KOTA KINABALU: Veteran Sabah politician Datuk Karim Bujang passed away at his residence in Kampung Sipanggil, Putatan around noon Sunday (Sept 20). He was 73.
Family members and friends confirmed that the former five-term Bongowan assemblyman passed away suddenly.
There was no immediate information on the cause of death, but it is believed to be health-related. His body was taken to the hospital for examination.
A friend, former state minister and Pantai Manis assemblyman Datuk Aidi Moktar confirmed his passing in a short message.
Former chief minister Datuk Seri Yong Teck Lee said that he was “personally very saddened by the sudden passing of an old friend, Datuk Karim Bujang”.
He said he learned a lot about the bird's nest industry from Karim who was an active and successful businessman in the industry.
“Going back to our working days together in the late 1990s, as secretary of Sabah Barisan, he diligently and efficiently executed many programmes to strengthen the self-confidence of Sabahans in the Sabah Boleh campaign. I was chairman of BN Sabah at the time,” Yong said.
Karim was among the young Usno leaders brought in by the late Tun Datu Mustapha Datu Harun in 1990 and served as Bongowan assemblyman between 1990 and 2013. When Usno dissolved to merge with Umno spreading its wings to Sabah in 1991, Karim became an Umno member.
During his political tenure, he served as Sabah Barisan Nasional secretary and held assistant minister positions in the Barisan state government but a full minister’s post slipped his grasp due to political exigencies of the time.
“It’s not meant to be for me,” he told reporters once when he was already listed and seated at Istana Negeri to be sworn in as a state minister but had to make way to accommodate another political leader.
In the 2013 general election, Barisan dropped him as the Bongowan candidate, replacing him with Datuk Mohamad Alamin.
Subsequently, Karim joined Parti Warisan and returned to contest the 2018 General Election (GE14) for the Kimanis parliamentary seat which he lost by a narrow 156 votes against then foreign minister Datuk Seri Anifah Aman from Barisan. The results were nullified by an election court.
A by-election was called after Karim challenged the results, but Karim failed to secure the seat, losing it to Barisan’s Alamin in January 2020. Karim subsequently left Warisan for Parti Gagasan Rakyat Sabah (Gagasan Rakyat) in March 2024.
