Ewon Benedick (born 1 August 1983) is a

Malaysian Malaysian may refer to: * Something from or related to Malaysia, a country in Southeast Asia * Malaysian Malay, a dialect of Malay language spoken mainly in Malaysia * Malaysian people, people who are identified with the country of Malaysia regard ...

politician A politician is a person active in party politics, or a person holding or seeking an elected office in government. Politicians propose, support, reject and create laws that govern the land and by an extension of its people. Broadly speaking ...

who has served as Minister of Entrepreneur Development and Cooperative in the

Anwar Ibrahim Cabinet The Anwar Ibrahim cabinet is the current federal cabinet of Malaysia, formed on 3 December 2022, eight days after Anwar Ibrahim took office as the 10th Prime Minister of Malaysia. The composition of the cabinet was announced a day earlier on 2 ...

since December 2022, the

Member of Parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members o ...

(MP) for

Penampang Penampang ( ms, Pekan Penampang) is the capital of the Penampang District in the West Coast Division of Sabah, Malaysia. Its population was estimated to be around 93,616 in 2010, with ethnic Kadazan as the majority. It contains, or is synonym ...

since November 2022 and Member of the

Sabah State Legislative Assembly The Sabah State Legislative Assembly ( ms, Dewan Undangan Negeri Sabah, Kadazandusun: ''Langga' Tinukuan Pogun Sabah'') is a part of the legislature of Sabah, Malaysia, the other being the governor of Sabah. The assembly meets at the Sabah Sta ...

(MLA) for Kadamaian since May 2018. He served as State Minister of Rural Development of Sabah in the

Sabah Heritage Party The Heritage Party ( ms, Parti Warisan or Warisan) is a multi-racial political party in Malaysia which was rebranded and renamed from the Sabah Heritage Party ( ms, Parti Warisan Sabah), a Sabah-based party led by Shafie Apdal formed earlier o ...

(WARISAN) administration under former Chief Minister

Shafie Apdal Datuk Seri Panglima Mohd Shafie bin Apdal ( Jawi: محمد شافعي بن أفضل; born 20 October 1956) is a Malaysian politician who has served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Semporna since April 1995, State Leader of the Opposition ...

from May 2018 to the collapse of the WARISAN state administration in September 2020. He is a member of the

United Progressive Kinabalu Organisation The United Progressive Kinabalu Organisation ( ms, Pertubuhan Kinabalu Progresif Bersatu; abbrev: UPKO) is a multiracial political party based in Sabah, Malaysia. The party was rebranded from its previous party's name, United Pasokmomogun Ka ...

(UPKO), a component party of the PH coalition. He has served as the 3rd President of UPKO since January 2023. He was also Vice President of UPKO before his promotion to the party presidency in January 2023. He is one of the two UPKO MPs and sole UPKO MLA. He was set to officially take over Wilfred Madius Tangau as the 3rd UPKO president after the UPKO party election in the party triennial delegates convention on 16 October 2022. However on 10 October 2022, the 14th Parliament was dissolved and the

2022 general election The following elections are scheduled to occur in 2022. The National Democratic Institute also maintains a calendar of elections around the world. * 2022 United Nations Security Council election * 2022 national electoral calendar * 2022 local ...

was to be held on 19 November 2022, the convention was delayed to 15 January 2023.

Political career

Ewon Benedick made his electoral debut in the

2018 Sabah state election The 2018 Sabah state election took place on 9 May 2018 in concurrence with the 14th Malaysian general election. This election was to elect 60 members of the 15th Sabah State Legislative Assembly. The previous Assembly was dissolved on 7 April 2 ...

and contested in the state constituency of Kadamaian and managed to regain the seat which was won by

Parti Keadilan Rakyat The People's Justice Party ( ms, Parti Keadilan Rakyat , often known simply as KEADILAN or PKR) is a Reformism, reformist politics of Malaysia, political party in Malaysia, formed in 2003 by a merger of the National Justice Party and the olde ...

in the 2013 Malaysian general election. As a result of

decision to quit

Barisan Nasional The National Front ( ms, Barisan Nasional; abbrev: BN) is a political coalition of Malaysia that was founded in 1973 as a coalition of centre-right and right-wing political parties. It is also the third largest political coalition with 30 ...

in the aftermath of 2018 Malaysian general election. Ewon was appointed as State Minister of Rural Development of Sabah. Following the collapse of the Parti Warisan Sabah government in Sabah in 2020, a snap election was held, where he defended his seat despite

's poor showing in the state election with him being the only state assemblyman from

. In the

2022 Malaysian general election The 2022 Malaysian general election, formally the 15th Malaysian general election (GE15; Malay: ''Pilihan raya umum ke-15''), was held on Saturday, 19 November 2022 to elect the 222 members of the Dewan Rakyat in the 15th Parliament of Malaysi ...

, Ewon went up against 2-term incumbent Darell Leiking. who was also a former federal minister in the parliamentary seat of

and managed to win the seat with a 14,000 plus majority. Soon after the formation of the unity government led by Anwar Ibrahim, Ewon Benedick was subsequently appointed as the new Minister of Entrepreneur Development and Cooperative. He is presently the youngest member of

. On January 14 2023, Ewon took over the presidency of

. In September 2023 after launching the a state native customary laws literacy seminar, Ewon said that he along with his party comrades in

and

Pakatan Harapan The Alliance of Hope ( ms, Pakatan Harapan; abbrev: PH; stylized as HARAPAN) is a Malaysian political coalition consisting of centre-left political parties which was formed in 2015 to succeed the Pakatan Rakyat coalition. It has been the ...

will continue the fight to elevate Sabah’s native court to be on equal footing with the civil and syariah courts, He said the state has all these three court systems but the native court, which presides over matters involving customary rights and practices of the state’s Kadazandusun Murut Rungus (KDMR) community, was considered as the lesser compared to the other two.

Election results

Honours

* : **

Commander of the

Order of Kinabalu The Illustrious Order of Kinabalu (Malay: ''Darjah Yang Amat Mulia Kinabalu'') is the only order conferred by the Governor of Sabah, Malaysia. Background The Illustrious Order of Kinabalu is established by virtue of Section 3(a) of State Honou ...

(PGDK) - Datuk (2018)

References

{{Malaysia 15th FedRep People from Kota Belud District Members of the Sabah State Legislative Assembly Kadazan-Dusun people United Progressive Kinabalu Organisation politicians Living people 1983 births