KOTA KINABALU, March 21 — United Pasokmomogun Kadazandusun Murut Organisation (Upko) acting president Datuk Seri Wilfred Madius Tangau said the demise of Upko acting deputy president Datuk Siringan Gubat last night was a great loss to the party as he was also a member of the state cabinet.

The Science, Technology and Innovation Minister said he was deeply shocked to hear the news of Siringan’s passing as he had spoken to the late Paginatan assemblyman only yesterday.

“I was on the phone with him before lunch time yesterday. I asked him how he was doing and about his health. He told me everything was fine.

“(Until) last night, after a full day of work, I notice a missed call from his son...when I returned the call, he (Siringan’s son) broke the news to me. I was so sad,” Tangau said in a statement here today.

Tangau said Siringan, who was also State Resource Development and Information Technology Minister had set the bar high by setting an example to the rest of Upko leaders that in order to be a good leader, one needed to be a good follower.

“In the 1999 election, Siringan had already offered his seat (Ranau parliamentary seat, then known as Kinabalu) to then Upko president Tan Sri Bernard Dompok to contest (under Parti Demokratik Sabah) (PDS), but the latter declined,” he recalled.

Dompok lost in that election, where he stood to defend the Moyog state seat, while Siringan and Tan Sri Wences Anggang were the only two out of 12 PDS candidates who won.

When PDS was rebranded to UPKO, Siringan asked Dompok to stand in the Kinabalu parliamentary seat, which he won, paving the way for Dompok to become a Federal cabinet minister.

Siringan also made way for Datuk Ewon Ebin to stand in the Paginatan state seat, while Siringan took time off from politics.

Only in 2013, Siringan came back to contest in Paginatan upon a request by the leadership that led him to be appointed as a state minister.

“He didn’t ask for it, he never lobbied. He is truly the embodiment of Upko’s principle-centred servanthood.

“And he continued to serve even though he was sick...while he was a soft-spoken man, he was firm and decisive,” said Tangau.

Tangau said Siringan would be remembered by the party and continued to be respected and dearly missed.

Siringan was 68 when he died of heart complications at 10.57pm last night while receiving treatment at a private hospital here. — Bernama