Lajim Ukin

Datuk Seri Panglima Haji Lajim Ukin (born 15 June 1955) is a Malaysian politician. He was the Member of Parliament (MP) for the Beaufort constituency in Sabah from 2008 to 2013, and a Deputy Minister for Housing and Local Government in the federal Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition government,[1] from 2009 until his departure from the coalition in 2012.[2] He was also the leader of the opposition in the Sabah State Legislative Assembly (2013–2016).

In this Malay name, the name Ukin is a patronymic, not a family name, and the person should be referred to by the given name, Lajim.

Yang Berbahagia Datuk Seri Panglima Haji Lajim Ukin JMN SPDK DCSM
Deputy Minister of Housing and Local Government
In office 10 April 2009 – 30 July 2012
Monarch	Mizan Zainal Abidin Abdul Halim
Prime Minister	Najib Razak
Minister	Kong Cho Ha (2009–2010) Chor Chee Heung (2010–2012)
Preceded by	Hamzah Zainudin Robert Lau Hoi Chew
Succeeded by	Halimah Mohamed Sadique as Deputy Minister of Housing, Local Government and Urban Wellbeing
Constituency	Beaufort
Deputy Minister of Transport
In office 19 March 2008 – 9 April 2009
Monarch	Mizan Zainal Abidin
Prime Minister	Abdullah Ahmad Badawi
Minister	Ong Tee Keat
Preceded by	Tengku Azlan Sultan Abu Bakar Douglas Uggah Embas
Succeeded by	Abdul Rahim Bakri Robert Lau Hoi Chew
Constituency	Beaufort
Opposition Leader of the Sabah State Legislative Assembly
In office 14 June 2013 – 2 October 2016
Governor	Juhar Mahiruddin
Chief Minister	Musa Aman
Preceded by	Melanie Chia Chui Ket
Succeeded by	Christina Liew Chin Jin
Constituency	Klias
Member of the Malaysian Parliament for Beaufort
In office 8 March 2008 – 5 May 2013
Preceded by	Azizah Mohd Dun (UMNO—BN)
Succeeded by	Azizah Mohd Dun (UMNO—BN)
Majority	10,914 (2008)
Member of the Sabah State Legislative Assembly for Klias
In office 6 May 2013 – 10 May 2018
Preceded by	Azizah Mohd Dun (UMNO—BN)
Succeeded by	Isnin Aliasnih (UMNO—BN)
Majority	179 (2013)
Personal details
Born	(1955-06-15) 15 June 1955 Beaufort, Crown Colony of North Borneo (now Sabah, Malaysia)
Citizenship	Malaysian
Political party	United Sabah Party (until 1994) United Malays National Organisation (1994-2012) People's Justice Party (2012–2016) Sabah People's Hope Party (2016–2019) Malaysian United Indigenous Party (2019-present)
Occupation	Politician

Before entering federal politics, Lajim was a prominent figure in Sabah state politics. He was a member of the United Sabah Party (PBS) before defecting to United Malays National Organisation (UMNO) in 1994.[3][4] He later served as Deputy Chief Minister in the Sabah government.[5]

Lajim was elected to Parliament in the 2008 election, as a member of the United Malays National Organisation (UMNO) in the seat of Beaufort.[6][7] He was subsequently appointed Deputy Minister for Transport,[8] moving to the portfolio of Housing and Local Government in 2009.[9] In July 2012, he renounced his official positions in UMNO to align himself with the Pakatan Rakyat (PR) opposition coalition. This resulted in the revocation of his appointment as a deputy minister.[2] He recontested his parliamentary seat in the 2013 election on a People's Justice Party (PKR) ticket, but was defeated. While losing his federal seat, he won the election for the Sabah State Legislative Assembly seat. He became the leader of the opposition in the State Assembly.[10]

On 2 October 2016, Lajim resigned from PKR along with two other Pakatan Harapan (PH) assemblymen.[11] He has stated his intention to form a new Sabah-based party and ally with the former Sabah UMNO leader, Shafie Apdal.[12] He later decide to establish a separate party from Shafie, known as Sabah People's Hope Party (PHRS), which finally been approved by Registrar of Societies (RoS) on 25 October 2016.[13] PHRS was dissolved to let its party members absorbed into Malaysian United Indigenous Party (BERSATU) in 2019.[14]

In early 2017, Lajim was injured after falling from a train car on the way to attend a wedding. He was then referred to a local traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) practitioner called "sinseh" and have since been advised to rest for one week.[15]

Lajim is also known to default on his promises. After commissioning a ghostwriter to write a book about the history of his political party, he failed to deliver his promises to pay the writer and printing costs, leaving the writer in debt with unsold books. This is thought to be one of the factors that eroded the voters' confidence in the ruling coalition that his party belongs to, culminating in the results of 2019 Kimanis by-election, which saw the opposition coalition (Barisan Nasional,BN) win, defeating the three-way coalition containing Pakatan Harapan, which incorporates Malaysian United Indigenous Party (BERSATU).

