Malaysia’s BN leader Bung Moktar dies of illness, days after retaining seat in Sabah election
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Sabah Barisan Nasional leader Bung Moktar had earlier been admitted to a private hospital to treat a lung infection.
PHOTO: BERNAMA
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KOTA KINABALU – Sabah Barisan Nasional chairman and Kinabatangan Member of Parliament Bung Moktar Radin has died.
The recently elected Lamag assemblyman was 66.
Datuk Seri Bung Moktar’s son, Mr 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 Dec 5, 2025, at 1.46am,” he posted on Facebook.
“Please all pray that his soul may be blessed and placed with the faithful. Al-Fatihah.”
Mr Bung Moktar was admitted to a private hospital for a severe lung infection.
But his health took a turn for the worse with kidney complications before he died, 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 had taken ill after filing his nomination papers on Nov 15 and had been admitted to a private hospital for a lung infection.
He was discharged after a few days, and despite being advised to rest, he 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 for the election results.
According to colleagues and friends, he continued to follow the developments of the election night results and met party members over the next few days despite being unwell.
Bung Moktar, known for his loyalty to the party, is known for his straight-talking manner, and sometimes controversial comments in Parliament.
He spent most of his political life as a Barisan backbencher at the national level, entering state politics only after 2018.
He first won the Kinabatangan parliamentary seat in 1999 and held it for six terms, including winning it uncontested in 2004.
After Sabah Barisan-Umno fell in the 2018 General Election and its senior state leaders deserted the party, Mr 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 September 2020 snap state election, he led Sabah Barisan to team up with Sabah Bersatu, led by Chief Minister Hajiji Noor, which toppled the Warisan-led state government of Datuk Seri Shafie Apdal to bring Umno back to state power.
The former deputy chief minister had a falling-out with Datuk Seri Hajiji after the 2022 General Election and pulled Barisan out of the state.
He remained in opposition to Mr Hajiji’s Gabungan Rakyat Sabah and unsuccessfully challenged him in the just-concluded election.
Sabah state leaders had visited Mr Bung Moktar at the hospital shortly before his death. THE STAR/ASIA NEWS NETWORK
