DEWAN Negara president Mutang Tagal died this morning from heart complications at the National Heart Institute (IJN) in Kuala Lumpur, his office said.
Mutang leaves behind a wife and three children.
Mutang, who was sworn in the 20th president of the Senate in February, was its shortest serving head.
The 69-year-old Lun Bawang, born on October 5, 1954, in the remote border village of Buduk Nur, Ba'kelalan in the state's northernmost district of Lawas, was in office for only a little over two months.
He was the first Dayak to hold the position.
A lawyer by training and a Universiti Malaya graduate, Mutang succeeded Wan Junaidi Tuanku Jaafar, who stepped down to become the governor of Sarawak.
Mutang fell ill while he was in Azerbaijan leading a Malaysian delegation to the World Forum on Intercultural Dialogue in Baku on May 1.
While he was there, he paid a courtesy visit to his counterpart, Milli Majlis Speaker Sahiba Gafarova.
Mutang was a supreme council member of Parti Pesaka Bumiputera Bersatu, the lynchpin of Gabungan Parti Sarawak.
Mutang was also the Bukit Mas MP for two terms from 1982 to 1990. He won the first round uncontested and thumped Independent Mohd Bujang Mohd Yassin in 1986.
Mutang was the younger brother of former State Assistant Communications Minister Judson Tagal, who died in a helicopter crash in 2004.
Other positions he held was president of the Orang Ulu Chamber of Commerce and Industry, vice president of the Sarawak Business Federation, member of the supreme council of the Dayak Chamber of Commerce and Industry, patron of the Lawas Shooting and Archery Association, advisor to the Northern Sarawak Journalists Association, Legal Advisor to the Sarawak Lun Bawang Association, member of the Sarawak Advocates Association, member of the Sabah Advocates Association, member of the Malaysian Bar Council and was an honorary consul of Romania in Sarawak since January 12, 2017.
Mutang's family expressed their “heartfelt gratitude for the condolences and prayers extended to them and appreciated the space provided to them in facing this difficult time”.
His funeral arrangements and tribute ceremonies will be announced later. – May 10, 2024.
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