Lajim Ukin

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

Yang Berbahagia Datuk Seri Panglima Lajim Ukin SPDK PGDK DCSM JMN
Deputy Minister of Housing and Local Government
In office 10 April 2009 – 30 July 2012
Monarchs	Mizan Zainal Abidin Abdul Halim
Prime Minister	Najib Razak
Minister	Kong Cho Ha (2009–2010) Chor Chee Heung (2010–2012)
Preceded by	Hamzah Zainudin Robert Lau Hoi Chew
Succeeded by	Halimah Mohamed Sadique as Deputy Minister of Housing, Local Government and Urban Wellbeing
Constituency	Beaufort
Deputy Minister of Transport
In office 19 March 2008 – 9 April 2009
Monarch	Mizan Zainal Abidin
Prime Minister	Abdullah Ahmad Badawi
Minister	Ong Tee Keat
Preceded by	Tengku Azlan Sultan Abu Bakar Douglas Uggah Embas
Succeeded by	Abdul Rahim Bakri Robert Lau Hoi Chew
Constituency	Beaufort
State Leader of the Opposition of Sabah
In office 14 June 2013 – 2 October 2016
Governor	Juhar Mahiruddin
Chief Minister	Musa Aman
Preceded by	Melanie Chia Chui Ket
Succeeded by	Christina Liew Chin Jin
Constituency	Klias
Member of the Malaysian Parliament for Beaufort
In office 8 March 2008 – 5 May 2013
Preceded by	Azizah Mohd Dun (UMNO—BN)
Succeeded by	Azizah Mohd Dun (UMNO—BN)
Majority	10,914 (2008)
Member of the Sabah State Legislative Assembly for Klias
In office 6 May 2013 – 10 May 2018
Preceded by	Azizah Mohd Dun (BN—UMNO)
Succeeded by	Isnin Aliasnih (BN—UMNO)
Majority	179 (2013)
Personal details
Born	(1955-06-15)15 June 1955 Beaufort, North Borneo (now Sabah, Malaysia)
Died	29 August 2021(2021-08-29) (aged 66) Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysia
Cause of death	COVID-19
Resting place	Muslim Cemetery, Kampung Kebatu, Beaufort, Sabah
Political party	United Sabah National Organisation (USNO) (1973–1975) Sabah People's United Front (BERJAYA) (1975–1983) United Sabah Party (PBS) (1983–1994) United Malays National Organisation (UMNO) (1994–2012) People's Justice Party (PKR) (2012–2016) Sabah People's Hope Party (PHRS) (2016–2019) Malaysian United Indigenous Party (BERSATU) (2019–2021)
Spouse	Normilah Siong
Occupation	Politician

He was the Member of Parliament (MP) for the Beaufort constituency in Sabah 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 (BN) coalition government.^[1][2]

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 (2013–2016). Lajim was the Malaysian United Indigenous Party (BERSATU) supreme council member and also Amanah Ikhtiar Malaysia (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 (PBS) before defecting to United Malays National Organisation (UMNO) in 1994.^[3][4] He later served as Deputy Chief Minister in the Sabah government.^[5]

Lajim was elected to Parliament in the 2008 election, as a member of the United Malays National Organisation (UMNO) in the seat of Beaufort.^[6][7] He was subsequently appointed Deputy Minister for Transport,^[8] moving to the portfolio of Housing and Local Government in 2009.^[9] In July 2012, he renounced his official positions in UMNO to align himself with the Pakatan Rakyat (PR) opposition coalition. This resulted in the revocation of his appointment as a deputy minister.^[2] He recontested his parliamentary seat of Beaufort in the 2013 election on a People's Justice Party (PKR) ticket, but was defeated. While losing his federal seat, he won the election for the Sabah State Legislative Assembly seat of Klias. He became the leader of the opposition in the State Assembly.^[10]

