A FORMER Sarawak minister who had served in the cabinet of chief ministers Abdul Rahman Yaakub and Abdul Taib Mahmud died at the KPJ Specialist Hospital in Kuching this evening, shortly after he collapsed at home in Tabuan Jaya.

Celestine Ujang Jilan, who was 70 last July, had complained of feeling sick after dialysis, around 6pm.

He was rushed to the nearby hospital but was pronounced dead at 7.48pm.

Ujang, whose last portfolio was land development and housing, was  the father-in-law of Deputy Minister of Rural and Regional Development Alex Nanta Linggi.

Ujang joined the Sarawak civil service in 1966 as an administrative officer before former chief minister Rahman tapped him to contest the Kemena seat in Bintuly in the 1974 state election.

He stepped down as the assemblyman of the Dayak-majority seat in 2001, after holding it for six terms.

Rahman then appointed him a minister in his cabinet until 1981, when he was dropped by the incoming Taib, who was replacing his uncle as the chief minister.

Ujang was however appointed as the fifth Speaker of the state legislative assembly.

Post the Ming Court affair – in which Rahman and his loyalists attempted to oust Taib – Ujang was appointed a minister again.

A former vice president and youth chief of Parti Pesaka Bumiputera Bersatu (PBB), the lead party in the Sarawak Barisan Nasional coalition, Ujang went into business after quitting politics.

He was a deputy president of the Dayak Chambers or Commerce and Industry, a post he gave up for reasons of health and former deputy chairman of Bintulu Development Authority. – January 10, 2018.