KOTA KINABALU: Sabah Barisan Nasional chairman and Kinabatangan member of Parliament Datuk Seri Bung Moktar Radin has passed away.
The recently elected Lamag assemblyman was 66.
Bung Moktar’s son, Naim Kurniawan Moktar, announced his death in a social media post.
“Assalamualaikum. It is with great sadness that we are informed that our father, Moktar bin Radin, breathed his last on 05 December 2026, at 1.46am (14 Jamadilakhir 1447H),” he posted on Facebook.
“Please all pray that his soul may be blessed and placed with the faithful. Al-Fatihah.”
Bung Moktar was admitted to a private hospital for severe lung infection.
But his health condition took a turn for the worse with kidney complications before he succumbed to the illness, according to family members.
His death comes hardly six days after he retained his Lamag state seat in the Nov 29 Sabah election.
According to his aides, the six-term Kinabatangan MP Bung Moktar had taken ill after filing his nomination papers on Nov 15 and had been admitted to a private hospital here for a lung infection.
He was discharged after a few days, and despite being advised to rest, Bung Moktar continued with his election campaigns for Sabah Barisan candidates.
He headed back to Kinabatangan to campaign and cast his vote on Nov 29 before returning to the state capital here for the election results.
According to colleagues and friends, Bung Moktar continued to follow the developments of the election night results and met with party members over the next few days despite being unwell.
Bung Moktar, known for his total loyalty to the party, is well known for his straight-talking way, sometimes controversial comments in Parliament.
Bung Moktar spent most of his political life as a Barisan backbencher at the national level, only coming into state politics after 2018.
Bung Moktar first won the Kinabatangan parliamentary seat in 1999 and held it for six terms, including winning it once uncontested in 2004.
After Sabah Barisan-Umno fell in the 2018 general elections and its senior state leaders deserted the party, Bung Moktar took over the reins of Sabah Umno.
He was widely credited with saving the national party from total collapse in Sabah and restructured the state party, which saw it win the Kimanis by-election in 2020.
In the Sept 2020 snap state election, Bung Moktar led Sabah Barisan to team up with Sabah Bersatu led by Chief Minister Datuk Seri Hajiji Noor which toppled the Warisan-led state government of Datuk Seri Mohd Shafie Apdal to bring Umno back to state power.
The former deputy chief minister had a fallout with Hajiji after the 2022 general election and pulled Barisan out of the state.
He remained in opposition to Hajiji's Gabungan Rakyat Sabah (GRS) and unsuccessfully challenged Hajiji in the just-concluded election.
Sabah Yang DiPertua Negeri Tun Musa Aman and other state leaders and family members had visited Bung Moktar at the hospital shortly before his passing this morning.