On 2 October 2016, Lajim resigned from PKR along with two other Pakatan Harapan (PH) assemblymen.^[11] He has stated his intention to form a new Sabah-based party and ally with the former Sabah UMNO leader, Shafie Apdal.^[12] He later decided to establish a separate party from Shafie, known as Sabah People's Hope Party (PHRS), which was finally approved by Registrar of Societies (RoS) on 25 October 2016.^[13] PHRS was dissolved to let its party members be absorbed into Malaysian United Indigenous Party (BERSATU) in 2019.^[14] 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, 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.^[15][16]

In early 2017, Lajim was injured after falling from a train car on the way to attend a wedding. He was then referred to a local traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) practitioner or "sinseh" and was advised to rest for one week.^[17]

In 2021, Lajim was screened and tested positive for COVID-19 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.^[18] On 29 August at 6.23 am, Lajim aged 66 died due to COVID-19 pandemic complications.^[19] His remains were brought to his hometown at Kampung Kebatu Beaufort for last rites and burial.^[20]

Election results

Parliament of Malaysia^[6][21]

Year	Constituency	Candidate		Votes	Pct	Opponent(s)		Votes	Pct	Ballots cast	Majority	Turnout
2008	P177 Beaufort, Sabah		Lajim Ukin (UMNO)	14,780	79.27%		Lajim Md Yusof (PKR)	3,866	20.73%	19,327	10,914	72.22%
2013			Lajim Ukin (PKR)	12,154	47.87%		Azizah Mohd Dun (UMNO)	12,827	50.52%	26,950	673	86.39%
							Guan Dee Koh Hoi (STAR)	409	1.61%
2018			Lajim Ukin (PHRS)	8,023	29.48%		Azizah Mohd Dun (UMNO)	11,354	41.72%	28,011	3,331	84.44%
							Johan Ghani (PKR)	7,835	28.79%

Sabah State Legislative Assembly^{[22][23][24][25]}

Year	Constituency	Candidate		Votes	Pct	Opponent(s)		Votes	Pct	Ballots cast	Majority	Turnout
1986	N36 Klias		Lajim Ukin (PBS)	2,749	49.09%		Azizah Mohd Dun (USNO)	2,652	47.36%	5,670	97	74.55%
							Empih Godfrey Eigur (BERJAYA)	199	3.55%
1990			Lajim Ukin (PBS)	3,679	52.36%		Azizah Mohd Dun (USNO)	2,888	41.11%	7,102	791	78.49%
							Loi Siang Tong (BERJAYA)	348	4.95%
							Duin Banang (AKAR)	111	1.58%
1994	N36 Klias		Lajim Ukin (PBS)	4,881	49.09%		Anifah Aman (UMNO)	4,476	47.36%	9,468	405	78.68%
1999	N22 Klias		Lajim Ukin (UMNO)	7,209	63.89%		Ab Rahman Md Yakub (PBS)	3,434	30.44%	11,402	3,775	75.65%
							Saidi Musi (AKAR)	640	5.67%
2004	N25 Klias		Lajim Ukin (UMNO)	None	None	Unopposed
2013			Lajim Ukin (PKR)	6,324	49.71%		Isnin Aliasnih (UMNO)	6,145	48.30%	13,064	179	85.30%
							Mohd Sanusi Taripin (SAPP)	182	1.43%
							Aliapa Osman (STAR)	71	0.56%
2018			Lajim Ukin (PHRS)	3,837	27.94%		Isnin Aliasnih (UMNO)	6,173	44.94%	14,187	2,336	83.70%
							Johair Mat Lani (WARISAN)	3,725	27.12%

Honours

Honours of Malaysia

• Malaysia :
  • Companion of the Order of the Defender of the Realm (JMN) (1996)^[26]
• Sabah :
  • Commander of the Order of Kinabalu (PGDK) – Datuk (1989)
  • Grand Commander of the Order of Kinabalu (SPDK) – Datuk Seri Panglima (1998)
• Malacca :
  • Knight Commander of the Exalted Order of Malacca (DCSM) – Datuk Wira (2010)^[27]

See also

• List of deaths due to COVID-19 - notable individual deaths