By DayakDaily Team
KUCHING, May 10: The news of the passing of Senate President, the late Datuk Mutang Tagal, today has greatly affected everyone in Sarawak, especially the close-knit Lun Bawang community.
Ba’Kelalan assemblyman Baru Bian expressed that the news of Mutang’s passing has come as a shock to Sarawakians.
“I knew him very well, being a fellow Lun Bawang, lawyer, and politician.
“Not only the Lun Bawang community but the Dayak community in Sarawak felt pride in one of their own being appointed as Senate President in February this year. It is indeed saddening that he served for only a few months before his untimely demise,” he remarked in a statement today.
Baru extended heartfelt condolences on behalf of his family and all Ba’Kelalan constituents to Mutang’s family in their time of bereavement.
“May his soul rest in peace, and may his family be comforted by the loving hands of God at this difficult time, with full confidence and hope as believers, that we will meet again in a much better place as promised,” he said.
Quoting 1 Corinthians 15: 51-53 of the Bible, Baru emphasised: “But let me reveal to you a wonderful secret. We will not all die, but we will all be transformed. It will happen in a moment, in the blink of an eye, when the last trumpet is blown. For when the trumpet sounds, those who have died will be raised to live forever. And we who are living will also be transformed. For our dying bodies must be transformed into bodies that will never die; our mortal bodies must be transformed into immortal bodies.”
Mutang passed away at 11.46am at the National Heart Institute (IJN) in Kuala Lumpur today, shortly after being hospitalised on May 6.
Mutang was the first Dayak of Lun Bawang ethnicity to be appointed the 20th Senate president and was only sworn in on Feb 19, 2024.
He succeeded Tun Dr Wan Junaidi Tuanku Jaafar, who stepped down from the post to assume the role of the 8th Sarawak Governor in January.
It was reported that Mutang fell seriously ill during a working trip to Azerbaijan and had to be admitted to a hospital there.
He had to cut short his trip and returned to Malaysia at 1am on Monday (May 6), where he was admitted to IJN for further treatment.
Born on Oct 5, 1954, in Lawas, Mutang was married to Datin Ho May Leng and was blessed with three children. — DayakDaily
