
Why did his father name him Bung, I don’t know. In Indonesia, “Bung” means big or elder brother. For example, Bung Karno, referring to former President Sukarno.
Lamag was contested for the first time in 2020. There was already a Lamag in the old days which was later discontinued. From 1967-1971, the Assemblyman was Pengiran Galpam Pg Indar of Usno. From 1971-76, it was Pg Mohd Ismail Pg Siat also of Usno. After that the constituency was discontinued.
In 2020, Lamag was recreated, carved out from Kuamut and Sukau. That year, Bung obtained 3,035 votes to beat his nearest rival by 661 votes. The other 3 candidates got less than 100 votes each.
In the recent election, Bung obtained 3,908 votes to beat his nearest rival by mere 153 votes. That was quite close, taking into consideration Bung’s position as a senior politician, a former DCM, a MP, and Sabah Umno chief. Was it a warning for Bung in particular and Umno in general? He didn’t live long enough to find out.
Which bring us back to the by-election. It is a straight fight between BN/Umno and Warisan. The BN candidate is Mohd Ismail Ayob, better known to Lamag residents as MIHA. The Warisan candidate is Mazliwati Abdul Malik Chua.
Sabah’s ruling coalition GRS and Malaysia’s ruling coalition PH have both decided to stay out of the By-Election partly out of respect for the late Bung and partly because BN/Umno is a component of the Malaysian Unity government, also known as the Madani government.
But Warisan, despite also being a component of the Federal government (they have a Deputy Minister) decided to go in. Legally nothing wrong but in politics you don’t normally expect that from a fellow component.
Now, who is Miha? Well, he was the Independent candidate who almost defeated Bung. He lost by only 153 votes. In other words, he almost became a Giant Killer.
To think that an Independent can almost beat a veteran who was many times his senior. I mean, even the candidate from the ruling GRS also only got 1,646 votes, just imagine. He got 3,755 against Bung’s 3,908.
I tried to get first hand information about him but my messages went unanswered.
According to Wikipedia, he was formerly with Warisan, then GRS. He was even an aide of the Chief Minister but resigned to contest as an Independent when he was not fielded. However, his action turned out to be justified as the GRS candidate, Johainizamshah Johari who was chosen over him, got less than half of his votes.
Obviously his popularity in Lamag was underestimated by those who fed wrong information to the GRS leadership.
In 2020, MIHA stood as the Warisan candidate in Lamag. He got a respectable 2,374 votes against Bung’s 3,035. After that he somehow ended up as an aide to the GRS CM office.
In 2018, MIHA was the Warisan candidate for Sukau, part of which became today’s Lamag. Again, he got a respectable 3,032 votes against BN’s 4,660. Looks like he started his political career from Warisan or at least it took flight from there.
Now, for the Warisan candidate, Mazliwat.
First of all, according to her profile listed by a Warisan’s FB page, she is a lawyer with more than 10 years of experience.
She holds a LL.B with Honors from the University of London and a Certificate of Legal Practice (CLP) from Universiti Malaya, again with Honours.
She is a Board Member of the Sabah Institute of Development Studies (IDS). Her profile even listed her as an acting CEO of IDS but it didn’t say when or for how long.
She is also listed as a “Guest Lecturer” in Law and Political Science, assumably in a local institution of higher learning.
This is not her election debut though. In the 2022 MP election, she was the Warisan candidate for Kinabatangan. In a straight fight, she got 12,512 votes against Bung’s 16,842.
Although she lost, the result showed that she did rather well, considering that Kinabatangan was vast, covering 2-3 State seats. If it were a State election, she could have easily won with the number of votes she obtained.
Which was perhaps why this time she opted for the State seat of Lamag. Don’t forget Lamag includes part of Kuamut where he comes from and I would imagine that some or not most of her votes came from there.
In an interview recently, she admitted that this time she opted for a State seat as it is smaller and easier to manage. Kinabatangan is simply too large. In term of size, it is bigger than a few States in West Malaysia.
Let’s find out more about Mazliwati. She is daughter of Datuk Hj Abdul Malik Chua of Sandakan in general and Kuamut in particular.
Malik was half-Chinese and half Orang Sungai, I think. Despite his surname, he spoke more Bahasa than Chinese, with due respect. His father was Teo Chew, I think.
I am not sure of the sequence. But Malik was a Field Officer of the Information Department. He was also a police officer. He has a Diploma from ITM Shah Alam. I think he also studied Law but I am not sure up to what level or if he finished it.
Partly because of this background, he was a terrific speaker, especially in Bahasa Malaysia. When he talked, people listened. He was a good orator, partly due to his training as a Field Officer whose job was to deliver speeches while the driver change film reels mid-way during the Information Department’s Free Film Shows. I know because I was one, although by the time I joined, Malik already left.
Politically, Malik first shot to fame in 1976 when he was elected Kuamut Assemblyman, defeating the Usno candidate Due to communication problem, the result for Kuamut was the last to be known. It was only announced the day after Berjaya had won enough seats (27) to form the government, taking over from Usno.
Malik was made Political Secretary to the Minister of Agriculture & Fisheries, the late DSP Dr James Ongkili.
Later on, when Ongkili became Deputy Chief Minister, Malik was his Assistant Minister. Berjaya was defeated by PBS in 1985. That year, Malik was one of the only 6 Berjaya candidates that won. However, in 1986 he lost to PBS because PBS was growing from strength to strength that time and as far as Sabahans were concerned, it was ‘Bye Bye Gaman’ to Berjaya.
When Umno entered Sabah, Malik refused to join. He instead supported PBS.
In 1999, Malik standing on a PBS ticket won Kuamut again He defeated BN’s Joseph Sitin Saang the former Kuamut Assemblyman who had dumped PBS for Upko.
It was sweet revenge for Malik as Joseph had defeated him in 1986.
I can’t remember why he didn’t stand again in 2004. But I think he passed away in 2005. I stand to be corrected.
One of the things that I remember most about Malik was when he was in PBS, his speeches wouldn’t be complete without him taking a jab at Umno. He liked to tell a story of the camel (Umno) and the master/owner (Sabahans).
He said it was in the desert and it was windy, dusty and cold. The camel pleaded with the owner to let it into the camp too so that it can also be warm. Taking pity, the owner allowed the camel to come in. But once inside, the camel kicked the owner out. End of the story.
To conclude, for the Lamag By-Election, may the best man/woman wins. The voters decide. Until the final whistle is blown, nobody should declare himself or herself a winner.
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