Election results

Parliament of Malaysia: P177 Beaufort, Sabah[6][16]

Year	Government		Votes	Pct	Opposition		Votes	Pct
2008		Lajim Ukin (UMNO)	14,780	76.40%		Lajim Md Yusof (PKR)	3,866	19.98%
2013		Azizah Mohd Dun (UMNO)	12,827	49.43%		Lajim Ukin (PKR)	12,154	46.84%
2018		Azizah Mohd Dun (UMNO)	11,354	34.1%^2		Lajim Ukin (PHRS)	8,023	24.1%^2
Notes: Table excludes votes for candidates who finished in third place or lower. ^2 Different % used for 2018 election.

Honours

•  Malaysia :
  • Companion of the Order of the Defender of the Realm (JMN) (1997)
•  Malacca :
  • Knight Commander of the Order of Malacca (DCSM) - Datuk Wira (2010)[17]
•  Sabah :
  • Commander of the Order of Kinabalu (PGDK) - Datuk (1989)
  • Grand Commander of the Order of Kinabalu (SPDK) - Datuk Seri Panglima (1998)

References

1. "Lajim bin Haji Ukin, Y.B. Datuk Seri Panglima Haji" (in Malay). Parliament of Malaysia. Retrieved 29 March 2010.
2. "Lajim Ukin's appointment as ministers revoked". Bernama. 31 July 2012. Archived from the original on 9 October 2014. Retrieved 31 July 2012. (subscription required)
3. Zulkifli Jalil (4 October 2016). "Lompat melompat bukan asing buat Lajim" (in Malay). Utusan Malaysia. Retrieved 25 October 2016.
4. Baradan Kuppusamy (4 October 2016). "One political adventure after another". New Straits Times. PressReader. Retrieved 25 October 2016.
5. "Sabah Cabinet gets down to work". The Star. 30 March 2004. Retrieved 29 March 2010.
6. "Keputusan Pilihan Raya Umum Parlimen/Dewan Undangan Negeri". Election Commission of Malaysia. Retrieved 18 May 2018. Percentage figures based on total turnout (including votes for candidates not listed).
7. Muguntan Vanar (14 April 2013). "GE13: Lajim Ukin to defend Beaufort parliament, eyes Klias state seat". The Star. Retrieved 17 April 2013.
8. Ruben Sario (19 April 2008). "Maznah to vacate Pahang state exco position". The Star. Retrieved 29 March 2010.
9. Ruben Sario (10 April 2009). "Sabahans jubilant over state representation in Cabinet". The Star. Retrieved 29 March 2010.
10. Samantha Rae (16 June 2013). "Lajim Named As Opposition Leader For Sabah PR". The Borneo Insider. Archived from the original on 9 November 2014. Retrieved 10 November 2014.
11. "Three reps quit PKR, DAP for local Sabah party". Malaysiakini. 2 October 2016. Retrieved 3 October 2016.
12. "Lajim to set up own party instead of joining Shafie's". Malaysiakini. 2 October 2016. Retrieved 2 October 2016.
13. Azura Abas (25 October 2016). "RoS officially approves formation of Parti Harapan Rakyat Sabah". New Straits Times. Retrieved 25 October 2016.
14. Mohd Izham Unnip Abdullah (17 February 2019). "Harapan Rakyat to dissolve and join Bersatu in Sabah". New Straits Times. Retrieved 5 April 2019.
15. "Lajim falls from train car". Daily Express. 7 February 2017. Retrieved 7 February 2017.
16. "Sabah [Parliament Results]". The Star. Archived from the original on 17 May 2018. Retrieved 18 May 2018.
17. "DPSM meant to distinguish classification of Datukship". The Star. 10 October 2010. Retrieved 12 September 2018.