Datuk Seri Panglima Datuk (or its variant Dato or Datu) is a Malay title commonly used in Brunei, Indonesia, and Malaysia, as well as a traditional title by Minangkabau people in West Sumatra, Indonesia. The title of the wife of Datuk is Datin. Origin The oldest ...

Haji Hajji ( ar, الحجّي; sometimes spelled Hadji, Haji, Alhaji, Al-Hadj, Al-Haj or El-Hajj) is an honorific title which is given to a Muslim who has successfully completed the Hajj to Mecca. It is also often used to refer to an elder, since it ...

Lajim Ukin (15 June 1955 – 29 August 2021) was a Malaysian politician. He was 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 of ...

(MP) for the

Beaufort Beaufort may refer to: People and titles * Beaufort (surname) * House of Beaufort, English nobility * Duke of Beaufort (England), a title in the peerage of England * Duke of Beaufort (France), a title in the French nobility Places Polar regions ...

constituency in

Sabah Sabah () is a States and federal territories of Malaysia, state of Malaysia located in northern Borneo, in the region of East Malaysia. Sabah borders the Malaysian state of Sarawak to the southwest and the North Kalimantan province of Indone ...

from 2008 to 2013, the Deputy Minister of Transport from 2008 to 2009, and the Deputy Minister for Housing and Local Government from 2009 to 2012; in the federal

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 se ...

(BN) coalition government. Lajim previously served as Deputy Chief Minister of Sabah for three terms from 1999. He was also the Leader of the Opposition in the

Sabah State Legislative Assembly The Sabah State Legislative Assembly ( ms, Dewan Undangan Negeri Sabah, Kadazandusun language, Kadazandusun: ''Langga' Tinukuan Pogun Sabah'') is a part of the legislature of Sabah, Malaysia, the other being the List of Yang di-Pertua Negeri of ...

(2013–2016). Lajim was the

Malaysian United Indigenous Party The Malaysian United Indigenous Party ( ms, Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia), abbreviated BERSATU or PPBM, is a nationalist political party in Malaysia. The party was preceded by the United Indigenous Association of Malaysia (). It is a major c ...

(BERSATU) supreme council member and also

Amanah Ikhtiar Malaysia Amanah Ikhtiar Malaysia (AIM) is Malaysia's largest microcredit organization. Since its inception in 1987, it has disbursed more than RM2.3 billion in loans to 262,000 borrowers. AIM claims to have the world's highest repayment rate, at 99.2%. The ...

(AIM) executive chairman at the time of his death in 2021.

Political career

Before entering federal politics, Lajim was a prominent figure in Sabah state politics. He was a member of the

United Sabah Party The United Sabah Party ( ms, Parti Bersatu Sabah, abbreviated PBS) is a political party of Sabah. The PBS was founded by Joseph Pairin Kitingan in 1985 and it is Sabah's oldest local party. In August 2020, PBS confirmed that they would be using ...

(PBS) before defecting to

United Malays National Organisation The United Malays National Organisation (Malay: ; Jawi: ; abbreviated UMNO () or less commonly PEKEMBAR), is a nationalist right-wing political party in Malaysia. As the oldest continuous national political party within Malaysia (since its in ...

(UMNO) in 1994. He later served as Deputy Chief Minister in the Sabah government. Lajim was elected to Parliament in the 2008 election, as a member of the

(UMNO) in the seat of Beaufort. Percentage figures based on total turnout (including votes for candidates not listed). He was subsequently appointed Deputy Minister for Transport, moving to the portfolio of Housing and Local Government in 2009. In July 2012, he renounced his official positions in UMNO to align himself with the

Pakatan Rakyat The People's Alliance ( ms, Pakatan Rakyat; abbrev: PR) was an informal Malaysian political coalition and successor to Barisan Alternatif (BA). The political coalition was formed by the People's Justice Party (PKR), Democratic Action Party (DAP ...

(PR) opposition coalition. This resulted in the revocation of his appointment as a deputy minister. He recontested his parliamentary seat of Beaufort in the 2013 election on a

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

(PKR) ticket, but was defeated. While losing his federal seat, he won the election for the

seat of Klias. He became the leader of the opposition in the State Assembly. On 2 October 2016, Lajim resigned from PKR along with two other

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 r ...

(PH) assemblymen. He has stated his intention to form a new Sabah-based party and ally with the former Sabah UMNO leader,

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 o ...

. He later decided to establish a separate party from Shafie, known as

Sabah People's Hope Party Sabah People's Hope Party or ms, Parti Harapan Rakyat Sabah (Harapan Rakyat / HR ) is a Sabah-based party. The party was formed on 25 October 2016, founded by Lajim Ukin. It was previously a party in the alliance of United Sabah Alliance (USA) ...

(PHRS), which was finally approved by Registrar of Societies (RoS) on 25 October 2016. PHRS was dissolved to let its party members be absorbed into

(BERSATU) in 2019. After being absorbed, he became BERSATU Sabah Election Director before being appointed a BERSATU Supreme Council member for the term 2019 to 2022. Lajim is also known to default on his promises. After commissioning a ghostwriter to write a book about the history of his political party, he failed to deliver on his promises to pay the writer and printing costs, leaving the writer in debt with unsold books. This is thought to be one of the factors that eroded the voters' confidence in the ruling coalition that his party belongs to, culminating in the results of

2020 Kimanis by-election The 2020 Kimanis by-election is a by-election held on 18 January 2020 for the Dewan Rakyat seat of Kimanis. The seat was declared vacant after the Federal Court on 2 December 2019 upheld the Election Court's ruling earlier on 16 August, nullifyin ...

, which saw the opposition coalition BN win, defeating the three-way coalition containing PH, which incorporates BERSATU.

Personal life

Lajim was married to Normilah Siong. The couple divorced sometime later. In early 2017, Lajim was injured after falling from a

train car A railroad car, railcar ( American and Canadian English), railway wagon, railway carriage, railway truck, railwagon, railcarriage or railtruck (British English and UIC), also called a train car, train wagon, train carriage or train truck, is ...

on the way to attend a wedding. He was then referred to a local

traditional Chinese medicine Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) is an alternative medical practice drawn from traditional medicine in China. It has been described as "fraught with pseudoscience", with the majority of its treatments having no logical mechanism of action ...

(TCM) practitioner or ''"sinseh"'' and was advised to rest for one week. In 2021, Lajim was screened and tested positive for

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was COVID-19 pandemic in Hubei, identified in Wuhan, China, in December ...

at Gleneagles Hospital Kota Kinabalu on 1 August before his admission to KPJ Sabah Specialist Hospital on 13 August. With a history of chronic illnesses, including a kidney transplant and heart ailment, he was later placed under an induced coma after his health deteriorated on 24 August afternoon. On 29 August at 6.23 am, Lajim aged 66 died due to

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

complications. His remains were brought to his hometown at Kampung Kebatu Beaufort for last rites and burial.

Election results

Honours

Honours of Malaysia

* : ** Companion of the

Order of the Defender of the Realm The Most Esteemed Order of the Defender of the Realm ( ms, Darjah Yang Mulia Pangkuan Negara) is a Malaysian federal award presented for meritorious service to the country. The Order Motto are 'Dipeliharakan Allah-Pangkuan Negara' (By the Grace o ...

(JMN) (1997) * : ** MY-MAL Exalted Order of Malacca

Knight Commander of the Order of Malacca (DCSM) – Datuk Wira (2010) * : ** MY-SAB Order of Kinabalu - PGDK

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 (1989) ** MY-SAB Order of Kinabalu - SPDK

Grand Commander of the

(SPDK) – Datuk Seri Panglima (1998)

References