Former Tg Aru MP dies from Covid-19

Leonard Hsing, who passed away Wednesday, was helping Chan Foong Hin, the current Kota Kinabalu MP to distribute food basket during the first wave of COVID in Sabah last year.

KOTA KINABALU: Former Tanjung Aru MP Leonard Hsing Yin Shean has passed away after battling Covid-19 infection for nearly a month. He was 69.

Hsing, who was from DAP, was admitted to the Queen Elizabeth Hospital on May 5 and died on Tuesday (June 1) night.

He leaves behind his wife Heliew Corneleus and daughter Sonia Hsing Shiang Nee.

Hsing, who was only 26 when he won the Tanjung Aru seat in the 1986 General Election, held it for one term until 1990.

After his term, Hsing became a contractor but continued to remain with the party and was involved in party work, especially in community service.

Kota Kinabalu MP Chan Fong Hin described Hsing as a very humble man.

"Although he was a former MP, he always worked quietly in the background and never wanted to be in the frontline," he said, adding that his death was a personal loss to him as a friend and party member.

Chan said Hsing had joined the party in 1986 to contest the Tanjung Aru seat when people in Sabah were not too keen to join the national opposition party.

At that time, Hsing had just graduated from an overseas university and returned to his hometown Kota Kinabalu.

In extending his condolences to the Hsing family, veteran DAP leader Lim Kit Siang said he was one of four DAP candidates who won parliament seats in Sabah during the 1986 General Election.

He said Hsing also joined him on the climb up Mount Kinabalu in September 1993.