Anwar: Late Mutang had strong principles, values towards parliamentary reform

KUALA LUMPUR (May 11): Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim today said that the country has lost a leader who was very serious in parliamentary reform efforts with the demise of Senate president Senator Datuk Mutang Tagal.

The Prime Minister said that although Mutang had quit politics a long time ago, his determination to elevate the dignity of Parliament, including the Senate, to greater heights could be seen as soon as he was appointed to hold the office of Senate president last February.

“(As soon as he was appointed) he began holding serious discussions on parliamentary reform with the Dewan Rakyat Speaker (Tan Sri Johari Abdul). I took him as someone who had strong principles and good moral values.

“We have indeed lost a Senate president who was able to elevate the dignity of the Senate and proposed a reform in our parliamentary system,” Anwar told reporters when met at the Nirvana Centre here today.

Anwar arrived at the memorial centre at noon to pay his last respects to Mutang who died at the National Heart Institute (IJN) yesterday.

Anwar spent about 20 minutes meeting Mutang family members including his wife, Datin Ho May Leng, and their three children to convey his condolences.

Mutang, 69, was admitted to the IJN on May 6 upon his return from Azerbaijan on May 6.

Sarawak Governor Tun Dr Wan Junaidi Tuanku Jaafar, Johari and his deputy Datuk Ramli Mohd Nor, as well as Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department (Law and Institutional Reform) Datuk Seri Azalina Othman Said also paid their last respects to the Senate president today.

According to a statement from the Senate President’s Office, another memorial service will be held at the Borneo Evangelical Mission (BEM) Church in Miri starting at 10am on Sunday.

Mutang will be laid to rest at the SIB Lambir Cemetery on Monday.

On Feb 19, the former Bukit Mas Member of Parliament was appointed as the 20th president of the Senate, replacing Wan Junaidi, who relinquished the post following his appointment as the Sarawak Governor.

Mutang also made history as the first leader from the Lun Bawang ethnic group to be appointed as the Senate president. – Bernama